Lessons from Easter Island

As interested observers of the human species, my little guys have recently pointed out the stunning similarities between the events that created Easter Island and the path the USA is currently on.

Most people are familiar with the statues of giant human heads that dot the landscape on Easter Island (Rāpanui). Full of mystery in their stony silence and ‘how the hell did they get there’ mystique, the statues (moai) actually have a reasonably traceable history and purpose for being. The fact that they were carved and erected by people without modern engineering equipment is still gobsmacking, but this post focusses on the why rather than the how.

I know you are already thinking what this tiny historical landmark has to do with the USA in 2020, so let me alert you to some parallels that stand as a warning to others to avoid going down the same path.

The original inhabitants of Rāpanui voyaged there from earlier Polynesian cultures in the Pacific, in the same way that all the other island groups in that Ocean were settled. Over time though, that ancestral origin became a myth and the inhabitants of the island became unaware of anything beyond the horizon. To them, Rāpanui was the world. Anything beyond was treated as unreachable. That made them very insular, entirely focussed on the trials and tribulations of surviving on a tiny island in the South Pacific with few natural resources. Competition for superiority became rife. They divided into warring factions and elevated their ancestors to divine status. The moai were carved and erected to keep their ancestors alive and to give the warring parties strength. It’s worth pointing out that the moai don’t face out to sea as you might expect, they all face inland. Inward looking in other words.

The effort the people of Rāpanu expended on war and worship eventually consumed them, so much so that when voyagers from South America arrived there, the few locals that were still alive were in a pitiful state. They were enslaved and taken back to the mainland and the island became a Chilean outpost with no remaining indigenous culture, other than the ominous silent presence of the moai.

So based on our knowledge of the Land of the Free, does any of this sound familiar? Let me point out a few things.

Apart from the cosmopolitan coastal states, most Americans have little to no knowledge of the outside world. They are indoctrinated from birth that the USA is number one, and anywhere else is a curiosity at best and largely irrelevant to their life, apart from the places that are demonised as an enemy that will infiltrate society given half a chance – eg communism, islam and other forms of capitalism. Anyone with half a brain can see that this is not a healthy outlook, and one that can be easily exploited by someone with a warped vision that can manipulate those fears for their own benefit. Someone like Trump for instance.

Trump has been and will continue to be a massive divider. As a textbook narcissist his agenda is Me First and who gives a shit about anything else. The deaths of 250,000+ of his fellow Americans from Covid-19 doesn’t register. They can’t give him anything. They are an inconvenience. Most of them were probably old Democrats anyway. An early example that should have given people a clue to his state of mind were his comments as he watched the Twin Towers coming down during the 9/11 attacks in 2001. He is quoted as saying that at least the Trump Tower had moved up the rankings of tallest buildings in the city now. Like that was his first thought. Never mind that a couple of thousand people had died in the process.

The fact that he will soon be declared the official loser of the 2020 election is not going to stop his hunger for power and adoration. This guy isn’t going anywhere, so put the corks back on the champagne. The ‘Me and My Peeps vs Them’ culture he has created over the last four years is going to continue and you can bet he will be back in 2024. His tactics follow the narcissist playbook. Deny reality, promote yourself as the answer to all things, spread misinformation about your opponents, resort to bamboozling word salads instead of coherent arguments, perpetuate lies until they become accepted as the truth. All of this and more has been the case, and it will get worse once he is free of the responsibility of office.

Narcissists create a dog-like devotion in their followers. They are literally capable of anything to support their idol. Tearing apart the fabric of society and the democratic principles they were raised to uphold? Not a problem. If the Don says they are corrupt, they need to be torn down. Just make him President for life already then we won’t need fraudulent elections, right? When Frank Zappa wrote “It Can’t Happen Here” in "Help, I'm a Rock" in 1966, he was talking about the spread of 1960’s counter culture. He might as well have been writing about the Proud Boys in 2020, but for very different reasons. Taken to its logical extreme you will see domestic terrorist groups emerging forwarding Trumpism, subverting democratic processes, bullying and intimidating their perceived enemies (real or imagined) and eventually escalating the tensions into a second civil war. After that, all that will be left will be fragmented pockets of civilisation and some fabulous monuments to a bygone era. Like Mount Rushmore, with or without the Don’s orange face on it.

There are already two America’s existing on the same piece of ground. How they sort out who has what will destroy them if they don’t wake up and smell the shit. Religious freaks think Trump is a biblical figure. He may well be the Great Deceiver. But I reckon he’s even more dangerous than that, because he’s real.

 ->=O=<-

If you are a supporter of truth and freedom go through our releases top right ==>
They don't lie.

We can get past this nightmare called 2020. We are here for you.

HIT THE # KEY

Hey there. It's been a while since the last post, but I've been a bit busy.

2020 huh. Damn! Covid-19 has spoiled the party for everyone this year, but I've still managed to link up with my little guys to get some new product together. They can channel through anything for unlimited time, so it added up to lots of late nights in front of the blue light of a laptop. It isn’t a pretty listen this time, but it isn’t a doomy reflection of the times either. It’s the answer to your stultification. It’s your third eye validation.

Hit the # Key here:

-->=)O(=<--

This is what you are in for.

Easter (a brief resurrection)

Resurrection of the last track on The Hopkinsville Goblins Are Back. The original version had a deliberately damp and musty atmosphere and was a lot slower. The intention was for it to slowly seep in as you listened. This version is nearly twice as fast and slaps you in the face while kicking you up the backside.

Know your enemy
Your real enemies are the ones closest to you and they are often smiling.

Johnny Monkey
Apologies to real simians everywhere. May they crap on the bonnet of your Mercedes.

Eyes on me
There is as wide a range of porn around as there are different types of sports. Some of it is truly dehumanising and you have to worry about the state of mind of those making it, let alone watching it. The softer end is getting more and more blurred with the mainstream. Those outraged by porn in general miss the fact that there are living breathing women at the centre of it. Spare a thought for them from your high horse.

Culture mulcher
I was in Bali once, eating in one of their roadside eateries. The radio was playing, giving listeners serious instructions on how to talk like an American teen, like this was what people in Candidasa needed to know. Despite the delicious food in front of me, I felt ill. Almost as ill as when I see an ad using a classic song to peddle insurance/jeans/laundry powder...

The afterbirth of cool
The high water marks of pop culture have stood up some spectacular examples for inspiration. That translates into a culture with its own icons and behaviours and standards that must be followed, just like any other institution. But for every inspiration there are a gazillion wannabees that don’t quite get it. That doesn’t stop them trying though. Meet Shirley, John and Percy and dig the vacant space they inhabit.

Don't try this at home
A natural progression from the preceding track. I sometimes wonder what the likes of David Koresh and the Reverend Jim Jones were like on a boring Tuesday evening when they were at a loose end. Does megalomania have a down time? This one is dedicated to overt and covert narcissists everywhere, and their house plants.

Hit the # key
I can honestly say I have no recollection what this one is about - but it made sense when I wrote it.

Weedy Seadragon
Tropical pirates be here. Drop anchor and bob along to this one. The sequel to Pineapple Rattail on Pink Orange.

Words from the profit
This one is pretty self explanatory. Jesus was a manic depressive with narcissistic tendencies and a flair for the dramatic. These gold-toothed, Armani wearing, private jet having conmen are his pimps.

Bangkok Holiday Inn
Dark tourism exploits the most vulnerable in the world. This is a postcard showing capitalism’s ugliest face.

Do it till your head throbs
Let’s lighten things up with a dance number. Hit the # key and shake that butt…

Here come the sharks
…but watch your back while you’re living it up.

All words, music and production by Alvis Impulsive; (P) and (C) Banzona Music 2020

 

Turning points

It’s difficult realising the significance of an event while it is unfolding, but I’m guessing 2020 will be one of those years that becomes identified as a historical land mark. We’ve already got the plague and economic depression, couple that with a sea change in societies’ attitudes towards institutional racism and you have a triple threat going on.

The first two obviously aren’t anything to cheer about, but potentially dispelling centuries of ingrained prejudice based on skin colour is a left field game changer. The fact that people are offended by the latest outrages so much that they will even ignore a global pandemic speaks volumes. It’s something people are willing to risk everything for, which is an incredible thing. Mind you, they probably felt the same when people got riled up about racial injustice in 1968 and 1992. The big difference this time is it’s not just the USA and it’s not just the racial groups affected that are standing up, and that’s a significant difference.

Like all births there is a lot of pain involved and some of the footage of the riots and looting is pretty stomach churning, from people on both sides it has to be said. Once the animal instinct takes over the cause is forgotten and we are back in the savannah fighting for existence. Some of it can’t be justified from any stand point, despite the nobility of the cause. But again this is nothing new. The French revolution was no squeaky clean fizzy party either as far as change management went, no matter how corrupt the aristocracy being removed were.

There is one small candle flame in the carnage though. The trend towards removing offensive statues is a great example of democracy in action, although the “silent majority” will say it’s just a bunch of scruffy anarchists causing trouble. For anyone who has ever experienced the “public consultation” process when public works are proposed, toppling a statue of some slave trader is the same reversed. The formal process forces something on you despite anything anyone says. The mob approach removes things without the need for any window dressing. I call that balance.

If there is one thing history tells us, it is that out of adversary something significant grows. So where is the world heading? Someone has coined the term “the age of bewilderment” to describe the current situation and I’d agree with that, so I have sought some input from above. No not Him, I mean my little guys. Now my little guys can’t predict the future, but their algorithms (based on historical modelling and the latest data) have coughed up a few potential outcomes, and any or all of them might actually happen:

Trump wins! Oh FFS – say it can’t be. But it might actually happen. At least 40% of voters will vote Republican no matter who the candidate is. They could put a goat up there and it would have a chance. And there are plenty of ultra-right wing religious nutters in the USA that believe he is a tool of God brought in to speed up the second coming of the Messiah, who will vote for him because they believe they will go to hell if they don’t. Well… at least they got the ‘tool’ bit right. So “democracy” in the states actually applies to a wafer thin section of the population who are classified as the ‘swing’ zone. They are the ones who decide elections and they generally live in states like Florida and Pennsylvania. It’s that specific. Trump won on the votes a few thousand of these people in 2016. That’s the fate of the world hanging on Joe and Jane Doe from suburban Nowheresville PA. No wonder there are tiny extremist groups developing online that want to short circuit the process. Another four years of this narcissistic clown will bring biblical results alright – but not the ones those right wing nutters are anticipating. Just poverty, paranoia and mafia-style politics spreading like an uncontained virus. Yikes!! Next.

The revolution will be televised. It already is. Phone cameras take you right to the heart of the matter and will either draw you in or repel you depending on how you feel about the ‘cause’. At this stage it isn’t anywhere near as bad as it has been at other points in history in other specific events (Northern Island and Brixton in the 1970s and 1980s and Paris in the 1960s for example), but give it time and anarchy in the UK may become more than just a song. Then the army will have to come in, people will form crudely armed militias and Bob’s your uncle – you have the Middle East in Notting Hill, or the Champs Elysee, or Nowheresville PA.

Armageddon. Taking everything to its logical extreme, you get a complete political, economic and social melt down. Trenches are dug, bunkers are built and it’s down to survival of the fittest, or the most desperate. The Great Depression of the 1930s didn’t lead to an economic recovery. It led to the Spanish Civil War, the rise of Adolf Hitler and World War II. People latched onto a populist leader with an insane agenda because they were looking for strength and a way out. Buying weapons made more sense than buying food and ‘the enemy’ was defined for all to target. The roots are already sprouting in Trump’s America, and he is already recycling nazi symbols for use in his own campaign. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Utopia/nirvana etc. Ah, the relief. Everyone will have a moment of clarity, the plague will have a vaccine and world leaders will start playing nicely with each other. Right after millions die of war, starvation and disease. It was called the 1920s. It lasted about nine years. Maybe it happens once a century. Time will tell.

So as this is intended to be a music blog – check out this Frank Zappa tune from 1966. Still as relevant now as the day it was written. And refresh your memory with one of ours.

From 1966 when the shit was flying in Watts etc. Frank Zappa hits you right between the eyes with a rock of his own. One that stills strikes the right chords 50 odd years later.

Amerikaemia. Lest we forget.

Bored? Anxious? Welcome to the new normal

Well folks, New Zealand has just started four weeks of lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s only taken a couple of weeks to go from “it can’t happen here” to “stay at home or else”, and the whole thing is pretty surreal. Just like it is for everyone in the world right now.

In keeping with the tone of some previous posts I could get all meditative and philosophical about the reasons why this has happened, but now is not that time. This shit is too real for that. Now is a time to focus on how to survive physically and mentally until this thing burns itself out, or until a vaccine is produced, whichever comes first. Either way it’s gonna take months.

The whole thing is nightmarish, but you have to look at some silver linings. It might make empathy a political priority. It’s going to put a massive dent in Trump’s re-election hopes. It levels the playing field between people so that everyone now has a common enemy, meaning people might see the similarities between them instead of the differences. And it will definitely sort the men from the boys when it comes to managing personal relationships. Girls: if you were wishing you could dump that selfish, leeching, control freak – now’s your chance. If he’s awol during this, you don’t need him.

A lot will also take this as a sign of the apocalypse, realisation of ancient prophecies and all that crap. The reality is this is what nature does. Microbes have been around for billions of years for a reason. The fact that there are now so many people in the world now brings us in closer contact with them more often. End result – newbies like e-bola, bird and swine flu and SARS, and all those ancient hitmen like TB and measles entering our lives like gate crashers at a share market convention. Even the bubonic plague is still around in some parts of the world, but it can be killed by antibiotics these days so its days of horror are over. The fact that this latest viral threat has turned the world upside down is one for the history books, but at least it can be stopped by simple patience and space.

Bubbles, that’s what we are

There’s a lot of talk about bubbles these days – the virus lives in a bubble, bubbles in the soapy water that can kill them, don’t step outside your lockdown bubble, speech bubbles in the media. The main thing about bubbles is they seal you off from the outside world.

I was putting together the basics for the next Hopkinsville Goblins product when this broke, but I’ll have to put that on hold. Some artists might embrace isolation as a space for creativity, but I’m not one of them. I get most of my ideas while I’m flat out doing stuff, so this is going to wrap all that up in packing tape. The new tracks were mainly celebrations of the undertow of humanity, and that isn’t possible when you aren’t able to see anyone. Boredom and isolation are not my muse. My little guys are. And they have retreated a million miles (literally). Human beings may have no resistance to this, but spare a thought for them. The common cold would deal to them, never mind some whacked out freshly mutated virus that doesn’t mind taking out its host.

So what to do instead? Apart from the invisible threat, boredom and anxiety are now our biggest enemy. So here is my guide to getting by. Purely personal and not too earth shattering, but hopefully you can relate to some of it.

Sex. And why not. That will take care of about 7 minutes and 35 seconds of most guy’s days. Hey fellas: why not treat this as the chance to practice a bit of extended foreplay. Find out if the female orgasm is really as elusive as bigfoot or if it can actually exist in your home. There should be plenty of reference material available with unlimited broadband during lockdown. Apparently Italians have been provided with unlimited porn for the duration. I think people in New Zealand have this one covered though, given the spike in viagara sales when the lockdown was announced.

Drugs. If you are stuck at home without much else on, no kids, no family, girlfriend stuck at her parent’s place, there’s always drugs. Not that they will be easily obtained during a lockdown, but I’m sure that won’t be a barrier to some. The only problem is most drugs aren’t really a cure for boredom. Anything that hypes you up is just going to make the walls close in. Booze similarly is not the greatest idea. It could be fun for a while but then you’ll hit the wall and need to escape. So you’ll head outside looking for stimulation on streets with none. And then the cops might ask what you are doing and you might end up getting really confined. Hmm… all things considered drugs aren’t the best idea. Unless you count wacky weed, which usually makes boredom positively fascinating.

Rock’n’roll. When I was told I was heading into a four week lockdown I thought I might catch up on some new sounds, get nostalgic on some old ones and generally have 24/7 music in the house. The only problem is, now I’m stuck here, I can’t find anything I really want to listen to. Nothing seems to really fit with what is going on. My usual go to of punk is too aggressive and this is not the time to be angry. Rock pumps you up with nowhere to go, and I don’t really feel like celebrating anything anyway. Going the other way, anything ambient is too unsettling and just makes the confinement even more pronounced. Especially something like “Zeit” by Tangerine Dream, which is literally the sound of your life draining away. I tried a bit of reggae but all that positivity just seems too trite right now. Don’t worry about a thing and all that. And if radio could stop playing gung-ho retro crap like “We are the world” all the time it would help a lot. I even heard “All by myself” on some classic shits station this morning. Way to help people going through isolation alone, Wolfman Dork. The only thing that’s resonated for me so far is “Truck drivin’ neighbour downstairs” by Beck. Not that I have one, but it makes me snigger thinking about the absurdity of that as a lockdown environment.

So that’s the holy trinity of passtimes knocked about without too much success. So what else is there?

Books. I have enough piled up to last me a lifetime. But you can’t share them with the people you live with so it’s a bit of a selfish option, no matter how appealing it is.

Videos. Better. Fun for everyone if you can agree on what to watch. And when you run out of DVDs there’s enough online to last several lifetimes, assuming the bandwidth holds up.

Wacky stuff. Hey I’m not an extrovert exhibitionist so I don’t have any ideas of my own, but there’s heaps of inspiration online so knock yourself out.

Working from home. Yeah, right. Like that really happens.

Sleeping in. Not if you are working from home though, you liars.

Avoiding the news. Definitely. Stick to half an hour a day if you don’t want your head to implode. And avoid social media whatever you do, unless you have the power to filter out the screeds of crap and misinformation. It’s the new water cooler for those working from home.

Arguing with your spouse. Obviously not a deliberate pastime, but it’s bound to take up at least some of your time if you’re locked up together for this long.

Yelling at your kids. Likewise to the above.

Talking to your pets. Not a bad alternative to the above.

Walking, breathing, meditating. Seriously. It’s good for you.

Sex. Oops, already said that.

Turning your living room into a gym. As an add-on to sex and breathing.

Learning how to cook. All the takeaways are shut so you’ll have to. Noodles will get pretty boring after a couple of days.

Teaching your grandparents how to Whatsapp. Now this one is sure to take up some time!

All those DIY jobs you’ve been ignoring for years. Yep. They will be unavoidable now. And you’ll even start to notice all the cobwebs on the ceiling.

Or taking a voyage of discovery to the edge of insanity. There ain’t nowhere left to go ‘cept crazy.

That should be enough for starters. 

I usually finish a post with a link to our product, but that seems a bit self-serving at this point, and I’m celebrating the lack of capitalism in the world at the moment. If you want to check us out during your lockdown, go for it and thanks. There’s links on the site. Otherwise, stay safe, follow the rules and hopefully it will all be over soon.