Operation MIndcrime thoughts, track 3

looks like the older me didn't know where the tracks changed.  being that my first exposure was a cassette, it's an understandable mistake.

Anarchy-X stops with a trailing-off of the earlier noise and music.

begin Revolution Calling.

a low stacatto series of hi-hat and drums set a baseline.  beats skip off in a pattern, but off from what one might expet.  music rises with a guitar declaring the main theme of the piece.  two rise-and-fall patterns, and the guitar makes way for the vocals.

we start with a declaration of the main character as he sees himself.  he's not a hero, just an average guy... maybe average for what he sees daily, but maybe a bit edgier than the rest of us.

For a price I'd do about anything
Except pull the trigger
For that I'd need a pretty good cause
Then I heard of Dr. X
The man with the cure
Just watch the television
Yeah, you'll see there's something going on

"for a price" he would do almost anything but kill somoene.  this is a person on the outside of the law.  maybe not caught, maybe no record, but definitely detached from the isolated middle class peace.  He's perhaps dangerous, but again -- he himself does not brag or boast or try to seem like anything more than an "average joe" in his own world.

also almost immediately, we see a refernce to "the man wuth the cure" -- Dr. X.  someone with a point of view that is insinuating itself on our narrator.

this is the source of danger.  we have the uninformed and discontent, and we have a person who seems to have all the answers and a strong personality.  you dont get to be "the man with the cure" unless people believe in you.

we then shift to the immediate deflection.  the blame for the discontent is easy to see.  it's "society" and "something is wrong"  -- because vagueness is how such paranoia gains a foothold.

what's next?  that deflection finds a place to rest, a source of blame.  given that it was the late 80s, the problems in the Reagan years were fermenting, and the polarization based on party had started to divide the nation, it's not a surprise.  the "law and order president" that reagan was had so many members of his staff indicted on various charges.  ollie north took the blame for the iran-contra, because reagan himself "couldn't recall" what actually happened.  

Got no love for politicians
Or that crazy scene in D.C.
It's just a power mad town
But the time is ripe for changes
There's a growing feeling
That taking a chance on a new kind of vision is due

it is the duty of those granted authority to remain beyond the impression of doubt or bias.  the problem is that there's a tendency for some -- those who should be trusted least with power -- to abuse it when they receive it.  they, above all, make it critical for the public to have no doubt in their credibility and their reliability.  that we assume that all politicians lie, but "those people's" politicians lie worse, makes this complicated.  there should never be even the appearance of a conflict of interest if at all avoidable.  still, the 80s saw growth adn development and the US winning the cold war... in part because of some exploitative actions on the part of our politicians.

perhaps there is a reason why in most elections, most people i know vote against a candidate or a party instead of for one.  "there's a growing feeling that taking a chance on a new kind of vision is due" is a great sentiment.  the old vision has not worked.  the old way has only led us into problems.  maybe doing something new, especially is if shakes up the status quo, will solve all the problems we have had already.  usually, though, all it does it create more.

I used to trust the media
To tell me the truth, tell us the truth
But now I've seen the payoffs
Everywhere I look
Who do you trust when everyone's a crook?

"the media" has been a convenient scapegoat for a long time now.  whether it be the misrepresentaiton of the "liberal media" or the active opposition of the "conservative media," our literacy of current events took a sarp downturn once partisan news became a regular thing.

how can you trust "the media" to tell you the truth when they are corporations owned by people, and therefore both have corporate interests to look after and the opinions and beliefs of the people in charge to steer them?

if you start to believe that nobody can be trusted, then you look toward strength.  you find someone to guide you, a beacon of ideals, a rock of dependability.  here, we already know that that's going to be Dr. X.  imagine that money and corruption control the situation, and your faith in the established order will disappear.

it's important again to mention the narrator's position in society.  the average person does not draw the line at being a hitman -- that's pretty far down the morality chain.  before the get two sentences of plot action, we know that he's already down there.  what comes with crime?  poverty, struggle, desperation, and factors that drive a person toward instability.  the ACE survey (Adverse Childhood Experience) draws correlations between trauma and instability as a child and a number of other problems as an adult, notably here incarceration, drug addiction, violent crime, and a lack of adult stability.

Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Revolution calling you
(There's a) Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Gotta make a change
Gotta push, gotta push it on through

revolution is an interesting word.  originally, it meant a movement around in a circle, the return to the past.  that there would be upheaval, but that upheaval would lead to a new order and a new stability.  the problem with the immature revolutionary is that they do not understand just how terrible that instability might get for others, and sometimes have no idea how to rebuild a stable order.

revolution is clalling you.  those who know, or understand, or are enlightened, or the like will be aware of the changing times and will force it to finally occur.

we now have the part i had to blurb out when i brought this track in to be played in 8th grade, by my english rteacher during writing time.  the narrator gets more aggressive, more accusatory.  as he buys into Dr. X's rhetoric, he also gets more focused on eactly who to blame for the problems.  by the end of this song, he is so discontent and focused on the negatives that one positive from the wrong person and in the wrong direction would be dangerous... meaning that the fire is set up just waiting for a spark.

I'm tired of all this bullshit
They keep selling me on T.V.
About the communist plan
And all the shady preachers
Begging for my cash
Swiss bank accounts while giving their
Secretaries the slam

an enemy to blame.  sometimes that's the spark.  the psyche of the US was so scarred by the cold war, the focus on the enemies lurking on the other side of the world waiting to take all we had worked for.  even thday, though, the "communist plan" fearmongering continues by those same people./

that he immediately leads from "the media" to "the tv talking about communists" to "televangelists" hints at (a) being steered by someone else's rhetoric and (b) a sense that in every instance there are factors working against you.  greed, corruption, lies, false prophets, crooked politicians --

 where does it end?

hypocrisy is another factor.  it's not just that politicians lie, or that the media lies, but that the religious leaders are in direct violation of the morals they are trying to spread.  they beg for money, then store it in swiss bank accounts (a longtime symbol for hoarding wealth in secret), and have affairs (adultery).  

They're all in Penthouse now
Or Playboy magazine, million dollar stories to tell
I guess Warhol wasn't wrong
Fame fifteen minutes long
Everyone's using everybody, making the sale

then rather than feel contrite, they sell their own stories to publishers and make millions on a book deal that makes them rice -- fooling people, fleeecing them, then using their own gluttony and tendency to muckrake or relish the suffering and downfall of others by selling the rights to stories about their indecencies.

the average person cannot do that.  only someone with no morals and huge greed.  and the impression that "everyone else" is exploiting the system of right and wrong that we follow in order to make money fast only leads to jealousy, self-righteousness, and disillusion.  should i be a sell-out too?  should i bother to hold morals when nobody else does?

it's the generalization that's dangerous.  no, not "everyone" is doing it.  maybe even just a few.  but there's still the impression, and that causes doubt.

I used to think
That only America's way, way was right
But now the holy dollar rules everybody's lives
Gotta make a million doesn't matter who dies

the 80s were the culmination of the cold war.  they weren't the only time when we had a redefinition of culture, or when we struggled with a foe, but they came with a sense of urgency -- a president elected based on his convictions to oppose communism, with a potentially suicidal economic plan designed to play chicken with our enemies.  that it worked may or may not excuse the damage it did.

with that time period rose a new nationalism, connected to (and perhaps rooted in) the "greed is good" ideas of extreme capitalism.  "the Holy Dollar" became almost a religious icon, the pursuit of wealth a drive unlike ever before.  the telling line here is "doesn't matter who dies" -- that surrender of classic morality (or, again, at least the appearance of doing so) that comes with extremism.

some have assumed that this is set in a dystopian future of extremes.  it's a bit exaggerated.  but for someone feeling like an outsider who has lived with a code of behavior and always seeing others pull ahead, or narrator may be just seeing through a clouded lens.

Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Revolution calling you
(There's a) Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Gotta make a change
Gotta push, gotta push it on through

I used to trust the media
To tell me the truth, tell us the truth
But now I've seen the payoffs
Everywhere I look
Who do you trust when everyone's a crook?

Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Revolution calling you
(There's a) Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Gotta make a change
Gotta push, gotta push it on through