If you didn’t see Bruce Springsteen on Sunday’s 60 Minutes…..Well, I’m just sad for you.
But, not to worry. Fortunately, I’m able to provide you with the last few paragraphs of the segment. (Regrettably, for the musical parts of the segment, you’re on your own.)
“I guess I would say that what I do is I try to chart the distance between American ideals and American reality. That’s how my music is laid out. It’s like we’ve reached a point where it seems that we’re so intent on protecting ourselves that we’re willing to destroy the best parts of ourselves to do so,” Springsteen says.
Asked what he means, Springsteen tells Pelley, “Well, I think that we’ve seen things happen over the past six years that I don’t think anybody ever thought they’d ever see in the United States. When people think of the American identity, they don’t think of torture. They don’t think of illegal wiretapping. They don’t think of voter suppression. They don’t think of no habeas corpus. No right to a lawyer … you know. Those are things that are anti-American.”
[snip]Springsteen says, “It’s unpatriotic at any given moment to sit back and let things pass that are damaging to some place that you love so dearly. And that has given me so much. And that I believe in, I still feel and see us as a beacon of hope and possibility.”
Springsteen sees himself following a long American tradition reaching back through Vietnam and on to the Great Depression.
“There’s a part of the singer going way back in American history that is of course the canary in the coal mine. When it gets dark, you’re supposed to be singing. It’s dark right now,” Springsteen says. “And so I went back to Woody Guthrie and Dylan and the people who said, say take Pete Seeger, who wants to know, doesn’t want to know how this song sounds, he wants to know what’s it for.”
“What needs to be said, in this country at this moment, in your opinion, what needs to be said?” Pelley asks.
“I think we live in a time when what is true can be made to seem a lie,” Springsteen says. “And what is lie can be made to seem true. And I think that the successful manipulation of those things have characterized several of our past elections. That level of hubris and arrogance has got us in the mess that we’re in right now. And we’re in a mess. But if we subvert, the best things that we’re about in the name of protecting our freedoms, if we remove them, then who are we becoming, you know? Who are we, you know? The American idea is a beautiful idea. It needs to be preserved, served, protected and sung out. Sung out.”
BRU-U-UUU-U-U-UUUCE! ….Ahem….. Alright, now back to our regularly scheduled programing.
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UPDATE: I wrote this in a light tone, as I happen to be an unrepentant Springsteen fan, and was poking fun at myself. But the points he makes are not trivial at all, they are essential.
Oh, man. If there’s anyone whom I want to teach me about the world and politics, it’s a rock star. Why they’re as smart as the teenagers that they reach.
Bruce: “It’s unpatriotic at any given moment to sit back and let things pass that are damaging to some place that you love so dearly….
Guys, that’s like a wife or girlfriend saying that they love you so much that they will nag you to death until you become the person that they imagined. That’s not how you show love–or patriotism.
Woody says …
Guys, that’s like a wife or girlfriend saying that they love you so much that they will nag you to death until you become the person that they imagined. That’s not how you show love–or patriotism.
You can divorce your nagging wife but not the country you love. And some crazy men have killed their nagging wife/girfriend like that crazy cop who is all over the news today.
LA Res, you don’t get it. People who constantly attack you don’t love you.
Our country, the one being attacked by the left (not the other way around, as you implied), cannot leave its citizens. However, real patriots can point out the contradiction in what the left says is patriotism versus what they show.
And, what an absolutely pathetic analogy of the crazed killer with our country. Our country does not murder people who leave it or criticize it.
I was watching the news about the crazy/sick cop who killed six people at the time I wrote my comment, so I wrote that in there about crazy men killing girlfriend/wife. Not meant to be anything other than statemnt about crazy/sick bastards who kill women instead of just leaving them alone. Nothing to do with country or any analogy.
Woody,
I will tell all my father, god-father and uncles who fought in World War II they are not “real patriots†because they are not white conservative republicans. I will pray that my two uncles, who died in the war, don’t hear rhetoric by knuckle-heads like you who don’t get it.
LA Res, serving one’s country is appreciated, but it doesn’t give a person a lifetime pass to say whatever they want about it and not be challenged. Tell them that.
I consider John Kerry a traitor from his Vietnam activites. Bruce Springsteen thinks that being a traitor is fine if his country is wrong–in his mind. One can can take different positions, but there’s a time to become part of the UNITED States rather than giving encouragement to our enemies.
You may not like the play that is called because it wasn’t yours or if the last one didn’t work, but you don’t run your own pattern, block for the other team, fumble the ball on purpose, or punt on second down. Either be a team player or get off the field, so that committed, loyal people can win the game.
Attacking the country? You mean like that chorus at the “Values” debate that sang why god does not bless Amnerica anymore?
Woody,
Sounds like you would love living in Cuba or China they don’t have these “traitors” you seem to hate. Cuba and China has lots of “real patriots” who never publicly speak much less sing any words criticizing their government leaders.
I also wonder if you will be speaking or singing your praises and never criticizing our beloved U.S. president when it is a woman named Hilary Clinton
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LA Res, it sounds to me that “you would love living in Cuba or China” if you support our socialistic Democrats. There you never get input. Here, your voice is heard…and heard, and heard, and heard. However, there comes a point where the best solution to a problem like Iraq, once we’re committed, is for everyone to work together for a more rapid end than continue to give encouragement to our enemies to hold on.
I’ll criticize Hillary Clinton, but I won’t go so far as to wish that America would lose in Iraq or to help our enemies, which goes beyond criticism and borders on treason.
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rlc, I don’t know about the values chorus, but it sounds as if they are not asking for God to stop blessing us as much as stating a fact and a warning. That’s not the same as the no-values chorus of the left which hopes for Satan’s victory.
Woody,
However, there comes a point where the best solution to a problem like Iraq, once we’re committed, is for everyone to work together for a more rapid end than continue to give encouragement to our enemies to hold on.
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There are those including former generals who believe the continued occupation of the U.S. in Iraq is what is giving encouragement to our “enemies†to hold on. By the way who are the enemies now? At the start of the war it was the “axis of evilâ€Â, the Iraqi army and Saddam Hussein now who is enemy and what is our objective in Iraq? The country of Iraq is being divided into three regions and the Iraq we were trying to save no longer really exists.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8DPV-qDKcQ