Music and art, historically, ARE the prime shapers of thought. Television and all the various forms of media certainly portray events, but when they want to create a mood or an effect (WHAT????? You don't mean to tell the networks are trying to shape our opinions????) they use a musical sound track. Nothing affects the human soul and moves it to act like music. Don't believe it? What about the Warpipes? What about the protest songs? The parodies? As I have been saying for the years I have been here; to discuss folk music or blues music without discussions of politics and events is ridiculous. Mudcat has never been a music forum. It is a community of musicians and fans. Our glue is music, but our community is a discussion forum on virtually any topic.

I will say this, and it might surprise some. While I wouldn't advocate any form of censorship, I grew weary of the discussion re: 9/11/01. I grew weary of the redundancy of the threads. And I grew weary of the flamers/trollers who started horseshit threads just to show they could manipulate. And I especially grew weary of those who fed these miscreants. So I just did what we all can do. I ignored them. But I would have given anything for a discussion of the definition of folk music, or the merits of a Seagull guitar.

Mick