EDITOR'S NOTE: I originally posted this on Tumblr, the day after the Paris attacks. I stand by my analyses, both musical and cultural. Obviously, the Daesh tag didn't catch fire, but names have power, and the idea of naming something as a means of controlling the dialogue around it is a sound one. On this, I would agree with Mad Men's Don Draper, having worked as an advertising copywriter for a good many years.
I’ll get to the video in a minute. You oughta know why I picked this one first.
“A concert in the City of Lights” – that’s what I keep thinking. It was a concert in the City of Lights, and they did … this.
I don’t pretend to understand the violence, deprivation, and loss that would lead someone to join up with a terrorist/jihadist organization.
That said, they don’t impress me. As Pete Townshend still sings to this day about political movements, “Meet the new boss/Same as the old boss”.
Saturday, Rolling Stone quoted a statement by Daesh (We should do as the French do, and stop calling them ISIS), which has claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks. The online statement says the organization targeted the Bataclan, the venue which hosted the Eagles Of Death Metal show, because, “[H]undreds of idolaters were together in a party of perversity.”
Riiiiight, right.
Now, everybody knows that, if you want to take down a movement, you target the leaders. Yet, the band escaped without injury when these Daesh clowns could have gunned them down in a heartbeat.
I’m not saying the band should have died. I’m saying it was no accident that they escaped. Leaving the band unharmed was a strategic decision by Daesh, pure and simple.
If they had killed the band, or taken them hostage, Daesh might have alienated Muslim kids who are on the fence – immersed by force of habit in Western culture, but angry at what’s happening to fellow Muslims in their home countries. You kill the band, you lose those kids – perhaps for good. What’s more, you kill any trace of sympathy or empathy that anyone in the West might have for the movement.
The Daesh brain trust doesn’t want that.
The organization’s statement also claims that Paris is a “capital of prostitution and obscenity”.
Horse shit.
If “prostitution and obscenity” were truly offensive to Daesh, they would have targeted prostitutes and, oh, let’s say child molesters, but no. This is a culture war, straight up. You wanna win this one? You’d best call on Don Draper, and let the Marines stay home.
According to the statement, yesterday’s attacks are the “first of the storm”. That we can believe, but we don’t have to buy the rest of their spin control. It’s time to stop quaking in our boots, and call them on their shit.
That’s what this excerpt from “Tommy” is about.
This is The Who, live at Woodstock, with “We’re Not Going To Take It/See Me, Feel Me/Listening To You”.
“A concert in the City of Lights” – that’s what I keep thinking. It was a concert in the City of Lights, and they did … this.
I don’t pretend to understand the violence, deprivation, and loss that would lead someone to join up with a terrorist/jihadist organization.
That said, they don’t impress me. As Pete Townshend still sings to this day about political movements, “Meet the new boss/Same as the old boss”.
Saturday, Rolling Stone quoted a statement by Daesh (We should do as the French do, and stop calling them ISIS), which has claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks. The online statement says the organization targeted the Bataclan, the venue which hosted the Eagles Of Death Metal show, because, “[H]undreds of idolaters were together in a party of perversity.”
Riiiiight, right.
Now, everybody knows that, if you want to take down a movement, you target the leaders. Yet, the band escaped without injury when these Daesh clowns could have gunned them down in a heartbeat.
I’m not saying the band should have died. I’m saying it was no accident that they escaped. Leaving the band unharmed was a strategic decision by Daesh, pure and simple.
If they had killed the band, or taken them hostage, Daesh might have alienated Muslim kids who are on the fence – immersed by force of habit in Western culture, but angry at what’s happening to fellow Muslims in their home countries. You kill the band, you lose those kids – perhaps for good. What’s more, you kill any trace of sympathy or empathy that anyone in the West might have for the movement.
The Daesh brain trust doesn’t want that.
The organization’s statement also claims that Paris is a “capital of prostitution and obscenity”.
Horse shit.
If “prostitution and obscenity” were truly offensive to Daesh, they would have targeted prostitutes and, oh, let’s say child molesters, but no. This is a culture war, straight up. You wanna win this one? You’d best call on Don Draper, and let the Marines stay home.
According to the statement, yesterday’s attacks are the “first of the storm”. That we can believe, but we don’t have to buy the rest of their spin control. It’s time to stop quaking in our boots, and call them on their shit.
That’s what this excerpt from “Tommy” is about.
This is The Who, live at Woodstock, with “We’re Not Going To Take It/See Me, Feel Me/Listening To You”.
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