As surely as McCarthyism, the Cold War -- with its push toward conformism equaling Americanism in the U.S., and the Vietnam War had a lot to do with creating a Bob Dylan that...
More »As surely as McCarthyism, the Cold War -- with its push toward conformism equaling Americanism in the U.S., and the Vietnam War had a lot to do with creating a Bob Dylan that would (first) push a Zimmerman to become a phenomenon, and (2) create a society that would recognize one; as surely as that same context of conformism, existence of huge corporations of massive, and often monopolistic powers, alongside the Cold War sentiment that would have most Americans welcome these huge institutions as symbols of strength -- substitutes for the strong men of the early agrarians period -- but with that same sense of playing the roles of good strong Daddies...
As the Beatles themselves portrayed it in "Yellow Submarine": In the land of the Blue Meanies, which outlawed music, and whose world was dominated by bleak monotone shades and unhappy people, it was Sargeant Peppers' Lonely Hearts Club Band, who defiantly stepped forth and produced music, breaking all kinds of Blue Meanies laws. But the music was so powerful that it brought joy, hope, and happiness back into the hearts of the people of that sorry land; indeed music was so powerful as to bring back color, all kinds of color, and everywhere you could see, turning the bleak land festive…
Once again, we are at another extreme context , this one being one where lying, manipulation, and deception were the mode of the Executive Branch, and it was virtually at war with the rest of the government and much of the American people. Further , that a helplessness and an urge to do something, when nothing could be done, continued to build, for years. I'm saying that Obama's success rode on this wave of wanting to do something. But it was the specific urges that continued increasing and building and that didn't get released that I believe will be shaping America for quite a while. Specifically, I believe that it is not just authenticity that is valued again. I believe that Americans are absolutely dying of thirst for lack of truth, they are starving for lack of the real, I am saying that those 8 years made Americans so to despise the eventually transparent falsity of every act out of the Bush administration that has made Americans of all ages and particularly the young, crave like a drowning man, for the substantial, the real, the authentic, the honest, and the true.
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