philbymon wrote:
Pandering to someone's feeling of patriotism in this low way demeans both the genre & TRUE patriotism to me
To "YOU" it's pandering. Does that mean to "THEM" it's pandering? If something flows through a person's veins, they are going to talk about it alot, it is going to come out alot, they will reek of it. What seems abnormal to you, may be absolutely natural to them, and they would see YOU as the oddball. I grew up with alot of military in my family. I understand this attitude quite well. I have it myself to a strong degree. The main difference being, that having made friends all my life, from all parts of the world, I KNOW the mistakes and outright evils, we have sometimes committed. So I have judged my country in the past, for awhile, when I was younger, quite harshly. I got my butt tore up as a kid, for changing the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner for an English class project... "Oh, say can you see... All the factory smoke..."
As I matured, I found a balance. I will judge political leaders, but I will not judge my country's ideals, since they are good and decent, and we simply need to hold political leaders accountable, so that they LEAD more in line with our ideals.
There will be some artists who pander. You find that ANYWHERE. But realize, that for the most part, exceedingly patriotic songs, are written by exceedingly patriotic people.
And yes, YOU'RE version of patriotism, may be different. That isn't the point here. The point is... Recognize their version, which may not be pandering at all, but instead, a firmly held belief, that comes out like breath, because they may very well BREATHE that!
philbymon wrote:
It's bunk, pure & simple, & country is the only genre that does that sort of thing, that I've seen.
Yeah whatever.
Punk is often anarchistic in nature, and panders to politics and chaos. Rap panders to gangbangin' and disrespect of women. Madonna panders to sex, with lyrics that are often "out of left field" when the song many seem to start in one place, and inevitably devolve into lurid sex.
People are pandering everywhere, in every genre.
You have a bias, that's all.
Country music is "stupid", because it embodies rednecks in your mind, who sing about spittin' tobacco and driving big trucks. You "KNOW" you are more intellectual than that, and you despise those qualities in others, because you are "above" that in your own life.
And yet, simple rednecks understand why it is WRONG to commit to marriage, and then break that commitment. They may fall short and do it, but they NEVER get confused that it is "right" to do so. They also see politics for what they are, are self motivated people who don't want to depend on a babysitter government, like "intellectually superior" liberals do. They may not expose themselves to Nietzsche, but they excel at COMMON SENSE, which btw... is sorely needed today, when liberals bombard colleges with the thought that "anything is right" and "anything is good, if it makes you feel good" etc...
Because they often dwell in more closed social circles, Recnecks are likely to be racists more often than liberals. But liberals often betray even the most COMMON SENSE oriented values, because it is an intellectual exercise to push boundaries. Which can lead them down a slippery slope, going from... championing women's rights to abortion, into.... the idea that maybe children aren't really "fully human", until they are 6 months to a year old? And yes, there is someone in the Obama administration that made speeches on this in the past.
Someone who has a brilliant mind, but lacks redneck BASIC VALUES, well, that mind goes into the abyss, so that what seems an intelligent breakthrough to him, is actually stupidity of the highest order... DANGEROUS stupidity, where the value of life itself, gets rethought, and reduced to garbage to be thrown out, because after all... we don't communicate and speak with words at 3 months old do we? For people that love f*cking around with words, what value would that "creature" have anyway?
Rednecks need intellectuals.
But intellectuals need rednecks just as much.
And at this particular moment in history? I would say... EVEN MORE!
