Saturday, August 6, 2011

Bye, Bye Miss American Pie?

"American Pie" composer Don McLean wrote, "something touched me deep inside, the day the music died."

McLean was alluding to the lost of innocence and optimism in the 60s. But his poetry is eerily apropos to our own morose times. Uncharacteristically anxious, Americans dread the "bad news on the doorstep" and routinely sing "dirges in the dark." Is it really Bye, Bye Miss American Pie?

I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news
But she just smiled and turned away
I went down to the sacred store
Where I’d heard the music years before
But the man there said the music wouldn’t play
And in the streets the children screamed
The lovers cried and the poets dreamed
But not a word was spoken
The church bells all were broken
And the three men I admire most
The Father, Son and Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died


Bethany Smith & David Bailey (Explain the Lyrics blog) note that the "girl who sang the blues" is Janis Joplin, who died at 27. "The next 7 lines are all reactions to the plane crash [that killed Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and Jiles Richardson in 1959]." The trio represented optimism tragically lost. Taken together, the stanza speaks to "America having lost its mind over the years." The birther nonsense and last week's debt ceiling debacle are simply the latest Exhibits A and B.

It's fair to say that America, a house divided, feels overwhelmed if not traumatized. The right laments the perceived fecklessness and paternalism of the left. Conservatives are further haunted by the goblins they see in the plate tectonics of our cultural lithosphere. They cringe as the country becomes browner (think Hispanic growth), more tolerant (think gay rights) and less wedded to tradition (think FWB - "friends with benefits"). Obama, of course, powerfully personifies their tenebrosity (hence the bitter and often irrational backlash).

The left laments the perceived cynicism, hostility and recklessness of conservatives. The seeds of their discontent were sown when the GOP knee-capped Clinton over a blow-job and the lesser man (in their view) captured the White House in 2000. In 9/11's wake, the left's misery bloomed like so many Lilies of the Field over the neglected call for sacrifice (Bush said shop 'til you drop instead), the unabashed manipulation of fear, the dishonest foray into Iraq, the Abu Ghraib debasement, the headlong drive into an economic ditch, and the right's embrace of anti-intellectualism and xenophobia. Palin (and her clones) embodies the backward march (hence the "lamestream" media-driven backlash).

All of us bemoan the loss of civility and breakdown of rational discourse. Most of us suffer from recession-driven malaise. In sum, the internecine feuding between left and right combined with 9/11's shock and economic anxiety has taken a hefty toll on America's self-confidence. Indeed, how could it not? Since checking into a Swiss sanatorium is not an option, how can America revive its "can do" spirit and faith in a brighter future?

We can begin by chopping our own wood again. We are the ones we've been waiting for, as Obama put it in 2008. Some 170 years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that “Americans are taught from birth that they must overcome life’s woes and impediments on their own." That we rely on government only when we "cannot do without it." Obama is not daddy nor can he solve every problem we face. Yet too many of us wait wide-eyed for a nanny, be it Obama or the GOP savior of the month. An attitude check is in order, and it's past due. Secondly, we'd be wise to elect smarter, more rational representatives to office. The current bums can be thrown out as early as next year. The real power rests with us. Lastly, we can take to heart another Tocqueville observation: "The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in ability to repair her faults."

We've done it before in worst times. No, the music hasn't died. It's just muted. Quit moping. Drive that Chevy to the levee. And get busy.

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