The Devolution of the Baby Boomer

I couldn't sleep this morning. First hot morning of the soon to be summer.

Tossing and turning, I was thinking about Devo. Their anger and power and defiance, expressed by an impenetrable unified team, the sounds (some of which were used at the same time by Kitaro, go figure) and the intensity, the complete coordination of the message - music with cold and hot instruments, costumes, lights, videos, choreography. The all-around radness, top to bottom. They came into my house on a corporate label and top 40 radio and scared the crap out of me, in the best possible way.

I recently read a few post-'95 interviews with Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerry Casale, pre-reunion album and tour. They talk about the "subversion" in their work filming and writing music for advertising and children's entertainment. Their first crossover gig into mainstream national media--Mothersbaugh scoring Pee Wee's Playhouse--was exactly that. But, as that turned into a career, it seems they somehow found a way to disconnect from the reality that Rugrats (family friendly fart jokes on cable) ain't Pee Wee (queer children's television on CBS in the Reagan era).

I don't begrudge anyone a career, especially doing something relatively close to what you love to do. But PLEASE, do not embarrass your (then 45 year old, yet remarkably thirtysomething...Elliot!) self, and beshite the work you did as a 30 year old artist with the rocket fuel drive and laser focus of an Olympic athlete, by claiming the title 'Subversive' as you create advertisements for "Hawaiian Punch, Toyota... I dunno, just about everybody. 7-Up, Hershey's, Nestle's. Nike. Fila." From your home in the Hollywood hills.

The 1997 interview continues,

"We do everything from regional to international spots. We were just asked to collaborate on some projects for McDonald's which would include doing in-store merchandising for them, creating albums worth of music which would impart the message of Ronald McDonald and Barbie. Little do they know, our clients, that it would be through the filter of Devo. Our subliminal messages would be fully intact, and attached on like antioxidants working their way into the system."

Uh, yeah.

Here's the lyrics to a rap song I wrote trying to beg baby boomers (artist class, middle class and up) --the generation who had access to the best education, health care and economic prosperity in the history of the planet --to think about others as they move into retirement:

Boom Boom Baby

You know you're driving me crazy

You might live to be a hundred and five

So I'm pleading all you gentlemen and ladies...

Don't everybody love the taste of gasoline?

Inhale the vapors of the revolution that's green

Skeletons in your closet from pre-paleocene

We need to turn that wheel once more you know what I mean

That revolving has to evolve beyond the us that's Pri

Your IRA's and PDA's are like a disease--

A cancer

But a public display of affection just might be the answer

Like Emma Goldman says on the fridge in that squat,

"Only turn me on if I can be a dancer," or something like that.

I see that web like Chief Seattle said

Spun between three mahogany trees where the blind by the blind are led

To the slaughter: calves, golden or silicon

Breaking taboos and timezones, midnight marauders

{{One Nation, Under a Groove}}

Or a god, or figurehead--mastiff of global capital

Intractable, cold rap snackable

Delish--this is the secret of Roan Inish:

You get enough people to invest in your wish

But unlike Sayle-or Johnny, are you taking the piss? a celebrity kiss?

Pish posh in the mish mosh

Not real certain so you wish-wash

Now you haven't even factored in the time to make hay

While the sun's still shining, temperature risin'

Dido and Lilo phonin' Delilah

Phenome, genome project

"I'm gonna clone myself!"

The ultimate escapade in your Escalade

Now now, I wasn't gonna use the 'n' word

N - N - N - Narcissist!

{{Oh no he didn't!}}   Yeah, of course he did

And wasn't it your generation that oversaw the superlatively massive buildup of the military industrial complex? 

But you want me to feel Grateful that you liberated sex?

Well, this is Generation X

We rise up, and we say

Boom Boom Baby

You know you're driving me crazy

You might live to be a hundred and five

So I'm pleading all you gentlemen and ladies

Boom Boom Baby

Don't let nostalgia get you hazy

This is the winter of the summer of love

We're tired of hearing 'bout Dylan and Wavy Gravy...

Cuti:

Lo que vas a escuchar quizá sea duro

pero enfrentalo, che, acá estoy, soy el futuro

Hago ruido, música, planto un jardín, limpio mi casa

Cosecho para mi y para vos frutos maduros

Y de paso te cuento lo que pasa

Una mañana de los sesenta Dylan te voló la peluca

Demasiado LSD, caño, Alan Watts, hongos

Y quedaste de la nuca

Cambiaste de sexo, de Dios, de color, y de bandera--

Lo dijo Charly, no yo, no sos el que fuiste

Ni jamás serás lo que eras

Te quedó grande la escalera

Del enorme altar soñado

Y tus pasos no pudieron construir sobre lo hablado

Hipócrita, puto demócrata

Burguesa, burócrata

Te llevaste la esperanza de ser sinceros

Creer en algo y hacer revolución

Ahora cambiás solo de estación

A comprar una nueva televisión

Conocés mejor la palabra inversión

Vos a mi me provocás gran revulsión

Y pretendo cantarte esta canción

Bryce:

You're not pros at making prosperity a parity

Share a little of what you got

Pat yourself on the back and call it charity

That tightness in your solar plexus, that's a start

Who do you think's paying for your Lexus?

Let's have a heart to heart:

You think you've worked hard all your life

And you deserve what you've got

What about that farmer up in India?

You think that he's not? Not a hard worker?

Oh right, he's a shirker, sell him GMO seeds, emasculate a Gurkha

Then complain that his wife wears a burqa

"You've got everything you need, you're a boomer, you don't look baaaaack"

And you won't even listen to rap

Cause it's all about guns 'n hoes

No -- it's puns and prose

There but for the grace of funds he goes

This canon of the would-be incarcerated

Your style of life's been implicated

We 'bout to go toe to toe

With the rest of the world,

And the world says...

Boom Boom Baby

We won't go back to the eighties

You might live to be a hundred and five

So we're pleading all you gentlemen and ladies

Your retirement makes us nervous

Consider volunteer service

Instead of playing golf and getting Rolfed

Find some people not in your neighborhood to work with

Put all that power that you're wielding

Into community building

Plant gardens, teach an adult to read

Get yourself out of that center that you're shielding...

Act IV Jumploop

PO BOX 007 Remix!!!!

Chris Sand, AKA Sandman, AKA the Rappin´ Cowboy. Remix by Bryce Panic, 2006. www.rappincowboy.com

Demands, Part 1.5

You want demands? I got your stinking demands. Let's call them possibilities. They're right here:

https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/

OWS #3: Demands, Message

Bert Stabler asks in part 1 of our Occupy Wall Street saga, a question on the minds of much of us:
"They don't actually have any concrete realizable demands, do they?"

Relating to the media criticism of the precision of the Wall Street Occupiers' message, I think the Glenn Greenwald has summed that up nicely--
“Does anyone really not know what the basic message is of this protest: that Wall Street is oozing corruption and criminality and its unrestrained political power — in the form of crony capitalism and ownership of political institutions — is destroying financial security for everyone else?”

In terms of demands, the text below, recently forwarded to me by a friend, seems to address that question, by saying that the way in which the participants are organizing themselves from moment to moment, communicating, making decisions and implementing them--that their very organizational methodology--can be seen as a living demand. As if they're saying, 'this is what radical, participatory democracy, that is transparent, that takes care of all its members and values their unique abilities and voices, this is what it looks like. This is what we want.' And by living it out, they are showing that it can be 'concretely realized'. We might say, yes, that's nice, on a very small, temporary, privately funded and fed scale. But what can it possibly do to effect any meaningful change on the massive and complex financial system and its chastened attendant civil government(s)? Fair enough.

I believe that there is a core group of dedicated, serious, and capable people down there in the plaza. How they (we?) translate their efforts in this action into long-term, systemic change, or how long that may take, is as yet unclear. It seems to me this group and what they are doing is like a seed of the fruit they want to see. Seeds can grow into sturdy, productive trees, but at first they need to be planted (in the right time and place), nurtured consistently, and protected from harm. Plus, you don't plant an orange seed if you want a mango tree. So, given the well-documented discrimination (and I would also include violent anger) inside the anti-Vietnam war movement (to name one among maaaany others), whose cause was just but whose methods ultimately contained the seeds of its own dissipation, it seems to me that focusing on the methods and process of an action is right on the mark. Because, really, you're changing your life. As a political action it may seem less direct, more chaotic, less media-friendly, but the people who participate are actually co-learning/co-creating a way to be which, in the measure that they share it with more people, can lead to long-term change, in the long run.

I mean, in South Africa under apartheid you could simultaneously have a specific demand, like the release of a particular political prisoner (aka financial transaction tax), and at the same time hold the long-term goal of radical systemic change in the form of the abolition of apartheid (overthrow predatory capitalism). Learning from that example it's also essential to think, plan, and prepare long and hard for what comes after you get what you want...which seems to be part of the good work the Wall Street Occupiers are doing right now.

I reiterate that for this seed to continue to grow I think it will require a deeply unifying connector for strong roots of inner strength and sturdy leaves of outer solidarity: God/Spirit/Ethics/Wisdom and Song. Or do all us postmoderns want to ignore the fact that the American Civil Rights Movement was deeply spiritual, and filled with spirituals?

OK, enough armchair bloviating (for today), let's hear from someone who was actually there.

Take it away, Brian!

"Some thoughts on Occupy Wall Street
by Brian Pickett

I confess: I’m smitten with “Occupy Wall Street.” I don’t think I have
ever witnessed such political imagination unfold in this city or country.
Now you may have heard that, from the NY Times for instance, that there
isn’t a clear agenda, etc. That is false.

During the General Assemblies (open meetings held each day) there has much
talk about the many grievances we all share against Wall Street greed and
the possible demands the group would make. But specific demands on the
current system are only part of what is being imagined at Occupy Wall
Street. And the agenda is simple (and quite clear to those who take the
time to check it out): to change the nature of how decisions are made in
this country and on a global scale to include the majority of people.

Organizing the protest on terms of mutual cooperation and collective
decision making is precisely the point. Much more so than a laundry list
of demands that may still emerge. Imagine if every community across the
city, nation, and world, held nightly or weekly “general assemblies” to
decide what they wanted. We would no doubt see an increased sense of
cooperation and a greater level of participation in the decisions that
affect our lives.

Currently, we relegate most of the important decision making to the
political and economic elite. Think about who most effects policy
decisions. Is it you? Mostly not. So Occupy Wall Street isn’t about
affecting policy decisions, but about challenging who makes those
decisions. The beginning of that challenge involves creating small
encampments in which a more directly democratic process of decision making
and mutual cooperation can be practiced. This is direct action. This is
“what democracy looks like.”

Last night while waiting in line for some really tasty homemade food, I
was getting cold. I turned to a friend and said I was thinking of going
across the street to buy a cheap sweatshirt. Reminding me of where I was,
she suggested I go over to the “comfort committee” and ask to borrow one.
In a few minutes I returned wearing a new hooded sweatshirt, much warmer,
with no money exchanged and rethinking business as usual. Imagine the
possibilities…"

Occupy Wall Street #2: Come see Big Mark at the Red Thing

Disclosure:
I am geographically and otherwise unable to attend/visit/participate in the New York occupation. My thoughts and perhaps criticisms are coming from a sympathetic non-activist receiving information via relatively vanilla sources on the internet. I may be a bellwether of what similar people are perceiving outside the bubble of Liberty Plaza and/or indymedia sources.

My friend Sophie in New York sent me this:

"Went down to occupy wall st today for the first time to join some folks in a theater of the oppressed workshop.

Before going down there, I was listening to the news, then starting to read articles, then starting to read the twitterverse and watch the live feed, listen to friends' accounts. But then I started reading the meeting minutes. And that's what really impressed me.

http://nycga.cc/2011/09/30/general-assembly-minutes-930-7pm/#more-825

It seems radically functional."

I read them too, and I agree. They are evidence of a well-organized, human, instant, participatory democracy. There are teams for Internet, Facilitation, Legal, Translation, Direct Action, Security, Finance, Sanitation, Outreach among others. A new account at a credit union, at least $20,000 in donations and evidence that every effort will be made to manage those funds transparently and efficiently. Consensus decision-making. A serious endeavor that includes the whole person.

Regarding the whole person--

"We are translating our materials into as many languages as possible, If you would like to help us do this, we meet at the red thing after the general assembly."

"Matthew – I’m gonna be here tomorrow morning at 9am to do 99 sun salutations everyone is welcome all you need is your body"

"QUICK ANNOUNCEMENT FROM SECURITY – AYNONE SMOING HERB OR DRINKING IS NOT SECURITY. SECURITY IS ABOUT PROTECTING EQUIPMENT NOT POLICING THE COMMUNITY> KEEP AN EYE ON COMMUNITY.. ANY PROBLEMS COME SEE ME OR BIG MARK"