Where have all the protest songs gone?


In light of all the problems the world faces today it occured to me that no one in the folk scene or heaven forbid the rock world are writing songs about war,famine,and you can fill in whatever ills you please into the garbage heap.Has the music arts become so safe and sterile and corporate that no one can hear their still small voice and raise it?
brucegel

Showing 2 responses by twl

Here's my protest song. I think that all the socialist activity being promoted by this government should be made strictly voluntary. That way all the people who want to pay for other people's spending can feel real good about themselves, and the rest of the country can keep Uncle Sam's hand out of our pockets.

The dirty little secret is that, on a government level, "social consciousness" is an excuse for stealing from you and giving to whoever they want. When a Congressman shows up at my workplace to do some of my work for me, then he can have some of my money as wages. Until then, he can keep his grubby paws off my paycheck.

For protest songs, I like them when they are real expressions of personal anxiety about a real social cause. When they are vehicles for promoting big government spending, then they can keep them.

The "Great Society" programs started in the 60s have contributed mightily to bringing this country to it's knees in debt. They have caused far more problems than they attempted to solve, and I can't even think of one problem that they have solved. It made everything worse. And now we're faced with paying the Piper for their folly.
Hi Bruce. I have nothing against compassion and I think it is an admirable trait. I have some of it myself. I think that compassion should have a place in everyone's life.

Perhaps I am over-sensitive about compassion being used as a lever to do what I mentioned in my previous post. As long as compassion remains compassion, and doesn't force me to pay for programs I don't agree with, at the point of a gun, then I can go along with it fine. That's why I said that it should be voluntary. I would never seek to limit others from doing what their hearts lead them to do. Taxing everyone to pay for it, is where I draw the line.

Tweakgeek, I totally agree with you about the prison thing. It is a big business, and a rotten form of government control. If we had stayed with common law, and limited the punishments to 2x restitution of the injured party, then we would be alot better off. Violent crimes should be met with violent punishments.

As far as the comparison of the Great Society vs the Vietnam war, the Vietnam war ended. Last time I checked, the Great Society was still spending over the limit every day for the last 38 years. And the "New Deal", for the last 70. There is no amount of money spending that can make everything equal. People are not equal in skills and capabilities and ambition. Taking the fruits from the capable worker, and giving to others is merely squashing the incentive to work, and the money that is given to the "underpriveleged" through "programs" is significantly used up by administrative expense, and the remainder is squandered on lottery tickets and Ripple anyway. I see this every day, and so do you, and everyone else. Free money is keeping these people down. If they had to go out and do something, or starve, you'd see them do it pretty quick. Free handouts destroy self-esteem, and discourage productive activity. Work and success increases self-esteem, and improves quality of life for all.

I didn't like the Vietnam war, and I know what it was all about too. But pointing to it, to distract attention from the other issue of never-ending absurd spending on destructive programs masquerading as "assistance", is not addressing the issue. I'll agree that the Vietnam war was a massive fraud and poor direction for our country to engage in, just as the Great Society was, and is.

I would love to see the old classic protest songs be played today, and bring someideas of change to what is happening today too. We are right now being subjected to another massive fraud that is going to put all of us into a very bad position in a very permanent way.