beaker wrote:
RE: andy.....
Did they produce something that made the world a better place?
Who are you or I or anybody to say..... The songs may have brought joy to many people, lifted their spirits when they needed lifting, or possibly allowed someone to access an emotion or feeling that they may have otherwise been unaware of.
... I echo Uncle Walts sentiments..... including the Yikes!
Who am I? Nobody really. Especially in the grand scheme of things. But I do subscribe to a single objective standard that everyone should adhere to. Many songs violate that standard by the lyrics they use. They promote things that go against the standard. That makes them "wrong" in that sense. I don't have to judge, I only have to apply the standard and if it doesn't fit, I label it accordingly.
Ok, I can hear you now... "What standard and what gives me the right to apply it to everyone?" and other comments along those lines. Lets take an example of a very common and prevalent argument against the single standard.
"It was the right thing for him at the time." This is Humanisim.
Humanism is a worldview and a moral philosophy that considers humans to be of primary importance. It is a perspective common to a wide range of ethical stances that attaches importance to human dignity, concerns, and capabilities, particularly rationality. Although the word has many senses, its current philosophical meaning comes into focus when contrasted to the supernatural or to appeals to higher authority. Since the 19th century, humanism has been associated with an anti-clericalism inherited from the 18th-century Enlightenment philosophes. The term covers organized non-theistic religions, secular humanism, and a humanistic life stance. (From Wiki)
Lets look at an example of Humanism in action. A terrorist truly believes that his take on a situation is correct and he must kill his target. Ok, what about the targets family? Do they agree that the terrorist was correct? Very likely not. The action of the terrorist was the correct action in his mind because it was good for him and or his cause at the time. But we can see that its obviously not the right thing to do.
Ok, That's too extreme, you say. Of course terrorism is wrong. Lets try a different example. A man is having a few drinks in a bar. He knows that he will have to drive home later. He keeps drinking until he is no longer able to safely operate his car and on the way home kills someone. He kept drinking because he was enjoying it and it felt good to him at the time. Even knowing the possible consequences, he still did it.
We all know drinking and driving is wrong you say.
A man swears at his family all the time. "You better F'ing do what I tell you, you stupid B***!" he yells at the kids or even his wife. "F'ing kids need a good beating" he grumbles aloud. They hear this day in and day out. They learn to think that they are 'stupid' and any other name he calls them over a period of time. He has just broken their ability to have a positive outlook on life. Generally they come to the conclusion that people are there to be abused. They become worse than the father because they are not taught by example to value people in any real way except as toys for their amusement. Even worse, they learn a reverse positive. "Wrong" actions are considered as positives and get promoted more and more. A very dangerous dwindling spiral.
This one comes straight from the Psychology texts. Its real and it happens all the time. Now lets apply that to the music we hear and the words it contains. More reinforcement of the negatives. We could be raising a serial killer. It happens.
In all of these examples the person was doing what he felt was right and good at the time. All turned out to be horribly bad. Obviously, they did not subscribe to a standard in their life that had the best possible outcome for all involved.
I live by a standard that has the greatest good for everyone as it's core belief. I do not always implement it correctly, but I do my best to always hold myself to it. So, I base my judgments of music and lyrics in particular on that standard.
That's where I derive any judgment from.
Yeah, yeah... A long winded answer, but sometimes it needs a longer answer to really answer the question. Now, if you read all this and don't think I'm a religious nut, then you should come see me at church and we can discuss it all you like. LOL
And to finish this off....
The purpose of this long drawn out response was to address the obvious "You are a religious nut job" insinuation that was posted. Hopefully you now understand my point of view.
Nothing I said here had the intent of starting an argument or flame war or anything else except rational, polite discussion. Feel free to disagree with anything I said here. That is your right. If something here offends you, I'm sorry, but I stand by it.