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rfmcdonaldThere's much still to be said about the November 2015 Paris attacks. One point I'd like to elaborate upon relates to the attack on the Bataclan theatre, where 89 people waiting for a performance of Eagles of Death Metal were murdered. A statement made in passing by American Secretary of State John Kerry, contrasting the Bataclan massacre with the Charlie Hebdo massacre by suggesting that whereas the latter attack had some rationale, the Bataclan attack was just pure terror. He later backtracked under criticism, as reported by The New York Times.
I've blogged here quite a lot over the years about the amount of meaning I derived and still derive from popular music, about how even when I was a solitary listener disconnected from fandom (and much else) I was able to get a sense of community and identity through pop music. (Eurythmics, thank you for helping me make it to my 20s.) Being a consumer of music is not the same kind of thing as being a producer of music, just as being a consumer of any cultural product is not the same as being a producer of any cultural product. Even so, the act of consumption matters: It's a profound marker of identity, of the consumer's voluntary decision to belong to a particular community. As noted by Spencer Kornhaber in The Atlantic, the communal enjoyment of music at a concert can be hugely enjoyable. It's not for nothing that the rave has become so huge, I think.
Do you remember the article in The New Yorker that I linked to Monday, the one noting how Daesh used the traditions of Arabic poetry to accrue cultural capital? That article also noted that instrumental music is banned from the territories of the Islamic State, as un-Islamic. If the rich and vast and enormously popular tradition of Arabic popular music is actively rejected by Daesh, the people who listen to it or--worse--make it being subject to punishment, how much worse Western popular music? The concert-goers at the Bataclan were murdered because they had made the choice to reject the ideals of Daesh. They were martyrs.
Earlier this week, I shared a meme image on Facebook that happened to be built around what turns out to be an authentic quote from Salman Rushdie.
Music matters. Let's make the choice to have it matter even more.
Secretary of State John Kerry is drawing criticism for contrasting the latest terror attacks in Paris with the mass shooting in January at the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which had published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
“There’s something different about what happened with Charlie Hebdo, and I think everybody would feel that,” Mr. Kerry said on Tuesday, speaking without notes to American Embassy employees in the lobby of the embassy in Paris. “There was a sort of particularized focus, and perhaps even a legitimacy in terms of — not a legitimacy, but a rationale that you could attach yourself to somehow and say, ‘O.K., they’re really angry because of this and that.’
“This Friday was absolutely indiscriminate,” he continued. “It wasn’t to aggrieve one particular sense of wrong; it was to terrorize people. It was to attack everything that we do stand for.”
Mr. Kerry’s comments were swiftly assailed by conservative critics in print and on social media. National Review called them “abhorrent” and “despicable.”
I've blogged here quite a lot over the years about the amount of meaning I derived and still derive from popular music, about how even when I was a solitary listener disconnected from fandom (and much else) I was able to get a sense of community and identity through pop music. (Eurythmics, thank you for helping me make it to my 20s.) Being a consumer of music is not the same kind of thing as being a producer of music, just as being a consumer of any cultural product is not the same as being a producer of any cultural product. Even so, the act of consumption matters: It's a profound marker of identity, of the consumer's voluntary decision to belong to a particular community. As noted by Spencer Kornhaber in The Atlantic, the communal enjoyment of music at a concert can be hugely enjoyable. It's not for nothing that the rave has become so huge, I think.
Do you remember the article in The New Yorker that I linked to Monday, the one noting how Daesh used the traditions of Arabic poetry to accrue cultural capital? That article also noted that instrumental music is banned from the territories of the Islamic State, as un-Islamic. If the rich and vast and enormously popular tradition of Arabic popular music is actively rejected by Daesh, the people who listen to it or--worse--make it being subject to punishment, how much worse Western popular music? The concert-goers at the Bataclan were murdered because they had made the choice to reject the ideals of Daesh. They were martyrs.
Earlier this week, I shared a meme image on Facebook that happened to be built around what turns out to be an authentic quote from Salman Rushdie.
The fundamentalist seeks to bring down a great deal more than buildings. Such people are against, to offer just a brief list, freedom of speech, a multi-party political system, universal adult suffrage, accountable government, Jews, homosexuals, women's rights, pluralism, secularism, short skits, dancing, beardlessness, evolution theory, sex. There are tyrants, not Muslims.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said that we should now define ourselves not only by what we are for but by what we are against. I would reverse that proposition, because in the present instance what we are against is a no brainer. Suicidist assassins ram wide-bodied aircraft into the World Trade Center and Pentagon and kill thousands of people: um, I'm against that. But what are we for? What will we risk our lives to defend? Can we unanimously concur that all the items in the preceding list -- yes, even the short skirts and the dancing -- are worth dying for?
The fundamentalist believes that we believe in nothing. In his world-view, he has his absolute certainties, while we are sunk in sybaritic indulgences. To prove him wrong, we must first know that he is wrong. We must agree on what matters: kissing in public places, bacon sandwiches, disagreement, cutting-edge fashion, literature, generosity, water, a more equitable distribution of the world's resources, movies, music, freedom of thought, beauty, love. These will be our weapons. Not by making war but by the unafraid way we choose to live shall we defeat them.
How to defeat terrorism? Don't be terrorized. Don't let fear rule your life. Even if you are scared.
Music matters. Let's make the choice to have it matter even more.
