Neil Young: Principled musician or Weather Vane?

[katty]

more:http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/4/17/18431/1203

Neil Young: Principled musician or Weather Vane?
by Ptolemy
Mon Apr 17, 2006 at 03:43:01 PM PDT

I'm pretty closed minded for a liberal. That's probably because I'm more libertarian than I am liberal. I believe in social networks as the functional natural state of humans, rather than the moral imperative of enlightened beings. This leads to a nagging feeling that the political or personal lack of empathy is a mental defect; the "mirror neurons" don't work so well in unempathetic people, I suspect (look up mirror neurons on Google for a brief lesson).

Anyway, people like Neil Young and Arianna Huffington baffle small minded individuals such as myself. How do you go from conservative to liberal ... or in Young's case, from protesting Kent State to endorsing the Patriot Act to calling for Bush's impeachment? Either we're all connected, or we aren't. Either freedom is a concept shared and defended among a group, or it's a material object for sale.

More below the fold ...

Ptolemy's diary :: ::
Has Huffington ever explained her conversion? Not the "I hung out with Al Franken and he changed my mind," song and dance, but REALLY explained what she ever saw in Newt in the first place. Was it all about corruption? Was she really that naive? Were we, way back in 1994?

As for Young, protesting Vietnam and Kent State ... how do you reconcile the beliefs and concepts and assumptions behind that with endorsing the Iraq War and the Patriot Act. They are opposites. And then to come back again? Did his world assumptions go on holiday? Did he REALLY get blinded by 9/11/01? Or is he just selling records rather than buying ideas?

One can look to Chris Hitchens as well. For the love of God, if you believe Henry Kissinger to be the Anti-Christ ... if you STILL believe him to be the personification of all that is evil about "Straussian Realism," how can you parrot every one of his justifications for the Iraq War WHILE still regarding Straussian thought as an abomination.
He may say that he's getting to the same conclusion on Iraq by different means, but he's GIVING US THE STRAUSSIAN JUSTIFICATION when asked what his line of thought now is.

[elehhhhna]

1. honest emotional wiseman

[EVDebs]

2. His song will hit Like A Hurricane ! eom

[Warpy]

3. Answer: Tax Cuts

A lot of principles were sacrificed and a lot of empathy was suppressed by people who were wealthy enough to get those tax cuts that the GOP has been handing out for 26 years.

However, this guy has jumped the shark and screwed the pooch on the other side of it. He's queered the deal for the rich, just like Ronniepoo queered the deal for working people. Plus, considering how he's abused the National Guard, it's getting harder and harder to find anyone who doesn't know a person who's been sent to Iraq, often for more than one tour. People are angry at the idiocy that started this war and the bungling that keeps us there.

That's why people look like they're getting whiplash from all the outlooks they've had to change.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

4. Neil Young: Human

Brilliant, flawed, founder of The Bridge School (with his wife Pegi), self-absorbed prick...He's ALL OF THOSE GUYS.

Neil's been one of my heroes and major influences since my teenage years.

The spin on the book "Shakey" is that while it is written by an insider, and while it seems to be based on truth, Neil got cold feet as the process went on and abruptly shut off all access (that's why the book flows chronologically and immediately stops on a dime).

He's helped a lot of people and royally screwed over a few too.

When all is said and done I respect his art, I respect his accomplishments, and I choose not to judge his personal life or beliefs.

How do you go from protesting Kent State to endorsing the Patriot Act to calling for Bush's impeachment?

If you're Neil Young, you do it over a period of time. For five minutes, when I saw George W. Bush stand on the post-9/11 shit heap with that bull horn, I BOUGHT INTO IT.

You heard me. I thought the man had redeemed himself. So did my family and many of my friends. We were wrong, but we didn't stay wrong.

:patriot:

[katty]

6. knew the bush family history BEFORE W was appointed-I could

never buy the bush (mangled)lines...the night of the election 'grab' - all I could hear was old song lyrics...."I see a bad moon rising"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

10. I was apolitical until I read Al Franken's "Lies"...

Every once in a while we have "When did you first become a DU member" threads. My story is basically that I bought Al's "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them"...ONLY because O'Reilly made so much noise that it piqued my curiosity (as it did for many) and when I realized that I DID NOT KNOW who Karl Rove was, I felt naive and uneducated.

So I started Googling the cast of characters found in "Lies," and on that journey I stumbled across DU.

The rest is history. I know that there are some DUers who will read this and say "I wish he'd never bought that Franken book."

And to them I say "I'm here, I'm severe, get used to it."

:evilgrin:

:patriot:

[Joe Fields]

5. Whatever made you think he was infallible?

A lot of people initially were for the patriot act, only to find out they'd been sold down the river.

Give Neil a break, will you? He's about as real as they come!

[onenote]

7. let's condemn everyone who ever supported chimpy forever

That's a great strategy for regaining control of the government.

:sarcasm:


onenote

[pretzel4gore]

8. young was a reagan supporter

hell, so was randi rhodes. reagan was 'govner' of calif during the late 60's early 70's, when neil young was singing about '4 dead in ohio' , yet suddenly reagan was speaking for the common man?
i dislike neil young's music (i love Alice Cooper though, and Alice golfed with bob hope, reagan etc, and that's never affected my being a fan, Alice just seemed more or less dense, as if his politics followed his money, as if he never really thought about it)...neil young otoh was part of the counter culture; he knew that the war in vietnam was a crock, and that jfk/rfk/mlk/malcom x etc were murdered by same type of men who supported reagan-yet he sang reagan's praises when the reagan presidential bandwagon really needed support!
i don't understand it...

[Neil Lisst]

9. hey hey my my. I can sing REAL high.

Ptolemy is your garden variety hand wringer, and now he's wailing about the bona fides of Bush's critics.

He's spent too much time contemplating his navel.

It reminds me of the sports fans who are always complaining about "the bandwagon fans." Waaaahhhhhhhhhhh!

[saltpoint]

11. I'd say Neil Young is a presence sometimes intimately with, & other times

times farther removed from, whatever's going on.

Iconoclastic, mercurial, and unpredictable, granted. But I want to hear every note he plays and sings.

Despite the contradictions in some people, their threshold interest point is dramatic and makes for a lot of memorable stuff.

"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes." (Walt Whitman)

[Iblis]

12. Neil Young: Just a man.

Any piece that starts with "I'm close minded", is heading for trouble with me from the get-go.

No one, apparently, can change their mind ever.

I don't remember Ol' Neil having anything to do with Reagan, but I remember him blasting Bush the First on "Freedom". Sure, there's "Let's Roll", but I think that was more about the ordinary people standing up and getting involved than any endorsement of BushCo et al. If you listen to Greendale, you'll see that Neil knows what's going on, and isn't too happy about it.

As I said on the other thread, I'm just looking forward to more rocking: power trio+trumpet and a 100-voice choir? Protest folk metal? Sign me up!!! :-)


L
EDIT: Reading the full piece, I have to mention that the word "assumptions" sets off alarm bells as well. What did they say about "assume"?

[jedr]

17. To expand a bit on some of your thoughts;

Why do pop culture icons need to be politically relevant? I shed a tear when I listen to "Needle and the damage done" but could care less about Young's politics. He's not a spokesman for any political movement,but a musician selling his wares. I'm very liberal ,but wouldn't stay in the same room with Jane Fonda. To a certain extent I feel the same as many Conservatives, Let the hollywood types keep their politics to themselves on both sides of the issues. This may be a nice topic to chat about , but is about as relevant as what my postman's politics may be.

[devilgrrl]

13. He's a bag of hot wind!

While I agree with Mr. Young's opinion toward the pResident, I personally think he's one of the most over-rated artists ever and couldn't give a rat's ass what that prickly old bastard thinks about anything. With Lynyrd Skynyrd on this one.

[Joe Fields]

14. You are entitled to your opinion, no matter how wrong it is.

[devilgrrl]

19. Love his music - think he's a git...

especially after I heard that he would only let someone interview him while at sea. Young learned that the interviewer was prone to motion sickness and made the arrangement. What an asshole!

[Iblis]

15. Actually, Lynyrd Skynrd were BIG Neil Young fans...

"We wrote Alabama as a joke. We didn't even think about it - the words just came out that way. We just laughed like hell, and said 'Ain't that funny'... We love Neil Young, we love his music..." --Ronnie Van Zandt
----------------

ON REAGAN: "I never made, you know, I was never a Reagan supporter in a total blanket sense. I was one of those who felt that some ideas he had were good ideas. He had one point that he was stressing in the first six months of his job that he thought the people in the communities and neighborhoods should pull together and try to do things on their own more than depending on government to do it for them. And I thought that was a hell of an idea and here's this old guy and he's kind of got this image, of this fatherly image, telling all these people in their neighborhoods to pull together and get your own daycare centers happening, and get this and that happening.

"So with the press, it's so hard, even though print is in black and white, it's so hard for them to make it clear what's really happening. "

"Some people put down all presidents no matter what," says Young, "like once you get to be president you're a . . . idiot. So if you say anything good about any of them, they think you're supporting everything they do."

[wiley]

16. Just listen to P!nk's new CD

She's amazing!

[DanCa]

18. We got Bruce Springsteen on our side

Who cares what Young thinks when were backed by the Boss.

[teknomanzer]

20. Niel Young is Baffling?

I'm still trying to figure out Bob Woodward... what is up with that?

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

21. Last I heard, he's a musician and that's about it.

I like some of his songs. Don't like others. None of them have changed the world, for good or for bad.

Songs don't change the world. That's a 60s myth.

[Flubadubya]

22. You didn't mention Chris "Tweety" Matthews...

now there's a REAL pot-pourri of contradiction. :crazy: