Well, I’m wondering what exactly is happening in the world. It seems we’re regressing on many things. Tolerance seems to be going backwards and people are becoming less tolerant. There’s good and bad to that. Let’s take my home country for instance. When I’ve traveled out of the country I’ve been told to say I’m from Canada. Why? Because Canadians aren’t hated like Americans are. Usually I don’t ever tell someone where I’m from unless I’m asked directly. I don’t think it really matters. I got to travel to the UK last year and when I was hanging with my ex girlfriends brother, all his friends thought I was Canadian. No one bothered to ask, but for some reason I didn’t come off as an American because I wasn’t an asshole and had some intelligent things to add to the situation. What does that say for the rest of my countrymen?
Same when I traveled to France. Even though I spoke English, I attempted to speak French and I suppose that I have a European look to my facial features that helped me look like I blended in. Who knows. I guess I do what I can to learn about the local culture which includes attempting to speak their language. I believe people can appreciate that. I know I certainly appreciate it when people come to America and try to speak English. Hell some tourists speak it better than some of us Americans.
Recently we had some elections which proved to show that as a country we were tired of some of the shit that has been happening. Unfortunately I believe our own political system has moved so far from the original vision the signers of the Declaration of Independence had, that we’re not in a safe place no matter what we do. Even worse is, it might actually take another revolution to right things that are going wrong. It sucks to say it, but the system appears broken and we’re just duct taping things hoping it will hold.
On the flip side, take something like the recent O.J. Simpson book and TV special. I’m encouraged by the fact people spoke up and nixed it. It’s the right thing to do, the man got away with murder and has done nothing but screw the system. Then there’s instances like Michael Richards and a comedy bit gone bad. God forbid a white comic starts saying things to quiet a heckler. I mean things that would be just fine if they were coming out of say, Chris Rock’s mouth. I’ll admit that I think the bit took a bad direction, but I don’t think it would have ended that way if Michael Richards’ skin wasn’t white.
Are we headed for a big change? I think so. Unlike John Mayer, we shouldn’t be waiting for it, we should be making it. Like today’s song. Here’s an artist out of Canada that I’ve taken a liking to a while back, Thornley. Personally I dig his voice and his clever writing. Unfortunately it hasn’t won over massive audiences yet. I can understand why, but I think it’s weird it hasn’t.
The song itself to me is saying, yeah great, things are going well, so what. Which is sorta what the attitude of our current leadership has been. Not so much that things were/are going great, but rather we’re doing what we want so what if you have anything to say about it. I find that dangerous. Which is kinda how I find Thornley’s riffs in this song, dangerous. That heavy overtone. It gives that flavor of having a double standard. While it works for the song, I don’t think it works for things like Politics and Nationalism.
Support your country, but take down the leadership if it’s going in the wrong direction. Support great music by purchasing it. Get Thornley now!
(** Disclaimer: If Thornley’s label decides that so far hasn’t been so good with me exposing you to their sound, then I’ll be revolting by wiping the audio off. The post will remain as a momentary step into questioning the world. **)