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Western Civilization has survived bobby-soxers swooning at the feet of Frank Sinatra, the gyrations of Elvis Presley and a few years of Beatlemania, as well as a horde of migrant Deadheads and more than a few benighted souls who celebrate the birthday of Keith Richards. So it's hard to feel truly threatened by the announcement that a certain controversial singer is scheduled to perform in Colorado on June 21.
The singer was born Brian Warner. Since he's already
proven himself a genius at generating publicity, I'll try
to throw some sand in those gears by avoiding his stage
name and instead calling him Charles Monroe.
One of the vital cogs in the Charles Monroe publicity machine is a Colorado organization called Citizens for Peace and Respect, which generates controversy and news coverage by calling for the cancellation of the concert. Two prominent politicians who should know better -- Gov. Bill Owens and Rep. Tom Tancredo -- have said they support CPR.
Beyond enabling Charles Monroe to sell more concert tickets and compact disks, what is the point of these objections? Why try to dissuade him from performing?
1. According to Jason Jantz, the founder of CPR,
allowing people to spend their money on whatever
entertainment they chose is not a good old American free
market in action, but instead it is the exploitation of
children for the almighty dollar.
If that's evil, then why isn't Jantz picketing at the gates of Coca-Cola, the Disney empire and Toys-R-Us? They're all in the business of exploiting children for the almighty dollar, and they're a lot better at it.
2. The energetic young people who attend concerts might get too energized, and a destructive riot could result.
There were also destructive riots after the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup and after the Broncos won the Super Bowl, and no one has suggested forbidding professional sports exhibitions in Colorado.
In the latter case, the fans are presumably responsible for their own misbehavior and consequent rough handling by the constabulary; why isn't that true in the first case, too?
3. If Charles Monroe is allowed to perform in Colorado, this somehow constitutes his endorsement as a role model, to the detriment of the future of our youth, who might grow up to think it's okay to sing depressing songs and live in houses that look like anatomy museums.
Bill Clinton spoke on several occasions in Colorado, and
I've yet to hear a young man say Boy, I'd sure like to
be President someday,
let alone Wouldn't it be great
to get into the Oval Office so I could get what he was
getting?
Prominent people can presumably turn into role models for youth, and even if you exclude musicians, you seldom find totally worthy material: Newt Gingrich, Donald Trump, J. Edgar Hoover, Mickey Mantle -- none of them is exactly what you'd hope a child would become.
4. Children will listen to the nihilistic and violent lyrics of Charles Monroe, and will thereby feel compelled to act accordingly.
While there are doubtless some impressionable youth who will act on darn near anything they hear from someone on a stage, like a military recruiter, the fact is that song lyrics can't have that much influence.
I have listened to music almost every day of my life since I was 14. If it had any real effect, I'd have saved my nickels and dimes and bought my very own 409, and yet of the Chevrolets I've owned, not one has had that engine.
I've never tried to drive a train while high on cocaine.
No matter how often the Doors song played in the summer of
1967, it failed to inspire young women to light my
fire.
Never did I seek a calendar with an eight-day
week, or attempt to ride the Proud Mary riverboat.
I never felt any compulsion to find Highway 61 and drive on it, or to seek out a tambourine man. I've never asked a bartender to set up one bourbon, one shot and one beer. Love was never all I needed, and I had no desire to become a street-fightin' man or a midnight rambler.
Granted, my experience may not be typical, but I know quite a few people who grew up with the same music in the air, and they report a similar lack of musical provocation.
Maybe things were supposed to turn out differently, but the fact is that song lyrics get interpreted in ways that the writer never intended.
In the summer of 1969, one California cult took
Helter Skelter
as an omen of a race war that could
be provoked by some random murders, whereas the Beatles
believed they were singing about a British playground
slide.
So it's impossible to predict how people will interpret songs, and even if they do catch the intended message, the vast majority will not respond by rushing out to paint something black or climb a stairway to heaven.
Given all that, you have to wonder whether CPR is really concerned with peace and respect, or with promoting a concert by insuring that it generates controversy and free publicity.
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