Music became a really big deal to me when I was a teenager (as it is for a lot of people). All those feelings just swirling around, wreaking havoc in my life, were so easily put to words and music by people far more talented than I (in ... most cases; I admit I liked some rather bad music back in the day).
In most cases, it's easy to look back and see why a song was important to you when you were seventeen, but not so easy to find music by that artist that really connects to you now.
One notable exception to this, for me personally, has been Green Day. They've even been there as I've gotten more politically aware.
When I was seventeen and didn't know who the hell I was or where I was going, Green Day was there to put it into words (with a really catchy tune as a bonus).
Do you have the time
To listen to me whine
About nothing and everything
All at once
I am one of those
Melodramatic fools
Neurotic to the bone
No doubt about it
Sometimes I give myself the creeps
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me
It all keeps adding up
I think I'm cracking up
Am I just paranoid?
Am I just stoned?
When I was in the Marine Corps and hating authority and questioning why I joined and leaving my church and finally realizing that being myself was the best thing to be no matter what anyone else said, Green Day was there to put it into words.
I want to be the minority
I don't need your authority
Down with the moral majority
'Cause I want to be the minority
Stepped out of the line
Like a sheep runs from the herd
Marching out of time
To my own beat now
The only way I know
One light, one mind
Flashing in the dark
Blinded by the silence of a thousand broken hearts
"For crying out loud" she screamed unto me
A free for all
Fuck 'em all
You are your own sight
When I was getting into politics, and realizing that most Americans were quite happy to plug along ignorant as hell, without bothering to fact check anything, Green Day was there to rail against that.
Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.
Don't want to be an American idiot.
One nation controlled by the media.
Information age of hysteria.
It's calling out to idiot America.
When I was realizing that precious few politicans give a shit about their constituents, and that they were quite happily running the country into the ground, Green Day was there to say how I was feeling:
(This wasn't the original video I was going to use ... you can tell Billie Joe's getting a little tired when he's singing. XD But I like the introduction.)
Hear the drum pounding out of time
Another protester has crossed the line (Hey!)
To find, the money's on the other side
Can I get another Amen? (Amen!)
There's a flag wrapped around a score of men (Hey!)
A gag, a plastic bag on a monument
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
On holiday
And now I'm 29, and I'm still angry at how things are going. I'm watching the middle class - where I reasonably expected myself to be - slowly disappear, as those who have the most continue to beat down those who have the least. I see civil rights trampled in order to not offend the "religious". I see news media who report nothing but paranoia and fear and Chicken Little stories. I see one entire political party built on nothing but fear of The Other, while simultaneously screwing over the people they snow into voting for them. I see people in power (or dangerously close to it), who in reality want nothing more than to dismantle the country that I love, telling the rest of us to just get back in line, get better hygiene, stop siphoning their tax dollars for things like "food", and quit questioning.
I swallowed my pride
And I choked on my faith
I've given my heart and my soul
I've broken my fingers
And lied through my teeth
The pillar of damage control
I've been to the edge
And I've thrown the bouquet
Of flowers left over the grave
I sat in the waiting room
Wasting my time
And waiting for judgement day
I praise liberty
The "freedom to obey"
Is the song that strangles me
Don't cross the line
And I sit here, wondering what I can do to change things. Sometimes, with the many problems inherent in the system, it feels hopeless. Sure, I can rant on the internet, but what does that DO? It's easy to feel despairing. People like Rand Paul, Sharron Angle, Christine O'Donnell, and Sarah Palin are taken seriously. People think Glenn Beck has good points. Democrats in red states may not see a point in voting, since they figure their vote will just be canceled out by twenty die-hard Republicans anyway, and besides, I'm not a millionaire so what I think doesn't matter in America anymore anyway.
But then I remember that my silence is acquiescence to the way things are. My silence is tacit consent. Silence is the enemy of change, of progress, of improvement. And so I do what I can to fight on - donate when I have the extra money, discuss the issues with people and hope they're willing to listen to reason and logic, and get the word out as much as possible on issues that are important.
This song is pretty simplistic, and it's caught crap for that. But it's a song meant to rally people; it's not meant to be complicated. Know your enemy, and take action to defeat them. It's what we do, to the best of our ability.
What's the point of this diary? I just wanted to share some of my motivation. :) I know that Green Day isn't everyone's cup of tea, and I wouldn't say they're the greatest band in the entire world and history of ever, but they've progressed from the days of singing about getting high and sitting around the house, and they've made younger people more aware of politics, which I think is important.
Oh, and I wanted to share this cat macro, because it made me laugh, and sometimes the news is such that laughing can be hard to do.