HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
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Maybe it's because George Harrison recently died or maybe it's that
Christmas time always reminds me of the Beatles -- because, as a kid, a
Beatles (or post-Beatles) record was my favorite Christmas present.
Either way, I surprised myself by pulling out some Beatles records and,
at least momentarily, enjoying them. Against my better judgment, I
should add.
I really cannot stand the Beatles.
And it's not just that I've heard it all to death, although I have. If
you think the 1960s was bad, let me assure you the 1970s was worse. At
least in the 60s, you didn't have to hear EVERY Beatles album all the
time: some of those albums didn't yet exist. In the 70s, though, every
last song was incessantly churning out of the radio or the stereo
nearest you. All the time, year after year, the 70s was one long dull
elegy for the 60s.
And, of all the Beatles, it is John Lennon that offends me the most.
Probably it's a parent love-hate thing. Back in my stupid teenybopper
days, I wanted to BE friggin' John Lennon. The hair, the glasses, the
whole deal.
And: I struggled in semi-pro bands for some 15 years.
The 'radical' Beatle, the 'revolutionary' Beatle. A rebel hero for a
rebel wannabe. A middle class hero is something to be (the working class
dudes who went off to Vietnam, they didn't like John Lennon -- today,
the media airbrushes that out of the story).
What sort of rebellion was it, though? A few putdowns of Christianity
here and there. Dope. 'Protest' music, most of it simple liberalism,
anarchism at the most daring -- plus an especially infamous
anti-communist song. Naked on an album cover.
I wonder what his kid, Julian, thought of that nude album cover. Dad
with his new girlfriend. Julian was about 8 at the time. Go to any store
and you'll find a copy of John Lennon's 'Drawings for Sean.' There's no
'Drawings for Julian,' though.
'And if ya go around with pictures of Chairman Mao, you'll never make it
with anyone anyhow.' A few years later, John Lennon was on the Dick
Cavett show, sporting a Mao pin. When Cavett pointed out the obvious
contradiction, Lennon shrugged his shoulders and said: 'Chairman Mao is
where its at right now.' Yoko grunted 'right on' or something equally
profound.
How 'revolutionary' was John Lennon? In the big Rolling Stone interview,
the 1970 one later released as 'Lennon Remembers' (jeez, the nerve), he
says 'In Britain, we have socialism, a nice socialism.' So 'nice' was
that socialism, a couple of years later he went for the big tax break in
the US. Hey, reminds me, the Beatles did a big anti-tax song.
Faux rebellion for faux radicals. Utopian socialism for those
procapitalist supporters with a bad conscience. 'Sure, I'm for socialism
... er, as long as it's heaven on earth.' Funny stance for a guy who
said 'imagine there's no heaven.'
Yes, it's a parent thing. Angry at the father figure for not earning his
pedestal. Angry at the hero for bullshitting me.
Angry at the whole ideology of pop music, too. Smoke pot, play guitar,
and you, too, can shine on. Pop stars are always so happy to point that
they never bothered with college or anything like that. Who needs skills
when biological determinism and lottery luck will do?
And here I am: on the other side of the equation.
The Marxist is the complete reversal of the pop star. While the pop
star, invariably coming up from 'humble origins,' is the working class
class traitor, the prole who goes to shill for the capitalist ideology,
the Marxist is invariably the middle class class traitor, the educated
guy who turns his wits against the very ideology that educated him.
No one who 'believes' in the class ascension of pop stardom can really
penetrate the Marxist perspective. Like the man said, communism is for
people with nothing to lose but their chains. The pop star, the whole
hero worship of pop stars, is, by contrast, one of the chains.
The whole 'star system' is a glamorized reinforcement for wealth
stratification and social hierarchy. No said it better than movie critic
Libby Gelman in Newsweek magazine: 'Gorgeous movie stars prove that
there is no justice -- and that this is a good thing.' A psychedelic
Rolls Royce is still a Rolls.
So now I understand why V.I. Lenin once said that he had no patience for
music or the arts. All of that stuff is great -- but it's for after the
work is done. Anyone living in a world dominated by capital who thinks
that the work is done is a rube. Go to work for Wal-Mart in the Third
World for a few years and tell me to 'imagine no possessions.'
When I first discovered Marxism and, soon after, Lenin, my friends, who
were getting nervous about my new-found convictions, said to me: 'But
communism is terrible for artists and the arts.' They intuitively saw
the choice I had to make.
Lenin said: 'I can't listen to music too often. It affects your nerves,
makes you want to say nice stupid things and stroke the heads of people
who could
