I’m starting a new series at The Road and it commenceth here.
I’m a big, big fan of protest songs as a genre. Even if I don’t agree with the sentiment of a particular tune, I love that music can be a powerful conveyor of ideas, and can still fulfill one of art’s greatest functions: criticism and questioning of the prevailing culture’s values and actions. Over the next few weeks (or months…we’ll see), I’d like to share some fine examples of songs of protest. I’ll try to give some background on the situation the artist was addressing when he/she penned the lyrics and then try to point out why I think the song is still relevant and even applicable to our current circumstances. (This is, I believe, a hallmark of a truly great protest song: that it transcends the time and place and situations in which it was written by capturing an idea that is somehow universal.) Feel free to chime in with your agreement and hearty amens…okay, and also any dissenting views. Please be aware that I have a smidgen of a left-leaning bias, and know that I’ll try not to get too soap-boxy. (Who am I kidding? No, really. I’ll try.)
Our first entry in the Wonderful World of Protest Songs comes to us from a friendly — yet occasionally critical — neighbor to the north, Bruce Cockburn (pronounced KO-burn). Cockburn became a devout Christian early in his career, and his beliefs have had a profound influence on both his songwriting and his activism, even as his fanbase remains largely outside the “Christian ghetto.” In 1983, he spent time in refugee camps in Mexico for the hundred-thousand Guatemalans who had fled the civil war, and was so impacted by his experience that he wrote the lyrics to “If I Had a Rocket Launcher,” a protest song that explores the impulse to retaliatory violence (which inevitably leads to still more violence, in a never-ending cycle of death and destruction).
Here comes the helicopter — second time today
Everybody scatters and hopes it goes away
How many kids they’ve murdered…only God can say
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
I’d make somebody pay.
I don’t believe in guarded borders and I don’t believe in hate
I don’t believe in generals or their stinking torture states
But when I talk with the survivors of things too sickening to relate
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
I would retaliate.
On the Rio Lacantun one hundred thousand wait
To fall down from starvation — or some less humane fate.
Cry for Guatemala, with a corpse at every gate
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
I would not hesitate.
I want to raise every voice — at least I’ve got to try.
Every time I think about it, water rises to my eyes.
Situation desperate echoes of the victims cry
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
If I had a rocket launcher
Some sonofabitch would die.
The first time I heard this gut-crunching song three years ago, the insurgency in Iraq was just revving up. I saw clips on the news of mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, sons, daughters combing the streets of Baghdad, filled with rage and helplessness that their kids, spouses, parents had been taken from them. And then I remembered the horrible days following September 11, seeing clips of mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, sons, daughters combing the streets of Manhattan, filled with rage and helplessness that their kids, spouses, parents had been taken from them. Cockburn’s song captures the futile — yet seemingly inescapable — human compunction to avenge, and laments (even though he doesn’t come right out and say it) no end in sight.
[After writing this whole thing, I suddenly realize this series may be depression-inducing for some sensitive souls. Oops. Sorry. I guess protest songs aren't, as a rule, terribly happy-clappy...unless they're written by Woodie Guthrie. Maybe I'll get voted off the island for thinking this was a good idea.]
Next week: “The Arrangement” from Joni Mitchell’s album The Ladies of the Canyon.
Aly! I’d never vote you off and this whole things rocks! Makes me feel old too…I first heard this song over 10 years ago (ok, 15. I’m ooooold.) when I became a B.C. fan during college. “All the Diamonds” is still my favorite song of all time and the instrumental piece on that same tape…er, I mean, cd, was the only thing that would make my older son stop crying when he was a tiny babe. Looking forward to reading the rest of the protest song posts.
Mostly, I’ve always protested protest songs.
I promise to take them more seriously as soon as I hear one that doesn’t support the left.
Funny… I’ve never heard one that protested Castro’s violence and repression. Or the Sandinistan Nicaragua. Or the Vietnamese murder of millions after the USA bugged out. Or Chinese oppression/repression. How about you?
How about a song that protests Islamic violence, without equivocation?
Lemme know if you find one. Lemme know which major record company promoted it.
In the meantime, pardon me if I consider the protest song to be mostly a tool of the posturing left, and yawn.
Unless, of course, you consider Ballad of the Green Berets to be a protest song?
Seriously, I’ve never heard a protest song that wasn’t basically left and anti-USA. Know of one? If so, could you put it in an upcoming post?
So… since Phil has decided to declare Jihad on this thread… and only two posts in, I will respond in turn.
The reason you never hear protest songs from the right is because they suck unholy ass at it.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4973527086470253363
You show me a well written right wing protest song and I’ll promote it myself.
This has always been my favorite fiscally conservative protest song:
“Taxed to the Max”, Tower of Power
Not to mention that 2 minutes and 30 seconds in, it has one of my favorite horn lines ever.
Yes, I have to admit that besides Tower of Power, the left has way better music. That may be the appeal for me.
So Phil…can I expect that you’ll protest this series so vehemently every week purely on principle, or is there a chance you might engage with the ideas? If my suspicion that perpetuating a cycle of violence isn’t high on the right’s agenda is correct, there might be something you could add to a conversation about how to circumvent one. Or is “cycle of violence” a fictional concept the left came up with to distract us from the real business of the day? C’mon. Work with me here. I didn’t even make value judgements about the war in Iraq. (Unless you count mourning the innocent dead, but I did the same for the victims of 9/11, so it balances out. Fair and balanced. That’s me.)
June, B.C. is the shizniggety. I could listen to his album Dart to the Heart on repeat for 3 days straight.
Chad - You’re on probation for linking to that video. I almost yarked in my syrah.
It ties in loosely, but yesterday in the green room during the message (a snapshot of my faith) I read a couple of great articles with Clint Eastwood about his 2-movie perspective of Iwo Jima. He made movies from both the US and Japanese points of view. I appreciated his thoughts on war. Nothing too profound, and probly a borrowed quote, but he said we seem to be at our most creative when we’re going to war with each other and that war is the portrait of human futility.
Good topic, Al.
Bruce Cockburn’s a Christian? Huh…
Cerise
Where’s the love? I’ve been saving that link for a rainy day for months now!
Chad, from an ironic standpoint, you’re right, it’s pure gold. But it’s total shit and I actually had to watch it from beginning to end to make sure it wasn’t some sort of sick joke.
Hey, speaking of right-wing protest songs, what about that one Toby Keith wrote - Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (Angry American) ?
That’s a crap one, too. It’s not really a protest, though. More of a testament to the worst bits of American culture, with drama.
[chuckling] Jihad. I like that.
Cerise
We had a Tower or Power song playing during the reception line time at our wedding. In the sanctuary.
(Just trying to maintain my status as She Who Has Nothing Smart/Insightful But Only Self-Absorbed Drivel To Add To The Conversation status.)
Yeah…if I had a name like Cockburn, I’d pronounce it “KO-burn”, too!
(I’m the first official member of June’s club.)
By the way, Brucey isn’t a stranger around here.
Aly, you’ll be happy to know that you are one of my strong female role models, right up there with my mom and Erica. Vote YOU off the island? I’ll snuff out my own torch first.
Chad, I watched that video about halfway through before I felt my lunch coming up. Strangely, it invoked the memory of Neal Stark singing “God Bless the USA” (”I’m proud to be an Ah-meer-ee-can, where at least I know I’m free…”) at the “Pirates of Penzance” audition.
That reference will mean nothing to anyone who’s not Chad, Matt, or myself.
Dude! Bruce posted on AR?!!!! I’m never going to wash my computer.
Goodnight Gurdy. Just went to Chad’s link. Did anyone make it all the way through? I couldn’t even bear to stay for half…
Oh… I’ve watched it several times. But I’m masochistic like that.
I watched the whole darn thing. My favorite part was the second verse in which people were chastized for “forgetting His word,” sung over shots of people burning flags. Um…what? Did I miss the 11th commandment, “Thou shalt ban the burning of the flag of the United States of America, even though a ban violates the very freedoms for which it stands”? Apparently I need to read “His word” a bit more often.
BTW, Carrie - Thanks!
I think my favorite is the image of the 9/11 rubble, the eagle, and Jesus’ hands. Talk about mixing metaphors…
June, you are funny. You are all funny.
Aly, or anyone, in school it came up that Woodie Guthrie wrote “This Land is Your Land” because he did not like “God Bless America” sung by Kate Smith. The kids wanted to know what SPECIFICALLY he didn’t like about “God Bless America”, and I didn’t know and couldn’t find the answer anywhere. So I did what any good teacher would do… pretended that I knew the answer but would not tell them as if I was promoting critical thinking skills, and made them come up with possible reasons. You know, a B.S. teaching strategy.
So if anyone knows, you can say it now.
It was the “God Bless” part.
I am still waiting for an answer to this:
“I’ve never heard one that protested Castro’s violence and repression. Or the Sandinistan Nicaragua. Or the Vietnamese murder of millions after the USA bugged out. Or Chinese oppression/repression. How about you?
How about a song that protests Islamic violence, without equivocation?
Lemme know if you find one. Lemme know which major record company promoted it.”
Did someone think they gave one?
Consider it a challenge.
hey Mike… I’m willing to bet that if you asked twenty “popular music experts” to list 50 protest songs, none would list “Taxed to the Max”. Feel free to disagree…
BTW… Cerise may be on the “right” track (rolling eyes allowed here) with suggesting we look to “country” music. But here’s the deal: protest songs always seem angry. Country tunes almost never do, regardless of topic… there’s just something inherently good-natured about the cultural context… maybe that it doesn’t take itself quite so seriously?
What makes somebody with a guitar and a recording contract think they have something interesting and important to say that we just all need to hear?
Their agent. Their publicist. Their label. Their groupies. Their sheer, ingnorant arrogance.
Oh, and I almost forgot…. their hairdresser.
Aly, I thought you wanted to talk about protest songs in general… and just thought I’d stick in my two cents about the genre.
Aly… have you actually invited lil’ ‘ole me to talk politics?
If you actually want to talk about the, ahem, topic of the song you gave:
Death and destruction WILL go on, somewhere, till Jesus comes back.
But wars can be won, on a “local” basis, and often are, though the cost is always high, by definition. There has BEEN war in the USA, but not lately. The south did not rise again. Some wars are won, period.
There may be new wars in the USA… but they will not be mere continuation of the old ones, and will not represent a neverending cycle, other than the human condition.
The neverending cycle thing…. that’s for when neither side works up the nerve to actually win. (You may have been taught that WW II was a continuation of an imperfect settlement of WW I. Not so. We discuss this in detail if you want.)
The French and the English aren’t still fighting… except over who owns the Chunnel. The defeat of Napoleon was the last time, I think. It was not the “settlement and negotiation with Napoleon”.
Just for a putative future example: When Iran nukes Israel a couple of times, what’s left of the Israeli military will nuke Teheran, maybe a couple other places.
But Israel will be dead, and uninhabitable, while Iran will still be a going concern as a nation state, though hurt.
That should end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict pretty permanently, don’t you think?
I wonder what Islamic terrorists and their nation-state sponsors will use as an excuse to continue to murder, then. But it won’t be a “cycle” of violence, because their enemy will be dead. Of course… there’s always US. ;-)
Maybe I should write a song to protest the religion of pieces.
Mike, I get that part. I couldn’t find anything more in-depth.
Oh My, Oh My…
I actually wrote: “ingnorant arrogance”.
What I meant was “ignorant arrogants”… OK?
So Mike… does wordpress have a spell checker somewhere?
Chad… songster that you are… I hereby challenge you to WRITE one and produce it.
Or do you simply agree with me that the genre belongs to the left and that’s that?
Phil- an angry country song: “Earl Must Die” by the Dixie Chicks
Are you always this argumentative?
Oh, no, only when it isn’t Feb 29.
Lemme go check the calendar….
Yep, this is one of the argumentative days.
There will, of course, be exceptions to every observation or generalization that anyone can make… finite is us.
I still think most country is good natured, and not a natural home for protest.
Of course, since the chicks are lefties, anger just runs in their blood….
Gah! I just wrote a super long comment and it effing disappeared! It’s a right-wing conspiracy!
What makes somebody with a guitar and a recording contract think they have something interesting and important to say that we just all need to hear?
Their agent. Their publicist. Their label. Their groupies. Their sheer, ingnorant arrogance.
As much as I want to join in the fun, jaded cynicism about the music industry, are you really saying that the minute an artist gets some attention, he/she checks his/her brain and heart at the door? Really? Has success in your industry lobotomized your convictions? I didn’t think so. The fact that our friend Mr. Cockburn hasn’t had a Top 40 hit in 17 years, yet he keeps churning out these [well-crafted] protest songs, makes me suspect that he writes out of conviction, not a need to please the unwashed masses.
What else did I say before my comment was so mercilessly disappeared? Oh yeah…
I think the majority of protest songs are written within a given culture to question that culture’s values and actions. (This Cockburn song, oddly, is an exception…see below.) This means that the songs we’re most familiar with address ourculture, challenging us to constantly rethink our assumptions and sacred cows. This dynamic works because the writer has an understanding of the inner workings of us: our hopes and dreams and flaws and shortcomings. Writing about the flaws and shortcomings in another culture doesn’t work quite as well, because the writer doesn’t have an insider’s understanding, and any attempt can easily devolve into name-calling. (Speaking of which: “religion of pieces”? Get a smugness check-up.)
There are exceptions, of course, this being one of them. It’s also a terrific example of a protest song that isn’t anti-U.S. In point of fact, it doesn’t have anything to do with the U.S., so I gladly submit it in answer to your challenge. It was written in criticism of the totalitarian Guatemalan government, which was bombing 100,000 of its own citizens in Mexico after they had fled the civil war.
As to your thoughts about the inevitability of violence…dude, I just don’t get you. In the first place, claiming that mayhem and murder are inevitable until Christ’s return seems greatly at odds with your passion to stop abortion. Just because it’s inevitable doesn’t mean we don’t have a mandate to stop it. In the second place, the notion that wars can be won “locally” strikes me as quaintly 20th century. We keep hearing that the “War on Terror” is different from any war that’s ever been fought, and it’s true. We are not fighting a localized enemy, and expecting outcomes from now-defunct precedence is no longer in the realm of realistic. If anything, the conditions for a “cycle of violence” are ever more present…witness the recent report from U.S. spy agencies that suggests the war in Iraq has contributed to an escalation in global terrorism. The old rules no longer apply. And it’s my strong belief that since this is the case, peace can no longer be the indulgent hobby of rich white hippie kids while the responsible adults get down to the business of protecting the world. Peacemaking is the business of protecting the world.
Aly, it’s not about convictions, it’s about credibility.
Musicians are no more likely to have that in the arenas of common “protest music” than anyone else. They simply have a platform.
Didn’t say the musicians necessarily are jaded/sold out themselves. But I absolutely guarantee you that 99.9% of the people who bring them to market and stroke their egos ARE. The poor song writer singers have to think they matter oh so enormously in order to work up the nerve to get on stage.
I agree: protest songs are written within a culture TO the culture. So, I repeat: why hasn’t anyone here named a protest song written TO our media/entertainment culture that lionized Castro, Che, Mao, Ho, the Sandinistas, etc., coldest blooded of murderers all? You know.
And: I really, really doubt the “insider’s knowedge” held by most of those who protest this and that. You only get insider’s knowledge of the things they malign by studying, not by just living here.
I didn’t say, as you seem to imply, that we should do nothing to end violence. I simply observed that the most complete and practical way of ending violence seems to be for the good guys to WIN a violent conflict.
Maybe you don’t believe in good guys who use necessary violence, so this rings false to you.
From my point of view, “cycle of violence” arguments usually devolve from moral equivalence arguments about both sides of a given conflict. But there are better and worse players in most conflicts (though not all, certainly), and the moral equivalency/cycle of violence perspective is an easy way to avoid the hard work of making judgments and taking sides. And make no mistake: we DO take sides by not actively pursuing a victory on the part of the lesser of the evils.
“The old rules no longer apply.” Guerrilla war is not new. Speak to General Cornwallis, when you see him next. It is a media fiction that we can’t find our enemies and defeat them. The truth: it will take yet more will on the part of the USA to actually stop the nation states that are supplying/training the terrorists. Without nation-state support, they will lose, and fast. BTW… it was specifically nation-state support from OUTSIDE Guatemala that kept that conflict alive, and led to so many more deaths. The USA would never have been involved in any way without the Soviet attempts to affect the government first.
Ain’t cold war just a barrel of laughs?
I see you saw a news report with the Cliff’s notes version of the recent intelligence report. It was widely misquoted, and misrepresented. I haven’t read all of it… but I looked at enough to see the distortions in the reporting. There is a strong case to be made that jihadists who would have gone elsewhere have gone to Iraq. Is that bad? Now if we can get up the nerve to really block iran and Syria from arming/funding them…. and we’ll have something. Gonna take awhile, though.
Life is messy. Wish it wasn’t.
Here’s a relevant book on this:
http://www.amazon.com/Shut-Sing-Hollywood-Politics-Subverting/dp/0895260816/sr=8-1/qid=1161068631/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-3918789-2834306?ie=UTF8
I actually already wrote a protest song, produced it, and am selling it.
Here are the lyrics:
We flipped the switch
We spun the wheel
The price was right
So we made a deal
And we happen to be between the ages of 18 and 49
So we started to think that we might be the most important people alive
Ratings are in
We’re through the roof
Tune in at eight
And you’ll see the proof
So just sit back and choose your throne
You can watch yourself… watching yourself… watch yourself
And it only took fifty short years to sell our innocence
Conviently metered out in thirty second increments
And the channels just go higher
And the bandwidth just gets widers
And all the colors look much brighter when you curtain off the sun
And the features just get deeper
And the parts keep getting cheaper
And it’s massed produced, so you don’t have to share with anyone
And we’ll show you the homes of the kings and the queens
And we’ll sell you their makeup and workout routines
And if you should get bored with that face on the screen
We can shoot ‘em down in flames just in time for May sweeps
So when you’re reaching and dying for something that’s real
We’ve got salesmen and actors who know how you feel
So as long as you listen and as long as you watch
You can keep them around and pretend that you’ve got a life
So raid the fridge
Just don’t unplug
Can’t do without
Our favorite drug
Now,
If you were hoping for something a little more aligned with the traditional right wing worldview, forget it. I am officially protesting Republicans, as I feel like a dupe for voting for W twice… and also I like cool music. I am also officially protesting Democrats, as I feel that they are fairly well aquiainted with the appearance of their own colons, what with their heads stuck up there for so long.
I’m gonna stand squarely in the middle, and protest the idiocy I see on both sides. I am not buying what they’re selling. Until the Christian Right decides that it’s going to be serious about actually living out the teachings of Christ, I’m not interested. Until the secular (and yes… Christian) left gets serious about the idea that there ARE lines that shoudln’t be crossed, and that God HAS put up boundaries, I’m not interested.
I’m not surrendering jack s**t to anyone.
“Unplug” totally rocks. It also makes me feel incredibly guilty every time I hear it. Great song Chad.
That’s sweet…
For the record… the song is meant to stimulate thought… rather then be a condemnation of all things media.
Uh… Chad… (very quietly)… without that media culture you’re bagging on in the tune… you have no market.
The tools you produced it with wouldn’t exist, because no one would have found it commercially feasible to invest the development time.
We wouldn’t be having this conversation here, now.
I suppose you could sing it to your church youth with your acoustic guitar.
Knowing you, I’ll bet the music is really cool… can you send me a link?
“Unplug” is my favorite song on the record - and I like all of ‘em. When it sticks in my head, I totally don’t mind, and that’s pretty much the greatest compliment a song can get.
Uh, Phil - [very quietly, with menace] - he knows, OK?
Somebody muzzle the troll before Mama gets angry.
Cerise
Phil, I think this may be one of those times when we’ll just have to agree to disagree. I think protest songs provide a valuable service — they challenge us to think and rethink our confidence that we are the good guys, which in my view is the only way we can ensure that we are. ‘Cause even though it might be shocking and hard to wrap our brains around it, the bad guys think they’re the good guys. “The villain is the hero of his own story.” The minute we assume we’re always on the right side of justice — that we’re always the “lesser of evils” — just because we’re Americans, or because we’re Christians, or because we’re Democrats or Republicans, that is the minute we become monsters. Wanting to make sure we’re not monsters is not the same thing as avoiding the hard work of making judgements and choosing sides (and it’s difficult for me not to take personal offense at this suggestion, but I’ll manage).
It may be true that a practical way of ending violence is for the good guys to win, but the good guys better make damn sure the bad guys don’t have a point.
The Family Witt is opening presents Christmas morning and then quickly running over to Disneyland to check into the D-Land Hotel for a micro-Disney-vacation. We’re all really excited.
smooth transition Corey. totally didn’t see the subject change coming…
someone had to do it.
Can’t disagree with your perspectives on self-examination and some level of humility in self-assessment, Aly.
You mentioned smugness. (Aly… how COULD you? sniff… sounds of blowing nose).
The smugness of the lefty song writers who think they’re the only moral ones who want justice is pretty pronounced. I see very little of the self-examination you just mentioned in most of what I’ve heard.
A protest song that protested the anti-War leftists who prompted the American abandonment of Vietnam to Ho Chi Minh (resulting in millions of deaths AFTER we stopped supporting the south) would be evidence of such self-examination.
But there ain’t one… that I know of, anyway.
Instead: there are lots of gleeful ex-hippies who are proud of what they did. And would do it again. And are trying to do it again. They just wear suits now.
From the wiki articile on the war:
“In December 1974, the Democrat majority in Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act of 1974, which cut off all military funding to the South Vietnamese government and made unenforceable the peace terms negotiated by Nixon. Nixon, threatened with impeachment because of the Watergate scandal, had resigned his office. His vice president stepped in to finish his term. The new President Ford vetoed the legislation passed by Congress, but his veto was overridden by the Democrats.
By 1975, the South Vietnamese Army stood alone against the well-organized, highly determined, and foreign-funded North Vietnamese. ”
Note that “foreign funded” part.
This deserved a protest then. It certainly deserves one now, in retrospect.
Still waiting.
Disneyland? Really Corey? How exciting! Has Elle ever been before?
Dude, we went to Disneyland last October (first time for me) - before going up to Ventura and meeting many of you good people - and loved it. We HATED the surrounding area, though. Anaheim blows. Next time we’re booking for a whole week instead of two days and staying in one of those super-expensive hotels inside the park.
Our favorite ride by far was Space Mountain.
Cerise
Yup, it wasn’t just a subject change. We have some family friends who are like surrogate grandparents to our kids. My good friend and his wife (their actual kids) are going to Peru/Machu Piccu for Christmas so they wanted to do something. Lucky for us, “something” means “find a family of five and put them up at one of the super-expensive hotels in Disney proper and make a couple of days out of the happiest place on earth”.
Ellie has been quite a few times because my real dad sent us some money over the summer that we put towards the cheapest season passes we could find, so we go for an hour or two every couple of weeks after school. Ellie loves the live music and outrageously priced comestibles by Tomorrowland. Since daddy doesn’t jive with rollercoasters, Ellie and Daddy get to rock out to 80’s tunes from a great live band. There’s not much better than listening to The Cars’ “You’re Just What I Needed” and seeing Ellie-Belle dancing with Pluto. Good times.
I eat Honey Nut Cherrios with additional honey.
doesn’t that make them soggy faster?
I could not possibly feel any smaller right now. Thanks, guys.
E3 F3 G3 E4 C4 D4 C4 C4 B3 B3
D3 E3 F3 D4 B3 C4 B3 A3 G3 G3
E3 F3 G3 C4 D4 E4 D4 C4 A3 D4 E4 F4 E4 D4 G3 F4 E4 D4 C4
Whoooooaaaa. Whoa whoa whoa.
Al, I thought the Disneyland thing was a filibuster against Harmonicminer, so I joined in - better than putting my hands over my ears and saying “La, la, laaaaa”, right? Sorry - didn’t mean to filibuster you, too. Or your excellent topic.
All right - growing up now. Time to engage. But I’m not engaging Phil.
Cerise
Here’s the joke.
Being more or less new to the protest song as a genre (except I have “Everybody Must Get Stoned” memorized, of course), and to political studies as a school of thought, I’m intrigued by the fact that, as Aly said, protest songs and protests in general are thought to be, ideally, one form of self-examination within a nation. Bush is an American, so are the World Can’t Wait people calling for his impeachment - therefore, the WCW protests are an American form of self-examination, which makes protests and protest songs extremely healthy for a country to engage in. Right? It’s when the protesters and the governing body are seen as two different sides of a battle that the message of protest seems to lose its usefulness, at least as far as a tool to get the “other side” thinking. The other side just brushes it off as useless rabble-rousing.
What bothers me in politics is the absolute dearth, it seems, of self-examination on the part of the Presidential branch of the government. I know that having a three-branched government is supposed to take care of that - if the President and their Cabinet won’t examine themselves once in a while, you can bet your booties that Congress and the Supreme Court will raise some hairy questions to the light - but it seems like in the government of today, at least, that there’s an awful lot of doing going on and not much evidence of thinking. I’m not saying they’re not, but it’s obvious that the President doesn’t want to be seen mish-moshing around trying to come to a decision about anything when firm resolve is what’s needed. It doesn’t seem like most governments, once established, WANT to be questioned or to question themselves. They don’t want to be challenged - don’t want the status quo to be shaken or toppled. If that’s true, within an entity such as the U.S., then protest songs and protest-ERS are terribly necessary. What’s the other recourse? Voting? How are the opposing voices to the government in power supposed to be heard in order for the Democratic process to work? Campain ads? Gag me. Television debate? Change the bloody channel. Reading pundits online? Not when I’ve got Dooce to read. The art of Protest is the most visceral message that can be taken to the American public, I think.
Cerise
BTW, I got really excited on this topic until I realized y’all weren’t talking about Bruce Hornsby. THAT’s how ignorant of protest music I am.
Cerise
Als…
Sorry sweetie… I thought new random topics were pretty funny.
Sorry, guys…I was totally kidding. I think new random topics are pretty funny, too. And also a good reminder not to take myself so damn seriously.
And as to Cerise’s contribution to the original dialogue…what she said, what she said!
Oh, dear God. I have no sense of humor.
[slaps own face]
So, uh, Al, did you get my caring ‘What’s wrong?’ email?
Cerise
Potty-training tips anyone?
bribery
“External reward decreases internal motivation.”
-some educational philosopher with no actual children
Oh brother!!!! I know that always true in my own life… (philosopher shmilosopher!)
Try a skittle jar
I of course, have never tried this…yet. You may want advice from actual tried and true, “been there done that” folk of ADR.
I learned this from another mom:
If you are in the “in-between” phase, have the child wear underwear under the pull-up. Upon an accident, they get the discomfort (a naturally negative consequence) and you don’t have a mess (especially in public).
I’m sure this matters to everyone.
Gretchen, the really sad thing is I AM that folk! And yet still I ask…because even though I’ve done it once…let’s just say, every child is an individual. Siiiiiiigh.
Sharolyn, it should matter to everyone. Think of the kind of place this world would be if not for potty-training.
Ok, don’t. Gross. Sorry.
We tried this book with our first.
“Toilet Training in Less Than a Day”
http://www.amazon.com/Toilet-Training-Less-Than-Day/dp/0671693808/sr=8-1/qid=1161144805/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-3918789-2834306?ie=UTF8
Thereby demonstrating the utter futility of the written word to communicate complex processes…. and the utter gullibility of first time parents.
Save your money. You’ll need it to clean the carpet.
I eventually figured out that by playing “If I Had A Hammer”, she’d go every time.
Remarkably precocious child.
Aly, thank God you caved in. I typed and saved a LOOOOOOOOOONG response last night that was 3 parts defensive, 2 parts offensive, 4 parts whining, bleeding heart, and 1 part total Richard. New meaning to the word “cocktail”. If for a second, you weren’t actually kidding, I sincerely apologize.
June: we actually blocked out two weeks of our lives (Beth PT’d the boys and I PT’d Ellie) and did the “Crap Around The House” method. It’s where you give away 2 weeks of your life to focus on nothing other than your child’s excretory system. 2 weeks was what it took for each kid. RARELY an accident after that. Sleeping through the night is a different story. We went for months with Ellie trying to keep her dry.
I forgot to mention that the C.A.T.H. method involves the child being sans-britches and the parent literally running him off to the commode when he thinks nature might be dialing.
I could likely commission my daughter to write a protest song about toilet training. Like her bra-burning sisters of the past, she would burn her Dora undies while chanting, “Pampers Size Five! Pampers Size Five!”
Sharolyn, that is perhaps the funniest thing I’ve ever read on the Road!!! (To just me I’m sure.) “Huggies Size Five” is the melodious mantra around these parts. (If you’d call screeching and whining and fit-throwing melodious.)
Corey…I……just………ca…n…’t……buuuring myself to do that. Yet. I’m so impressed that you and Beth did. Again I say, you both should be wearing capes.
Aly, if I had even a remanant of mental ability to join in the conversation (emergent alert!) I would. As it is, I’m holding my nose in the pee-filled, altogether too warm kiddie pool while you and Phil play Olympic water polo in the big pool. Sorry. Such is the blog-world: lame brains get to cut in on the honor society.
Phil, I disregarded that book and method based on the title alone. I guess I’m a pessimist.
Sharolyn asked me to post this…Camille’s Big Month!
All right Camille!! Gold stars all around. I’m buyin’.
Cerise
Green with envy I am.
No, June! You get a gold star, too! OK? No, don’t cry, sweetie, shhhhhh…
Oh, that’s not what you…sorry.
Cerise
June, don’t feel bad. She got the starts for SITTING on the potty throughout the day, but only about half the time did she GO! :)
So, protest songs.
Since I am a monogamous blogger, I don’t know blog ettiquite. Is it tacky when the topic changes like this, or is free form the point of blogging?
I admire everyone who blogs, but today I specifically affirm Mike for posting Tower of Power, and June for making it a part of her wedding! Super cool.
Sharolyn - I don’t think it’s generally considered good form on other blogs to change topics abruptly as the whim takes you…but “generally” and “Addison Road” don’t often appear in the same sentence, so you’re good to go for any Tower of Power or Power Puff Girls or Girls Gone Wild or Wild Wild West or West Wing or Wings of Desire comments you’d like to make. Go crazy. Free-form IS the rule.
Besides, anyone feeling particularly tenacious about a subject can usually yank it back around.
Nice free form of thought there Aly. That was cool. Tower of Power to Wings of Desire. Nice.
When Chad was 2 1/2, he was eligible to start pre-school 3 mornings a week IF IF IF IF he was toilet proficient. And here was the brilliant technique developed by a desperately tired mother of a two-year-old and a newborn: “Chad, if you wet your pants today I’m going to beat the crap out of you, too. Do you understand me, son?” Bright kid that he was, he never wet his pants again (yeah, sure, there’s still that weird tic…) This is not exactly a technique you can easily get approval for publication, ya know?
Teri, when is your book coming out? “The Technically Not Illegal Guide To Just Barely Not Screwing Up Your Kids For Life.” I know an editor and a publisher, if you need some names.
I think we already publish that book.
I know I should get more out of everything else on the blog, but honestly, the potty-training discussion has had me laughing, crying and thinking just as much as anything here! (Sad, sad commentary on my life.) Yesterday it occurred to me that I might have success in the potty realm if I combined my two-year-old’s love of computer games with going pee-pee. So, the new rule around here is: If you’re going to play computer games on mommy’s laptop, you have to be sitting on the potty at the same time. Scoff if you must, but yesterday we had two successful moments!
(Potty-training discussions are perhaps one of the best forms of birth-control for those who have not joined the parenting realm, yes? Another good method: take a stroll through your local church’s children’s wing on a busy Sunday morning. If you’re able to hear your own thoughts above the din, they may be telling you ‘You’re not ready for this! You’re not ready for this!…’)
Grammy is my hero.