The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Rock On

7.2.08 @ 12:01AM

BAGHDAD'S BEST
Re: Shawn Macomber's Metal Militia, Eastern Divison:

A little musical outfit from Liverpool once sang, "You say you want a revolution/ Well, you know/ We all want to change the world." Great rock 'n' roll (and, yes, I am of the generation that called music from the heart and soul rock 'n' roll and not rock) has always been about revolution and catharsis. The quality of the catharsis is based largely on the strength and fierceness of the forces against which one is rebelling.

American and British youth once had a great deal against which they could throw themselves in their struggles to define themselves: society was rigid and social roles were clearly laid out, but the great social experiment of the Sixties destroyed, or greatly realigned, the standing mores. The youth that grew up in the Post Punk America and Brittan grew up in a more stable and affluent world than did those who came of age between the mid Sixties to the mid Seventies.

Their rebellion, still a necessity of modern youth, was of a more flaccid nature because many, if not most, social barriers had been overturned. Making a revolution from the comfort of your parents' upscale house is not easy; the enemies are often phantasms and delusions. Acrassicauda has real agents of opposition and antagonism against which they are rebelling. Their sound is loud and powerful because the energy released in their struggle against the man (i.e., state sponsored censorship and staid imams) is powerful and real.

To them and those like them, Viva la Revolution and Long Live Rock and Roll.
-- Ira M. Kessel
Rochester, New York

Thank you, Mr. Macomber, for your review of this documentary and pointing out the problems with Western "hard" artists such as Metallica and Radiohead. There are a few heavy metal songs I enjoy, and I'm not ashamed to admit that. But it does seem that the more successful these bands become, the worse they become.

Most of their eternal whining reminds me of something a friend of mine in high school told me. "It's really hard to be in the upper-middle class." Well, now that I've made it to the middle-class, I don't have any problems with it. And of course, I have refused to spend a single penny on anything Metallica has ever done due to their attacks against Napster. Really, to think that a band that got its name recognition through the distribution of boot-leg tapes would become so incised over a higher-tech equivalent...

But to the members of Acrassicauda: Rock on!
-- Charles Campbell
Austin, Texas

COMPROMISE PACKAGE
Re: Jeffrey Lord's Freedom and the View From Obamaland:

Yeah, we all know what the real Democrat party wants to do to the liberties of their dissenters. But the Republicans chose John McCain.

His response would sound something along the lines of: "I would talk to my friends across the aisle, and work out a compromise package."
-- P. Aaron Jones
Sadr City, Michigan

Senator Obama and a number of other liberals are in good company: Castro, Kim Jung Il, Lenin, Stalin, Pol Pot and Adolf Hitler, just to name a few. Is anybody really surprised?

Fidel Castro came to power, ostensibly, to remove a rather oppressive military dictatorship and stayed to perpetuate an even more oppressive communist dictatorship. In 1935, it was Adolf Hitler who said, "This year will go down in history! For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient and the world will follow our lead into the future!" Lenin and Stalin promised a "Worker's Paradise." The people of Russia are still waiting; those that are still alive. In the People's Paradise of North Korea, the people can only eat if China ships them food. In Pol Pot's Cambodia it was necessary to kill 2 million people who just couldn't seem to "get with the program."

Today, 60% of the world's population can barely afford to eat. Yet, 90% of Americans can afford to pick up a $4 double mocha latte on their way to work every morning? Why? Because America works. And as the old saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The only thing that is broke, in this country, is Liberalism. Maybe it is time to fix that.
-- Michael Tobias

Jeffrey Lord's assessment of leftist Democrats' fascist ambitions is accurate, but he fails to mention the real kicker: the electorate may actually want it. Authoritarian government requires less personal responsibility, less thinking and less input. The bet here is many Americans have little problem with having someone telling them "what to do, and when to do it."

Letter to the Editor

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