"The Night &c&c" itself makes no commitment to social justice. It merely juxtaposes fragments of narrative and vague imagery in a static collage that invites the listener to project whatever she wishes to hear or imagine. Thus the Band fan who wishes to vindicate the song's message has to resort to virtue by association--criticize The Band and you are attacking Joan Baez--take that!
I dispute the contention that any non-socialist can be truly in favor of social justice anyway. Joan Baez is a supporter of liberal causes who believes in Emerson and Thoreau (and one presumes that vastly overrated racist, Gandhi)--which is to say a particular version of nineteenth-century radical individualism far closer to so-called libertarianism than to Marxism. In a Rolling Stone interview, JB described her political thinking as follows: "For some Godforsaken reason, I was given the gift of not having an ideology. I was associated with the Left because, of course, I worked mainly with the Left all through the Sixties. The right wing wasn’t interested in stopping the war, so you worked with the left wing–and they’re good people." "Good people [on both sides?]"--where have we heard this before? Would have worked with the Right if they'd opposed the war? Surely Marxmail can expect a clearer focus under the heading of social justice than can be found in this godawful interview. ( https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/joan-baez-the-rolling-stone-interview-71113/ ) This sort of thing IMO is precisely what's wrong with the Left's clinging to the icons and compromises of forty plus years ago. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#413): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/413 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/76186108/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES<br />#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.<br />#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.<br />#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
