#251: The Herd
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Aside from politics, my 'most read' blog post has been What Corrupted Pop Music? In it I count down the ten reasons contemporary popular music has declined in quality.
Of course I find some artists worth it. In watching 30 minutes or so of DVRed late night comedy with my dinner most nights, I've recently enjoyed Taylor Swift on SNL, The Roots on Jimmy Fallon, Jon Batiste & Stay Human on Colbert, and (can't remember name) on Seth Meyers. After all, there's such enormous variety that eventually you'll find something.
Routinely, though, I quickly fast forward through yet another failure.
What inspired this post, however, is the similarity between the circumscribed pop music industry, and the allegiance required of Republican politicians. Will there ever come a time when individualism is ascendant ("From now on, I'm not pretending...."), and toadying is laughed at?
I'd like to think so. The more likely outcome, though, barring greater music exposure in schools, and greater civic participation in politics, is for low-information listeners / voters to continue to fall under the sway of artifice. The fall-back of finger jabbing that accompanies borderline violent music isn't, after all, that different from the attention-getting that comes from sensationalizing the border 'crisis' **; in both cases there's aggression or distortion to serve personal ends. And the syrupy formula of unthinking, pretty faces on TV endorsing a party line isn't that different from formulaic music produced by industry professionals, then presented as the latest 'popular' fare by interchangeable celebrity frontmen and -women.
Most likely, all we can hope for is the gradual decline of schlock, whether it's political or musical. So, in the case of politics, we can likely expect a vote not to remove an impeached president, followed by negative repercussions for that president's party in the next election. In music, this might involve the further decentralization of the industry, and a groundswell of voices noting that the emperor has no clothes.
Or, in both cases, there just might be a profound way forward.
Music: as a first step, a 'union' of sorts, that constitutes artists who write their own material, for starters. Not a member? Why not? Second step: union members voting, anonymously, on which artists are making their favorite music.
Politics: a compromise within the Republican party, between die-hard apologists, who'll support their president no matter how absurd the arguments, and the large number of senators with private concerns about impeachable behavior. Instead of senate Republicans confronting the president, as with Nixon in the Watergate Era, they could simply conduct an anonymous vote ***. This would avoid tying any individual senator to the inevitable tornado of anger from the Republican base. If done prior to the House's expected impeachment vote, like Nixon, Trump wouldn't be formally impeached. Would he see the writing on the wall, assuming the necessary votes were cast, and get out with minimal dignity? Maybe not, but from Senate Majority Leader McConnell's perspective, an anonymous vote is probably the least bad option.
** Border crisis? Most undocumented migrants come through border crossings, legally, on limited visas. They overstay, and find work. So, either employers, like hotels and golf courses, use a solid e-verify system to hire only American citizens, or we continue as we are. Building a militarized border wall will do relatively little besides ruin natural areas.
*** Anonymous vote? Here's how it might work: Each Republican senator would receive three slips of paper (labelled "removal", "present", and "no! removal") that looked identical when folded. In plain sight, in front of rolling cameras, each senator would, one by one, walk up to two spinning cages (like those used for lottery drawings). The first would be for the senator's vote, the second for the two discards. Once voting was over, the slips would be counted, with the world watching.
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