Knocked Unconscious in the Wreck Age


Bertrand Russell stated that “People would rather die than think, and often do”. It really scares me how prevalent this statement is in our present day. For example, yesterday I was checking my email on Yahoo where I read a headline about two ushers being shot at a Kanye West concert. I have read previous articles to the same effect around shows by the rapper 50 Cent. I grew up at a time when Heavy Metal bands such as Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden were slapped with the labels of being "Satanic" and accused of inciting teenagers to commit suicide, but it was all pretty harmless in reality (most of the fears were hyperbolized to a frothing fever, but unfounded) compared to what you see coming from the Hip Hop world today.
Rap music in its roots was basically the punk rock rebellion of African Americans who were understandably tired of living like second class citizens and the racism that still permeates in many societies including both Canada and the U.S. In my opinion, what individuals like Chuck-D (who I had the privileged to interview way back in my college radio days) and his group Public Enemy created was both an articulate and intelligent commentary on the problems and issues plaguing Blacks in the U.S., fused with the music and rhythms of their culture. I have since heard Chuck-D do some of his spoken word performances and respect his intellect and praise his commentary, feeling it is a message that really needs to get out.So now we have celebrities like 50 Cent, Jay-Z, DMX, etc. Some are ex-cons and proud of it, rapping about their "experience" which does have some validity, just as one's re-counting of anything. The problem is the message and the subsequent glorification of this lifestyle, coupled with incredibly degrading portrayals of women. In regards to the latter, some will argue that the portrayal of women may appear degrading but is actually, in some convoluted way, empowering. I just don't get that.

Perhaps the most disturbing element of ignorance being depicted by Black hip hop artists are all the gold and diamond rings, chains and teeth. These are guys supposedly speaking out against black repression and Mama Africa, yet they are sporting the gems and minerals that were the basis of that oppression! Can you say “De Beers” anyone? The gangsta stylin’ and guns – can you say children soldiers in Sierra Leone?! Yet the establishment holds these guys up as being “real” and being the voice of Western Blacks. If I were a black person I would be livid that this is being held high as the banner of my culture. Rap isn’t the only facet of popular culture these days supporting Russell’s statement. The fact that we have allowed our media outlets to become cheerleaders and champions of specific causes (and you can throw hip hop into this equation) as opposed to objective reporters of “fact”, has bred xenophobia and lead to misguided support of things like the invasion of Iraq. In Western democracies, people moan about the government they have democratically elected not holding up campaign promises- even though the government is our employee, it always seems to be the other way around! But so many people “don’t like politics”. Need I diverge into issues of environmentalism here? This is quickly devolving into the Wreck Age as our unconscious civilization blunders forward in fear, unwilling to think in spite of its self.