Gerald casale, a co-founder of the new wave rock group "Devo" (short for deevolution) emphasized how so many people seem to find it very comforting to adopt mindless conventions so they don't have to make individual decisions. Devo inherently recognized how america was changing in the early 80s and moving further away from its cultural …
Gerald casale, a co-founder of the new wave rock group "Devo" (short for deevolution) emphasized how so many people seem to find it very comforting to adopt mindless conventions so they don't have to make individual decisions. Devo inherently recognized how america was changing in the early 80s and moving further away from its cultural and political heritage.
Whereas carol Quigley in his great history called "tragedy and hope" discussed how the middle class society that had predominated in America involved a forward-thinking mentality in which people believed that their own individual effort would produce a better future for their individual lives. The key sociological concept was the future is not just a repeat of the past (eg, make america great again), rather, the future is uncertain but is subject to being moulded by the workings of people living in a democratic society with middle class values.
Here is one piece of casale speaking about "devo":
We had many of the same problems back then as we do now. There were the beginnings of this move to the right back then with the rise of [Ronald] Reagan. He was empowering the evangelicals. Pat Robertson and all those guys were being taken seriously and pressuring congressmen and senators. So “Freedom of Choice” was about if you don’t take it seriously, there are despots and tyrants that will take away from you. That’s the war that never ends… between leaders who are sane, democratic, tolerant and have egalitarian tendencies versus those with dictatorial tyrannical tendencies. We were trying to warn people by saying “freedom of choice is what you got.” People will choose mindless conformity because it’s more convenient. Because it’s comforting to not have to think about things and make a decision. Devo was always kind of sugarcoating heavy subjects with a dollop of satire and humor.
Also I believe that avoiding this kind of mindless conformity and unwillingness to accept individual agency is part of the concept of "authenticity" in sartre and his philosophy of existentialism - and he links authenticity with morality. Of course, much of that work came about in the shadow of fascism's horrible effect on europe in ww2.
Gerald casale, a co-founder of the new wave rock group "Devo" (short for deevolution) emphasized how so many people seem to find it very comforting to adopt mindless conventions so they don't have to make individual decisions. Devo inherently recognized how america was changing in the early 80s and moving further away from its cultural and political heritage.
Whereas carol Quigley in his great history called "tragedy and hope" discussed how the middle class society that had predominated in America involved a forward-thinking mentality in which people believed that their own individual effort would produce a better future for their individual lives. The key sociological concept was the future is not just a repeat of the past (eg, make america great again), rather, the future is uncertain but is subject to being moulded by the workings of people living in a democratic society with middle class values.
Here is one piece of casale speaking about "devo":
We had many of the same problems back then as we do now. There were the beginnings of this move to the right back then with the rise of [Ronald] Reagan. He was empowering the evangelicals. Pat Robertson and all those guys were being taken seriously and pressuring congressmen and senators. So “Freedom of Choice” was about if you don’t take it seriously, there are despots and tyrants that will take away from you. That’s the war that never ends… between leaders who are sane, democratic, tolerant and have egalitarian tendencies versus those with dictatorial tyrannical tendencies. We were trying to warn people by saying “freedom of choice is what you got.” People will choose mindless conformity because it’s more convenient. Because it’s comforting to not have to think about things and make a decision. Devo was always kind of sugarcoating heavy subjects with a dollop of satire and humor.
Also I believe that avoiding this kind of mindless conformity and unwillingness to accept individual agency is part of the concept of "authenticity" in sartre and his philosophy of existentialism - and he links authenticity with morality. Of course, much of that work came about in the shadow of fascism's horrible effect on europe in ww2.