"Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'." - Bob Dylan.
The "Times They Are A-Changin'" is just one example of the many protest songs out there. In North America since the 1800s music has often been the voice for social movements and social change.
My roommates and I sometimes have conversations about today's youth (cliche, I know). I think I mentioned something about the 60s, and how it seemed like people gave more of a shit than they do now. One my roommates responded that it's so typical for people to look back nostalgically on the 60s. And this is definitely true. But we also can't disregard the social change that did go on in the Sixties. There was the sexual revolution, anti-war movement, counterculture movement, and the feminist movement, to name a few.
The heartbeat behind some of these movements was music. Woodstock exemplifies the hippie movement in a lot of ways. And although I'm not suggesting that us young folk should experiment with LSD and try to get in touch with other states of consciousness, I'm just suggesting that we are at least a little bit more conscious.
I feel like the internet becomes the ultimate tool to hide behind our fears. So much time is spent trying to find funny stuff on the internet (and I'm totally a part of this) and create internet personalities that are oozing with irony and nihilistic attitudes. And I know I shouldn't generalize, there are a lot of people out there who care. But in 40 years from now, no historian is going to look back on our generation and call us something rad like the Beat Generation, we're more like the Dead Beat Generation. What's ironic though, is how aware people my age are of the counterculture icons of the past. For a generation that supposedly seems to not care, it's amazing how many of us have read Jack Kerouac and idolize artists like Bob Dylan. It's like we can see the importance of those movements but we're just too afraid to get On The Road ourselves. And I am my own worst enemy. I passively give money to causes I care about and read about unfair foreign policies that Canada and our neighbour to the south are partaking in, yet I find myself doing nothing active about it. Maybe it's because doing stuff on the internet gives us the illusion that we are active. (like writing this post...)
Maybe music can help inspire us once again.
So check out this stuff and see how you feel:
Listen to this.
and watch this:
La Blogotheque / Invisible Children from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.
And buy this . It's called, Amchitka. It's an amazing recording of Joni Mitchell, Phil Ochs and James Taylor performing live in 1970 in Vancouver for a concert in support of Greenpeace. Light up some incense (or something) and get in touch with your activist side. Facebook will still be around when you're back.
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