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.
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.
