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Friday, December 5, 2008

Roy Harper - The Monster

Politics are a mess.

I was going to say something of the sort last month but I got all excited about the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Carmina Burana, and I had to talk about that.

But since democracy is being made a shamble of once again, I’m sure the whole voting process is once again on everyone’s minds.

Voting is a joke isn’t it? There is no one really worth voting for and even when all is said and done there is another game to play by these politicians. Because no one gives a crap about running the country, its just the iron law of oligarchy, everyone wants to be on top, and feel special. No one really cares about getting things done.

Are our politicians really to blame? Yes, they are, they are the clowns that keep taking our tax money and making a mockery of both our nation and democracy. But there are many more people to blame then just those ass-hats, and that is everyone else.

If we have great leaders out there, then where the hell are they? I know they’re out there somewhere but they couldn’t possible go anywhere is politics can they? No of course not, because not enough people will support good politicians, more often then not we don’t even know who they are. So we shrug our shoulders and support a random politician, or just pick a party that tells us what we want to hear more often then the others. Sometimes we get lucky and wind up with a good person in power sometimes we don’t. Random the way modern grown up children like it.

So we’re apathetic, no big deal right, but now your opinion on political matters is irrelevant and so is your mindless zombie vote. Of course it still counts, that’s democracy, no matter how stupid you are you can influence the whole nation..

Things have spiraled out of control because we let things get that way. While we are a far way away from any real danger in our country and government even with this coalition nonsense, I think it is safe to say we have reached a point of stupidity.

I’ve heard the politic body being referred to as a machine many times before, but I have to completely disagree, it’s a mess. It is a complicated combination of fears, ideals, and hopes thrown into a mixing pot and then compared randomly among extremely similar, untrustworthy, parties. We derive a popularity contest with party restrictions, and ultimately mislead ourselves into believe we have done something progressive sometimes, somehow. We have a long list of rules and regulations that sometimes serve some purpose other then being abused. Most importantly no one ever dares say, “wait a minute this whole thing is bananas!”

Roy Harper is an old hippie out of England. He has been writing folk rock music for god knows how long now. Way back in 1970 on Led Zeppelin III the final track is titled “Hats Off to Roy Harper.” Obviously Page and the boys had quite a respect for the man.

More impressive is Roy Harper’s appearance on the Pink Floyd track “Have a Cigar.” Did you ever wonder why Gilmour sounded so different on that song? Well now you know why, it is not him, it’s Roy Harper guest singing.

“By the way, which one’s Pink?” Funny stuff.

Also one of my favorite Canadian groups of all time “The Tea Party” teamed up with Roy Harper for the song “Correspondence” where Roy sang a very deep poem at the end titled “As You Draw Near,” and also on the song “Time” where Roy guess sang the entire song.

Roy Harper is a hippie, as I already said, so you can expect the typical left minded stuff from people like that is his songs. War is bad, Republicans are nazis, pollution is going to kill everyone over night, you know that kind of melodrama. However But Roy Harper is a little different I think. Sure he does have his run-of-the-muck hippie songs, but he is fair. I like people who are fair.

If you are going to bitch about how much you hate war, is it really very fair to hate only George Bush, the Republicans, and America? What about those genocidal lunatics over in the Middle East, are they not just as guilty for causing death and war? Maybe more guilty? Definitely more guilty?

Roy Harper has a song called “Playing God,” where he mocks both British and American war efforts in the Middle East. Which is fair.

But;

Roy Harper also has a song titled “The Black Cloud of Islam,” where he directly attacks the entire Muslim faith for being a religion of conquest, hell bent on forcing a brutal and violent view of god upon the world, with their twisted religion. Sadly, we all know this also fair.

Maybe it is not kosher to bad mouth a religion, but fanatical Islam is pure evil. I’m not saying the entire Muslim faith is evil, though I wonder sometimes, but “fanatical Islam,” oh yeah, evil. They literally believe god wants them to kill everyone who isn’t Muslim. If that doesn’t convince you of their evil, I don’t know what will.

Back to the whole voting mess that is democracy, Roy Harper best song in my opinion happens to be “The Monster.” The way things have changed in our view and use of democracy is quite depressing. It doesn’t have to be this way, but we let it get this way, maybe we can get our dignity back with a little effort. In the end the politicians have no power but the power we give them, and if we really want a change you’d better believe it we can get one. Roy captures that kind of feeling towards democracy pretty well in this song I think.

“Now that there’s is no one left to vote for, only fools to vote against.”

This whole political body you just might say, is a monster. I love humanity, its people I can’t stand, and when you start looking at the petty differences and attitudes towards serious issues like economics, and social tolerance, its appalling how stupid the average person is.

Interesting note, Jeff Martin lead man of the “Tea Party,” is the guest guitarist on this song.

Until next month/year, keep on rocking in the free world,

- Colin Kelly

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