On one of my plane trips into Boston, I found myself sitting next to an interesting looking man with a well-worn copy of a book written by Karl Marx, the title of which escapes me. He had brought on board a guitar, and while I was kind of intrigued, I had before me a mountain of PDFs to read for a course I am taking on global health. I decided to cut myself some slack when hearing the flight attendant say that the pilots were preparing for descent and put away my stuff.
Just before I could close my eyes, my neighbor asked if I was studying public health. I said yes, figuring that a smudging of the truth might allow me to catch a few minutes of shut-eye before landing, but I was wrong. This is not indicate that the conversation was boring by any means—in fact it was quite the opposite. He mentioned that he had been traveling to record music with his band and encouraged me to check out their music. We also got on the topic of politics since it was late October, and I was surprised when he said he was not going to vote for either McCain or Obama, despite leaning towards the other.
Upon going to the website, I found myself even more engaged. There was a part that stated:
What Barack Obama wants you to believe and why the ruling rich have their money on him and his billion dollar campaign (internet contributions notwithstanding!) is that we are all in this together. But you and me are not in the same boat as Obama’s pal Warren Buffett and his class. When Obama says tighten our belts, he is not talking to Warren Buffet. They’re bailing out the billionaires, you have as much chance as a family stranded on top of a New Orleans.
The sort of class consciousness exhibited in the preceding statement (Nelson, “Lecture 17: Is There a Dominant Class Culture?”) also was characteristic of the band’s protest music as well! (Nelson, Lecture 20: “Protest Music and Class Consciousness) In the lyrics of a song called “Billion, verse 3 includes the lines:
Well I’d rather be with a billion than be a billionaire
Cuz even though Bill Gates may be hoardin a horde of billions
A horde of billions will be stormin heaven’s gates
How could a nation of millions hold back a planet of billions?
With a billion we could take our place up in the air with quintillion stars
When we stop the billionaires from sucking our blood
A billion stars will shine right here in the mud…
and verse 4:
It’s Bliss once again on this comprehend don’t miss when I set to bomb this mission
Conquest through conflist Black planet arisen
Here to gather up the masses and uproot the system.
All our men women and children, bring back the aspect of Revolution missin
Confusion’s vivid
I come closed captioned, even pack a hearing aid for those that wouldn’t listen
Find these words on city billboards emblazoned
Tell heads I’m a bout to get a billion,
To witness this transformation manifest,
Try and test this bio tech technician,
With the mindset to clone Nat Turner, resurrect Malcolm,
recreate history in my laboratory,
Teel heads I’m about to get a billion,
To stomp on this reptilian, cess infested, vermin, villain, brainwashing disease of a President we’ve ingested.
Need help to vomit and gush out the wretched,
Bout to get a billion, not dollars,
I need a billion scholars, with a billion visions, to send out on a billion missions,
Not a sit in. I need a billion marching mad men to stand up in resistance of the victims
I wanna see a billion
Consisting of all the aspects denoted by Professor Nelson of such music (“1. IDENTITY – with all others of the working class; 2. OPPOSITION – to the interests of the capitalist class; 3. TOTALITY – recognition of the societal/economic causes of class; 4. ALTERNATIVE – vision of another type of society) and of a magnetic song, I want to admit that despite like the song’s musical execution and some of its message, it is not something I will likely listen to in the future. Maybe this is an indication that I do not consider myself in the class that needs to rebel or maybe because the ideas of classlessness/social mobility are so pervasive that I believe there are other ways of getting ahead…
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Martha’s Tangential Cartoon Pick!
Sociology 155- Class & Culture 