Ideas About Music

Hi all…

A number of factors have led me back, finally, from a long hiatus, to having the energy to write about the musical world. I’m deeply grateful to those of you have, and that will for whatever reason choose to read what I post here.

If you haven’t yet watched the short embedded video above, please take three minutes to do so. BUT ALSO LOOK FOR THE LAST SENTENCE OF THIS POST, ABOUT MUSIC.

Like much American-produced media the concept being proposed here is that of the invader, one of the premises of Robert Reich’s four founding myths of the United States of America.

The question here is not can an America-dominated world withstand an invading rogue planet – it is whether we can avoid becoming the rogue planet ourselves.

No platitudes, friends.

This is probably not going to be good, especially, but far from exclusively, for most Americans.

For the rest of us outside of the USA – be circumspect and compassionate for what our neighbours, friends and family have now lost, yet proud in what we can retain and know we will still live to defend. Those who have supported this sea-change in the American politic will be challenged in the coming months and years to be accountable for their voting decision in the 2024 presidential election.

We must stand with a world that cares not so much for national borders or TV celebrities; for politics and nostalgia contradicted by the facts of history, that holds repugnant the intentional subversion of a fact-based media to guide us.

The world, already today, moves on from America’s embarrassment, and bulwarks for its likely attacks on the ideas that countries work together, wealth is shared, ideals trump all, and eventually we’re all the same.

Trump, with a LOT of help, has now beaten the USA, and placed himself above its laws, its morals and its future – now forget him, and remember that he had a job he did incompetently, and we now have a job of our own to do.

Music is not, as some might contend, a background or balm against the real world – it is a lifeline for many of us, including the untold millions of our brothers and sisters whose suffering and poverty are the critical pillars of our own prosperity.

Our songs are not ours… they are given to the world that might choose to sing them – if we are privileged to permit our authorship. Keep singing.

-CD