Fear is actually convenient to the smooth functioning of an orderly society. A docile population which is terrified of the authorities in their various forms will more likely depend on objects and institutions to give them guidance, solidity, security and a sense of meaning. If you are fearful, then you are unlikely to riot and very likely to work hard and spend hard. – Tom Hodgkinson
Ok this may be a view of someone who is an anarchist but there are some very interesting points here and something that has been acted upon by societies throughout the ages and throughout the world.
When there was a problem in China they have always thrown the poets in jail first as they were the ones that spread dissent, now it is the bloggers. The easiest way of dealing with dissent is to find something or someone to fear who can become the ‘enemy outside’ or as the South Africans say the leopard outside.
The problem here is that without the voices of dissent nothing will change, or should I say nothing will change in a progressive way and the history of grand societies and cultures is they collapse from the inside.
Now the question to ask is ‘does the guitar still hold it rebellious streak?’ Now if the answer to that is yes then maybe this is something that we should look at in our playing and our teaching as this may something for our times like it did in the sixties.
So pick up your guitar and play, just like yesterday and get down on your knees and pray that we won’t get fooled again.
Vic
