Has anyone the courage now? (Moses Asch)

Subject: RE: Has anyone the courage now?
From: Ethan Mitchell
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 07:10 PM

Agreed, agreed. Perhaps the problem is that anarchism is not usually pointed out, except by Johnny Rotten, and Johnny Rotten doesn't speak (or think) for all that many people. But that doesn't mean that anarchist principles aren't out there. I think this is particularly true of folk music (this is, like, a discussion about folk music, right?). When we sing 'before I'd be a slave I'll be buried in my grave' or any of its ten thousand synonymous lyrics, what are we asking for? Representative democracy in a limited capitalist system of free enterprise with a partial safety net for the poor? Is that it? Because based on the lyrics alone, it sounds like we want the whole schmeer. Admittedly, some songs are very movement-specific, but a lot of political folk music is just saying we shall overcome, and not saying *what* we shall overcome. I would say that basically that's an anarchist sentiment, no matter who its coming from or what its called. Yeah, LEJ, a lot of anarchists are undiscliplined and uninformed. A lot more are so informed and discliplined that they can't do anything but talk your ear off...probably just as bad...

Subject: RE: Has anyone the courage now?
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 07:51 PM

My Motto: QUESTION AUTHORITY!

Subject: RE: Has anyone the courage now?
From: Chet W.
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 08:07 PM

I have stood for every philosophy, movement, etc. that supports the idea of equality and equal opportunity for all, as long as I can remember. In fact, these ideas had a lot to do with my becoming a musician, listening to Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie and later Joan Baez and on and on. I even chose to devote my working life to educating the poorest of the poor, in every sense of the words, in the South Carolina Juvenile Justice system. There have been many times, this being South Carolina, when such beliefs were, and are, not popular, and negative attention was and is aroused. What gets to me these days is that even movements toward equality have become fragmented. A longtime friend of mine recently told me, in all seriousness, that she no longer believed there were any good male humans in the world. I have come to believe, unpopularly among my own chosen culture, that there is no virtue in fighting only for your own rights. When we sing and march and vote and teach or whatever we do, we're either in it for all of us or else we're on some kind of self-centered trip with no real goal. In other words, after all these years, we ain't learned nothing yet. I hope this hurts nobody's feelings. If we want to continue this discussion, maybe we could start a newer, shorter thread.

Chet

Subject: RE: Has anyone the courage now?
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 04 Apr 99 - 09:44 PM

At Chet's suggestion, I have started a new thread Has Anyone the Courage Now II. As threads get as long as this one, it takes a long-time to load and many posters have read the previous posts. So please, post on the new thread.

Roger in Baltimore