This is not a blog about politics, but it is a political blog. I find it impossible to align with the art I love and want to share without taking on a fair amount of its ideals. And thus it is that I grew up a punk. And punk says everything is political.
It's less than a month until the American presidential election. The wall between truth and perception has never been higher. I've never been happier to be away from the East Coast. Earlier today, the FBI unraveled and stopped a plot to kidnap and assassinate the governor of Michigan. Last night, I watched the vice president talk loud and say nothing, while his counterpart in the debate bragged about her law & order bona fides. A senator today bragged about ending democracy on Twitter. The people in power seem determined to finalize their erosion of the American dream. This was the plan all along, to use the levers of government to undo that government.
There's so much going on, and I get why people can feel like we have little to no hope left. I can count the days where I've experienced the fulfillment of the American dream on both hands, and still have fingers left over. I wouldn't call myself disillusioned, because I shucked those illusions a long time ago. I can understand the fear that so many are experiencing; somehow, they got left behind in the chase for wealth accumulation. Their generation was subtracted in the math of late capitalism. And they're told that it's a brown person's fault, a yellow disease, that a rainbow stole their birthright.
I don't think we're completely lost as a nation. If nothing else, keeping your hope alive is the ultimate rebellion against control. It's the middle finger to those who benefit from the division currently being sown. The title of this 7" is "Empatihaveri". Translated from the original Swedish, it means "empathy". Hope and empathy are our weapons to fight hate and fear with. This record makes a pretty good soundtrack for that fight.
Click here to download.
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