From Nov. 1, 2002
There is nothing new under the sun. There is no grand and perfect utopia out there. Everything has been tried. Some things have worked, others have led to complete and utter disaster. There is nothing to "go back" to, no perfect world ANYWHERE. All we can do is stay in the moment and work with what we PRESENTLY have. Sort of like what I was saying yesterday about the love story in Punch Drunk Love. At a certain point in life, bad things happen to you, and bad things leave their mark on you (unless you live in complete and utter denial) . Some people give up. They yearn to go back to when they were 5 and everything was perfect. I can think of a number of politicians, in both parties, who fall in this category. Their eyes are in the rear-view mirror, they are not watching the road.
I got Alanis Morrisette's new CD a while back. Here is my experience of listening to it: The first song is a song called "21 Things", or something like that. It is a hard-rock shrieking GREAT song. I could not ((and still can not) stop listening to it. My room became my own personal music-video set. It's that kind of song. The first couple of bars are, as my friend Mitchell would say, "sheer liquid joy". Fantastic. Makes you want to throw yourself about and bang some heads. The rest of the CD is ... tepid. Pale. Boring. Her counterintuitive syntax and wording finally get on my damn nerves. But why I am bringing up Alanis is that the final song on the CD is called "Utopia". I suppose if it had a hard-edged sound, and some wailing electric guitars, I might overlook the nonsense of the lyrics, but since it is a slow ballad, it is clear that Ms. Morrissette wants it be ABOUT the lyrics.
Anyway, cannot list the lyrics right now (CD not with me), but the title says it all. "Utopia".
Alanis, here is a little history lesson. Any leader who comes along promising Utopia if only you follow him (it's always a Him), RUN. RUN FOR THE HILLS. DON'T LOOK BACK. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE.
It's all about (and because it is Alanis, you will know that her lyrics actually often read like this):
I dream of a world where there is no more hatred and where conflict is resolved by sitting down and starting a dialogue
I dream of listening, of sharing, of validating, of honoring
I dream of a world where every single person will feel loved and important and beautiful
I dream of loving, of laughing, of peace
I dream that we all will join hands and there will be no more war, no more hunger, no more anger, no more hatred
Okay, you know what??? I've had enough. I mean, all of these things are great. It's not like I would write a song with lyrics like:
I dream of a world where nobody listens to each other
I dream of anger, of darkness, of pride, of rage
I dream of a world where wars are fought every year, and only the strongest and best organized wins
I dream of a world where the hawks outnumber the doves
You get my point. I am sick to death of people, Alanis included, calling for a "dialogue". I want to know what exactly that word means to people. I am not sure what they are referring to when they keep saying that at least they want to have a dialogue. Do these people read the Op-Ed columns I read? Do these people watch the news? Flipping back and forth between Fox, CNBC, MSNBC, and CNN? No dialogue? Are you crazy?? I wish the dialogue would STOP, quite frankly, and we'd start seeing some action. Some bold moves, some risks taken. Stop talking. Start acting.
Posted by sheilaThey all just want to talk to me, but I'm too busy. They'll get over it.
Posted by: Jim at July 18, 2003 3:19 PMYou should really coun't how many times you used the word "I"in your last paragraph, and you will realize the exact reason as to why people, Alanis included, call for dialogue. Dialogue simply (in most situations) is the sharing of knowledge, opinion, and feeling. This shared knowledge could also lead one not to act upon something because it may have already been tried and failed. You see, if we all just ACTED upon what each of us individually want and stopped the dialogue we would never hear the opposite side of anything. People would be judged by propoganda and a lot of innocent people could be hurt in many ways. Listening to news shows at least allows people to hear opposing points of view, and one may start to think about the issue at hand, whereas if everyone just acted upon everything we would all be a bunch of violent ignorants. You see, if we all started to ACT upon instead of DISCUSSING certain issues, we would eventually BECOME the song with the lyrics you said no one would write. And if you don't agree, what are you going to DO about it?
By the way, People like you should see the movie "The Life of David Gale", and you will understand what I'm trying to say.
Hey Jill. I did see The Life of David Gale. I thought it was a piece of shit. Sorry! Just for the record, there are no "people like me". This is me and my opinion. I believe in dialogue, I believe in trying to hear where others are coming from, but I do not believe that dialogue cures EVERYTHING. That was the point of my "unexpected rant".
You can talk all you want, but there will be those who will have no interest in talking, no interest in listening, no interest in sitting in a healing circle of truth, no interest in opening up the channels of conversation.
I also don't believe in utopias. At least not as a political stance. I don't believe in some perfect world - not in the future (like many liberals believe), and not in the past (like many conservatives believe). Reality is tougher - democracy is tougher - but I prefer it to utopias. I was annoyed at Alanis' moping about for some perfect world which will never be, as long as human nature is what it is.
But thanks for commenting, regardless ... I posted this a while ago!
Posted by: red at September 23, 2003 10:37 AM