The upheavals of the sixties had political and cultural contexts – the war in Vietnam and the Civil Rights movement. There is a great debate about the relationship between culture and politics; a which-came-first conundrum similar to the vexed “chicken or the egg” question. Few deny the critically important relationship between culture and political change. What the sixties generation had however we in the American Renewal movement haven’t got – a soundtrack.
There seems little doubt that the growing bitter rhetoric of American politics signifies a deep national divide. With the centrist middle ground shrunk and ignored, the language of conflict and war is heard more often now than in recent memory in political debate.
The deep relationship between music and politics that was seen during the 1960s was both reactive and causative; culture drives politics and vice versa. Because music plays a far more important role in the lives of young Americans than it has for any preceding generation the power of music to drive change and respond to it both positively and critically should not be neglected. The message is the medium.
Allan Bloom in his superb 1987 critique of education and culture “Closing of the American Mind” described the power of music and its importance to young people.
One need only ask first-year university students what music they listen to, how much of it and what it means to them, in order to discover that the phenomenon is universal in America, that it begins in adolescence or a bit before and continues through the college years. It is the youth culture and, as I have so often insisted, there is now no other countervailing nourishment for the spirit.
Californian Gary Eaton, his wife Shelli, and their politically incorrect (that is accurate) band “The Army You Have” are a case in point.
Wearing their conservative political views proudly, the Eatons and their fellow Army musicians have crafted and performed support songs and videos for Rick Perry’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign, and a humorous video tribute to Herman Cain (with the actor Nick Searcy) now receiving a great deal of worthy attention. Eaton’s guitar work can also be heard on Thaddeus McCotter’s official website. Clearly, the world of music and art is not exclusively a liberal domain.
Gary Eaton is on to something important. His music has a classic American rock and blues style but with highly charged conservative political messages. The Army You Have and the few bands across the country with similar views have taken the threads of the wave of protest music from the sixties and completely rewoven them into a new tapestry.
Eaton says that he is aware of the “conditioning” of the left that has so deeply influenced the politics and culture of the country and opposes it with his music. The catastrophic consequences of this conditioning, much of it accomplished with popular music, now ought to be obvious to even the most obtuse observer.
It has long been understood that the radicals of the 60s are now the professors of today. It is no coincidence that there was silence during the campaign of 2008 to the fact that then Senate candidate Obama had begun his Illinois political campaign in the living room of Bernadine Dorhn and Bill Ayers, leaders of the hard left Weather Underground domestic terrorist group and later academics.
Conservatives complain with good cause about leftist indoctrination in American higher education.
A recent study by Stanley Rothman, S. Robert Lichter and Neil Nevitte found that 72 percent of professors teaching at American universities are liberal (by their own description) and 15 percent are conservative. At elite universities, the ratio was 87 percent to 13 percent.
The indoctrination of American students (paid for in large part by hard-pressed conservative parents) in the once esteemed halls of the American academy is the foundation of the conditioning which Eaton and his band mates oppose through their American roots rock music.
By way of illustration, the so-called “Critical Theory and Social Justice” department at Occidental College (one of president Obama’s alma maters) defines itself as
…fundamentally interdisciplinary, drawing on ideas from across traditional academic disciplines. “Critical” refers to various bodies of theory and method Marxism, psychoanalysis, the Frankfurt School, deconstruction, critical race studies, queer theory, feminist theory, postcolonial theory, and intersectionality that interrogate the essentialist assumptions that underlie social identities. “Social justice” refers to an extrajuridical concept of fairness that is focused on exposing and ending social inequalities.
One could be put into extremes of extrajuridical rigid paralysis in trying to determine the applicability, or legitimacy of Occidental’s Course #342 “The Phallus.” While the importance of the phallus cannot be overstated (to do so would offend our feminist friends) one has to wonder how the “study” of such appendage benefits the student in comprehending issues of “social justice.” Does this class have a practicum?
Those on the left for the last five decades convinced themselves that they have a lock on issues of fairness, justice, and the eradication, as much as is possible in the real world, of “inequalities.” They are mistaken.
These are exciting and dangerous times. Music and art are undeniably influential. Conservatives have been slow in advancing the American aesthetic and making it work for the renewal of the country.
Appreciation for our history, our constitution, and our heroes is difficult to inculcate when our young people have been so sorely shortchanged through the course of their incomplete, biased, and anti-climactic overly expensive “educations.”
The creation of a meaningful music for the rejection of failed utopian liberalism ought to be a key mission of American conservative musicians. This new important soundtrack for the conservative revolution doesn’t have stylistic limitations. The Army You Have’s song “Liberty Loves Company” written by guitarist Michael Broderick includes this illustrative lyric
People waking up, they’re beginning to see, brothers and sisters won’t you join with me
We all have our preferences – in addition to positive conservative messages and critical lambasts of the left there is one thing I hope will be included – it’s got to have groove.
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