SurrealPolitiks S01E022 - Country vs. Country

In geopolitics, when one country challenges another, this is a phenomenon known as "war". 

It is only in the last few years that I have developed an appreciation for what is known as "Country Music". 

I used to hate it. My father listens to country music, and with some notable exceptions, I found it intolerable as a child. "Dad's music" was the genre in my mind, back then. 

It might go without saying, that my father considered my music "noise". 

As I understand it, these generational gaps in taste are not terribly unusual. It might also be a familiar phenomenon that as I grew older, my tastes changed. In particular, as I became disgusted with all that is pop culture, I looked for entertainment options which did not glorify drugs and promiscuity and crime and generally aim to participate in the destruction of civilization. 

With, again, some notable exceptions, country music served me well here. 

And Country music, as the name might seem to imply, is near universally patriotic. Among the most popular songs ever produced is Lee Greenwood's "Proud to be an American". Country music is packed with cultural references that appeal to conservatives; guns, work, family, self reliance, community, honoring military service. Even in what has been dubbed as "Outlaw Country" there's a respect for American institutions.

Take for example Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" in which, though he has "shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die" and is "stuck in Folsom prison" where "time keeps draggin' on" he recognizes that "I know I had it coming, I know I can't be free" and because of this, when he hears that whistle blowin', he hangs his head and cries. 

In Merle Haggard's "Fightin' Side of Me" he laments;

I hear people talkin' bad,
About the way we have to live here in this country,
Harpin' on the wars we fight,
An' gripin' 'bout the way things oughta be.
An' I don't mind 'em switchin' sides,
An' standin' up for things they believe in.
When they're runnin' down my country, man,
They're walkin' on the fightin' side of me.

Yeah, walkin' on the fightin' side of me.
Runnin' down the way of life,
Our fightin' men have fought and died to keep.
If you don't love it, leave it:
Let this song I'm singin' be a warnin'.
If you're runnin' down my country, man,
You're walkin' on the fightin' side of me.

And Country music is in no way short on sadness. There's the old joke "What happens when you play a country song backwards? The guy stops drinking and gets his wife back".

But they don't blame their country for their sadness. They are, on the contrary, very grateful to live in America, and are quite certain that whatever their woes today, they would be far worse had it not been for their good fortune to have been born in America, and for the service of military personnel who protect the freedoms they curse themselves for not taking advantage of. 

So it was an interesting phenomenon to me, as a casual observer of this genre, the back to back releases of two songs which indicated people have just about had it with the state of affairs in America. 

First there was the much talked about "Try that in a small town" which was dubbed as racist violence by Left wing fanatics, because Jason Aldean questioned the virtue of robbing liquor stores and old ladies. But even here, Mr. Aldean grouped "Stomp on a flag and light it up" in with these violent criminal acts, indicating that his patriotic streak had not been diminished by the ubiquitousness of the scenarios he laments in the song. 

Then came Oliver Anthony's "Rich Men North of Richmond". This song by a man described as an "Off Grid Farmer" was recorded and promoted by Radio West Virginia, and quickly shot to number 1 on iTunes and has been trending on Twitter for days. I myself have listened to it maybe a hundred times. 

One rendition I listened to came as he played for a live audience in North Carolina, his first live show since becoming famous. One line stands out in the context of our theme today. 

"Young men are putting themselves, six feet underground, because all this damn country does, is keep on kicking them down".

In the live performance, he takes his hand off the guitar, points to the audience, they sing the line, enthusiastically, and he allows it to hang in the air for what seems like an eternity, before he finishes the song. 

Not a boo, not a moan, not a single hint of disapproval from an audience near universally accustomed to their favorite artists praising America no matter how much they themselves are suffering. On the contrary, the audience was positively charged by the recognition that their government has turned against them. They shouted that line as if they had been waiting their whole lives to say it. 

One imagines some of them, in fact, have been waiting their whole lives to say it, and now, they are hyper aware that they are not alone. 

"Rich Men North of Richmond" likely marks one of the more important moments in our country's history. What it signifies will of course depend in large part on who writes that history, and this will be determined by the victors of a war that rages quite independently of foreign factors, though they certainly play some role. 

The most patriotic people in this country have just about had it, and there is no certainty about what that portends for the future. This is not a cost free unalloyed good. It may be described as necessary, in the vein of Howard Beale's famous line in Network "First, you've got to get mad." If people do decide "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore" then they are likely to change the current state of affairs. 

But what comes next?

SurrealPolitiks airs live every Monday at 9:30pm US Eastern