Eminem - Elevator (rap, 2009)
Songs about success, like pleasure, were fairly easy to find; especially since in most cases especially in America, success (wealth) would lead to pleasure (sex, drugs, pleasure etc.) even though many people say that money cannot buy happiness it can, in some cases, buy small amounts of pleasure. "Elevator" and "My Band" are both really just Eminem talking about how awesome he is. The Big L song is a play-by-play account of a robbery where he ended up stealing a large amount of money, fairly successful. "My President is Black" and "We Are The Champions" are the really the only 2 songs I could think of that brought a common goal to realization or recognized a group for their achievements. I had a hard time trying to find songs about liberation since, in America, we have so many freedoms that we really do not have one thing that the whole country can come together to liberate us from. However, looking for personal liberation is probably more of what the Hindu aim is directed at, so I chose songs that had to do with that. "Passing The Hat" is the story of a man who realizes the church that he attends is not really doing any good and putting money in the offering hat is the same as throwing it away since no one really knows where it goes. "Holy Shackles" has a similar tone but more accusatory of religion. Halie Selassie was the Emperor of Ethiopia and is thought of as Jesus to the Rastafarian community. In the Rastafarian religion one's goal is to make it back to Zion from Jamaica to be free, in this case Zion is Ethiopia, The Bright Eyes song is about Selassie calling people to Ethiopia to be free.
As Americans I think that we often treat money and material goods as an end or goal where in Hindu culture the goal would be moksha and you really only need money to survive while you are working your way through lives. However the idea of liberation, I think, is the same for us in America. We have to be able to sort through the biases and such we are presented with everyday, and must liberate ourselves from that. Everyone in this country feels that in some way they are not being treated fairly, and should be liberated from that.
i believe that man corrupts religion for his own purposes, thus religion corrupts man. it seems as though man, in so many cases, can't be given the power to control and use it with sound judgement. i think this is because our everyday lives consist of efforts at control. in a sense we seem to have an addiction to control from birth. addictions cause people to do despicable things to attain whatever it is that they're addicted to. it also seems that emotions are often a byproduct of various forms of control. i'm not even sure what i was trying to get at anymore, i just drifted off into myself. whatever. i met you at marks house once, you pointed out my boyfriends despised icon shirt. i'm sure you know bright eyes is coming to the national
ReplyDeleteI actually never thought of the concept of liberation from ourselves using religioin and such. I focused on a certain group overcoming obsticles but this is a great alternative view to the idea of liberation. I do agree that American cultures focus on money since that is what everyone needs to survive and the more money you have, the 'better' more prominant role you play in society. For this reason alone, liberation is placed to the side while we live our daily lives.
ReplyDeleteI really liked that you tried to find songs about success that weren't just about wealth and fame. I'm not sure I agree with your last sentence saying that people should be liberated from feeling that they are treated unfairly. Actually, I'm not sure what I think about that at all. It doesn't strike me as particularly Hindu, just because of the class system/caste system and so on. Life isn't fair and that's just how it is, all over the world and not just in traditions with little possibility of vertical movement within the system, and I think that we shouldn't feel personally slighted by that, but I'm not sure that every effort should be made to ensure that it isn't the case, because that's just not possible.
ReplyDeleteI don't think everyone needs money to survive. Aren't the ones who reach moksha often times the ascetics who give up everything, including ties to money and worldly pleasures? I think money clouds people's judgement of things and to really be free is to let go of that.
ReplyDeleteGood choice of songs, though. I really like the Cold War Kids song, and I like how you connected the idea of rejecting church and organized religion with liberation. I think a lot of people get tied down to the routine of going to church and forget to have actual spirituality.