1984: The Year Capitalism Saved Christmas

If you’re a first generation watcher of MTV, you must remember the year 1984 and Band Aid. Bob Geldof and other musicians from Duran Duran, Genesis, Culture Club, The Police and U2 teamed up to make a record which would raise money to buy food for starving people in Africa.

How? Through record sales. In other words: Capitalism.

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They didn’t demand that any government should pay the tab for the recording, production or distribution of their product. They relied on the free market system to solve the problem.

There was no politically correct objection to the song’s refrain which clearly references “Christmas” by saying “feed the world, let them know it’s Christmas time again.”

It’s also funny to hear a bunch of musical lefties lamenting the lack of snowfall in Africa with the line “there won’t be snow in Africa this Christmas time.” Doesn’t the “settled” climate change science predict record accumulation in Ghana by next May? Band Aid didn’t seem to think so in 1984.

9.6 million hits on YouTube later…

It should also be noted that Band Aid creator and humanitarian Bob Geldof went out of his way to praise George W. Bush for his commitment to Africa, stating in 2003:

“You’ll think I’m off my trolley when I say this, but the Bush administration is the most radical – in a positive sense – in its approach to Africa since Kennedy.”

It’s not radical. Haven’t you heard, Bob? Conservative is the new punk. Welcome to the brave new world.

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