Segarini: The Long Run

There was a time when being older was something that was respected, even revered. The logic of that is easy to understand. The longer you live, the more you experience. With experience comes knowledge and if you’re lucky, wisdom. The more information you seek and absorb, the better your chances of being able to make better decisions, and the more cognizant of the past, the better equipped you are to understand the future. So how is it we live in a culture that worships youth, continues to make the same boneheaded mistakes we made in the past, and remains mired in superficiality, gossip, mediocrity, and ennui?  The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. Photo by Michael Dent

When I was a kid we were obsessed with the future. We thought cancer would be cured, there’d be colonies on the moon, people would be healthier, happier, and as a race, wiser. I’ve written about what we expected to greet us in the year 2000 before, and I expressed my disappointment in what we found when we got there. Here we are more than a decade later, and things have gotten worse. As Yogi Berra would have said, “If Gene Rodenberry were alive, he’d be spinning in his grave.”

My generation, the one that grew up as part of Howdy Doody’s Peanut Gallery, were supposed to right the wrongs, cure the ills, and stop the insanity brought to bear by previous generations, but instead, we seem to have made things worse. Somewhere between Woodstock and American Idol we fucking forgot everything we talked about, railed against and promised to change. Apparently, everybody took the brown acid. To quote Eric Cartman, “I HATE Hippies!”

It is at once interesting and perplexing that Asian cultures seem to have done a better job of making the future a bit better place to live, and their older, more experienced denizens still command some respect and attention from the general populace, maybe because they tend to plan more than one fiscal year ahead. Over here in the land of plenty we only seem interested in the NOW, and nowhere is that reflected so profoundly as in what we consider to be entertainment. Even more frightening than the people who inundate us with crap is the sad and inexplicable embracing of that crap by the majority of the people it’s aimed at. When, do tell, did we become a culture of knuckle dragging mouth breathers?

Understand that there is a place for crap in every generation. All of us, myself included, have a fondness for craptacular entertainment even if we know better, but in my experience it has never so dominated our culture as it does today. Mike Judge, he of the razor sharp tongue responsible for “King of the Hill”, “Beavis and Butthead”,  and “Office Space”, offered up a not-implausible scenario in the little known, brilliant film “Idiocracy” that soars as satire but also contains a wealth of truth that gains believability every time I watch it. Never have I laughed so hard at something so inherently terrifying. Mike Judge explains the failure of “Idiocracy”. Find this movie and watch it.

If age does come with more experience and knowledge, then where are those whose expertise we so desperately need? And if they’re out there (which, judging from the law of averages they must be) why aren’t we listening to them? Are the people responsible for leading us down the garden path in every facet of our existence evil…or just short sighted, stupid, and greedy? More to the point, why do we continually buy into what clearly stands as half-baked and manipulative bullshit, when we not only should know better, but have the luxury of precedent to go by. How can Prohibition, proven a failure in the early part of the 20^th Century, and responsible for creating more crime and criminals than had existed before its implementation, still be thought of as a solution to anything?

Prostitution and drugs are prohibited by law, yet the only way to curb the criminal elements who thrive within them would be to legalize them. Why does no one talk about this? What is wrong with a public that cannot muster enough common sense to understand the lessons learned from the banning of alcohol that led to organized crime, corruption, and turned otherwise law abiding  citizens into criminals? Say you legalize prostitution. It’s been around since before organized religion and is never going to go away. You put it in a designated area (Lord knows, we have an overflow of empty buildings and foreclosed properties) tax it, and install medical facilities and license the sex workers. Then consider the benefits; no more pimps, no more sex workers at risk on the streets, no more under-age runaways turning tricks, no more used condoms and needles in your front yard, no more STDs spread by unsupervised participants. For the first time arrests could be made to rid the practice of its criminal element, provide safety for all, and earn enough tax money to better the lives of all of us. The same applies to the legalization of drugs. Unfortunately, the public cannot wrap its head around the results of legalization, even though the lesson of Prohibition is fairly common knowledge. The politicians able to educate and inform, and stand for these ideas are cowed into parroting the same old tired Disneyesque Family Values platforms that stopped being pertinent about the same time Norman Rockwell stopped painting covers for the Saturday Evening Post.

And why do we continue to wage war over ideology and religious beliefs? Trillions of dollars spent losing lives and instilling hate in the name of self-righteousness and the tragedy of trying to force our culture on others. Why not spend that money winning our enemies over with assistance instead of weapons. Food, infrastructure, tools, and education, that’s where the money should be spent. Act on the promise of democracy and compassion instead of bombing the shit out of people for the actions of their governments and extremists. I can’t say it better than this.

How do we curb this lousy recession? By giving trillions of dollars to the very people who caused it? What the fuck are we thinking? Why didn’t the government give that money to the people with the codicil that they pay off their mortgages, put the money back in the economy and pay their taxes, and put the criminals that caused this mess behind bars? Where is the wisdom of experience? Where is common sense?

I find it telling that technology continues to lower its prices while education, medication, and the staples we all depend on become increasingly more expensive. An $8000 flat screen in 2001 is now available for under $500. Is this really supposed to keep us all happily oblivious? Why do athletes, movie and television stars, and CEOs make millions every year while firefighters, policemen, and teachers struggle to get by? Where is our moral core, and why was it so easily corrupted?

You need look no further than our popular music to see where we stand on this, the threshold of a new and potentially wondrous year. There is a promising scent of hope in the air. Though not fully realized and still struggling to find its feet and focus its energy in ways that could truly make a difference, the ground-swell of revolution is beginning to take shape. At present it is disjointed, using placards and screeds that do more harm than good, but coupled with some experience and knowledge, could coalesce into a real force for positive change. Let’s face it, a lot of us are just plain fed up.

There has always been, and always will be, great music, great entertainment. If you turn on the radio or television or buy your music in a big box store or follow American Idol or Jersey Shore, a lot of what you will hear and see is the equivalent of the lions VS the Christians that serve as the backdrop for the fall of our empire. However, if you look below the surface you will see and hear the rumblings of that which can save us. That occasionally, the great becomes popular, is a sign of hope, a rail against the machine, and more of us need to search it out and spread the word. It doesn’t have to have an implicit message and it doesn’t have to be couched in anger, it just has to raise the hair on your arms, make you think, or show you that flowers still break through the concrete. The Man HAS taken our music.

It’s time we take it back.

The Long Run

A Reminder:
The First Annual Don’t Believe a Word I Say Reader’s Poll
To everyone who may be having a problem with copying and pasting the Poll from Monday’s column. Try this:1. Highlight the Poll 2. Right click on the Poll and choose ‘copy’. 3. Open a new word doc or email. 4. Right click and choose ‘Paste’, 5. Fill out the form and 6. Email either as a word.doc attachment, or as a straight email. The Poll is also available to copy and paste on my Facebook page Let me know if that works. If that doesn’t work, email me at segarini@rogers.com, and I’ll mail the Poll directly to you to fill out. That might be the easiest way. Sorry for the inconvenience. We really are interested in hearing what you have to say. Also, your answers can include any music, movies, TV, etc, from any year, not just 2011.
Thank you,
bob

We now have an email address where all of us here at Don’t Believe a Word I Say can be contacted: dbawis@rogers.com Please use it to ask questions,  tell us whatyou’d like to read about, send links you’d like to share, and let us hear what you have to say.

Bob “The Iceman” Segarini was in the bands The Family Tree, Roxy, The Wackers, The Dudes, The Segarini Band, and Cats and Dogs, and nominated for a Juno for production in 1978. He also hosted “Late Great Movies” on CITY TV, was a producer of Much Music, and an on-air personality on CHUM FM, Q107, SIRIUS Sat/Rad’s Iceberg 95, (now sadly gone), and now provides content for radiothatdoesntsuck.com with RadioZombie, The Iceage, and PsychShack. Along with the love of his life, Jade (Pie) Dunlop, (who hosts and writes “I’ve Heard That Song Before” on RTDS), continues to write, make music, and record.