Desiring Machine

Radio KAOS, a long forgotten pop album of the late 80’s by Roger Waters. It certainly had its element of cheesiness, but I think Roger Waters is perhaps one of the most underrated politically minded pop singers. He has been singing about the Middle East long before the American public really cared or was compelled to think about it. I remember always liking these verses from the song Home. Listening to it now it seems oddly prescient:

When they overrun the defenses
A minor invasion put down to expenses
Will you go down to the airport lounge
Will you accept your second class status
A nation of waitresses and waiters
Will you mix their martinis
Will you stand still for it
Or will you take to the hills

…

When the cowboys and Arabs draw down
On each other at noon
In the cool dusty air of the city boardroom
Will you stand by a passive spectator
Of the market dictators
Will you discreetly withdraw
With your ear pressed to the boardroom door
Will you hear when the lion within you roars
Will you take to the hills

I owe a lot to Roger Waters. His music had a deep influence on me. Amused to Death was a masterful album rooted with much despair and ultimately cynicism about the consumeristic culture we live in. I don’t necessarily share all this despair because I think consumption and the consumer society is a bit more complicated than his music portrays. But the emotional core of Waters’ music is undeniable. While many in my generation spent there time tripping on acid and reliving their parents’ glory days listening to David Gilmour and old Pink Floyd I spent my teenage years in sobriety intensely intrigued by Roger Waters. It was a political education of sorts. I still classify The Final Cut as the all time greatest Pink Floyd album. I remember exploring the back catolog of Waters’ solo albums becoming utterly partisan and entrenched in the Waters camp of the Roger Waters vs. David Gilmour feud. After a short stint lurking at alt.music.roger-waters I quickly realized how much in the minority I was in after comparing the dozens of Waters posts versus the thousands of posts at alt.music.pink-floyd. Even though I thought Roger Waters was the true soul of Pink Floyd even though the rest of the world clearly did not see it that way. In hind sight I chalk this up to the serious and strongly political intent of Waters’ music. By any objective account you have to admit that he is pretty clear and direct in his criticism of capitalism and American power, I guess these themes never really connected to the public like the much more ethereal and abstract muzak that Gilmour and company continued to produce under the banner of “Pink Floyd”. But the outcome of all this teenage obsession with Roger Waters is that it turned me into an obstinately serious individual. I constantly think and worry about state of the world, to an unhealthy degree perhaps. The marks of despair and political mindedness of these thought patterns come directly from Roger Waters’ music. And his music is always something that I can turn back to get in touch with that little bit anger needed to goad myself into action.

Waters’ song Home seems to say more about our times than even the time it was written in. I think the key term here is Market Dictators. The battle is not against making a living or free exchange in the market. The battle really is against the authoritarian forms of capital and class that leave the entire world in shambles. Home is a very simple song with a very simple question, how long are you willing to take it? What are your limits? Are you willing to passively accept your status as a second class citizen or will you stand up to the forces of evil that overrun our government and our world? Opposition can take many forms, but it basically boils down to an unwillingness to yield to fascist forces that always tell you no. No you cannot do this, no you cannot do that. We own you, and you will worry your life away when a couple of our office towers are collasped by the barbarian horde that we helped foster in the middle east. You will do our bidding as we commit your sons and daughters to desert sands far away to terrorize people you do not even know.

Well I can tell you I am tired of the whole lot. I would just as well ship the entire Bush family, and the Bin Ladin family to central Jerusalem and build a wall around the whole city and let them rot in the desert heat as they fight each other, eager to bring on the apocalypse. Then the rest of us can live in peace away from these murderous tyrants and thieves. For me this boils down to a simple proposition: I am tired of having to think about the murderous war lords that are running our country into the ground. I am tired of seeing them on my T.V. I am tired of hearing about the record profits these market dictators are collecting in the oil industry. I am tired of feeling ill at ease. And I am sure the rest of the world is tired of it as well. I am tired of living in an authoritarian culture. My patience is thin. I can’t predict my exact personal response but I think something has to give. It is time to vote the clowns out of office, and if that fails more dramatic action might be needed to take back our world.

Short is the time to be conciliatory, it is time to take a partisan stand. That is what taking to the hills means. It is not some romantic survivalist fantasy. It is taking a militant stand against fascism. It is about over turning the militaristic order that threatens our world.