The reach of American television seems endless. It is almost as if there are no borders and all of us, anywhere, live in American consciousness.
So there I was watching the CBS morning show (in Ensinada) and a musician called Patty Smith was doing songs from her new CD. She has just been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and her new CD is a tribute to the "thinkers" in Rock & Roll.
Her first cover on the early show was none other than Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World."
Ummmm OK. But being a big Tears for Fears fan I was just horrified at her cover. It sucked at any level of objectivity.
Then she ends the song, raises her fist, and 'shouts' "Let the people rule ... not the corporations." Huh?
OK Kimberly and others. Explain this sh*t to a brother.
She is on a corporate broadcaster talking smack about corporations! And who are the people? Are the people of America not the same f*ckers who allowed Bush to steal the first election and then elected him by a sizeable margin the next time around?
Why should the people be trusted? Who the f*ck are the people anywhere? Hell it was the people who elected and supported Adolf Hitler.
Anyway, though I was not feeling the Smith cover I remembered a commercial for South African Breweries (SAB), they also own Miller in the US. In the commercial that was run on the state broadcaster (SABC), a very successful Black yuppie, a measure of what President Thabo Mbeki deems democratic development, was drinking a Castle Lager beer.
He had just got out of a BMW, with cell in hand, was surrounded by fine women, and his friends were all very happy to see him arrive.
Now what more can any Black man want in the world of colonial erasure and whiteness than to be a corporate white man?
Well a corporatized ideological message from Tears for Fears of course. In the background was the same hit Smith covered this morning. My boy Roland Orzabal, front man for Tears for Fears, was belting out: "As for freedom and for pleasure. Nothing ever lasts forever. Everybody wants to rule the world."
Thanks Roland but this sh*t seems to be lasting more than forever. And I'm starting to wonder if the title should read:"Everybody wants to sell the world."
But then I guess we all been bought and sold by now hey.
When I get back to the States I am going to sell all my Tears for Fears CDs, or rather erase them from my computer. Then I am gonna sell what is left of my soul to the Academy that just recently reached in me and tore my being out.
Well right after I give Ward Churchill a call to say:"I told you so brother ... there is no place for dissent in corporate Academia." And I hope he would remind me to look closer at me.
Geez. "Just when you think it is over ... it's not over."
Struggling and contradicted.
Ridi
Ps. Wonder what Sobukwe would do? Malcolm and Biko too? And yeah I know Tears for Fears are a couple of white boys from England ... and that Oleta Adams made them look really good. ;0)
4 comments:
Now there's a big bite on the corporate ass.
Ridwan, your soul is to big to be sold, Brother! Even if you did sell out, it wouldn't be long before you'd be at it again, knowin you well enough.
Check this, "The Awful Truth," the short lived TV show by Michael Moore, he had no intention of doing. He was pushing his movie "Canadian Bacon" at the time. But producer type folks kept on wanting him to do a TV show. Finally, he offered them this: How about we do a TV show where we pick apart and attack a corporate sponsor every week? They loved it, and thus, the short lived TV show, "The Awful Truth."
Lenin: The last capitalist will sell us the rope that we hang them with.
Eugene I am down with that ... can we begin with the Academy in the US. Remember when Enron all but owned PSU. They even had an Enron room.
Damn. Gramsci was right hey. The Academy functions alongside the state to make its rules/opression "common sense".
And kids spend millions all over believing that it is the necessary step toward 'self-actualization' ...
F*ck that ... it is the next step to conformity and preparation for functioning for the corporate state.
The Academy merely 'produces' knowledge in the main. Knowledge that is about reinforcing the politics of hegemony.
Now why was I hopeful again?
Thanks for looking in my brother.
Be well Brother!
Ridwan
Hey there Ridwan,
I just had to comment on the Tears for Fears stuff. I personally identify with the Woman in Chains Song, lol. I have to admit I always liked the Everybody wants to rule the world song, but also everytime I hear it I am reminded of that B movie Real Genius from the 80's. I have a funny story about that sometime.
As usual, you make some compelling comments about the human condition. I have known you for over three years now, please write me and let me know whats going on. I'v been hoping that you would have an enjoyable trip.
Lastly, we know about mainstream knowledge, and the opression ect. We can be thankful that there are people out there like you that can point it out, and rise above that. You are greater than any crap people are giving you. By the way, the wap woman in chains U know is interviewing this week for a new job!
Peace,
Dione
Hi Dione:
I will be in PDX in a week and promise to catch-up.
Be good and knock 'em dead at the interview.
Geez I am about done with travelling. But SA in January is about all that keeps me sane.
Be well,
Ridwan
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