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January 20, 2010
Clarification
Rereading my conversation with Louis, I want to clarify the record: I meant no shots at the kids who liked punk rock in high school. I liked punk rock in high school. Rather, I meant to voice my frustration with purity tests and narrow conceptions of what's possible/desirable - and insofar as lots of high school scenes rely on an us-vs.-them narrative, with unflagging allegiance to a certain ideal prized over all else, the crux of my comment is entirely applicable to any crew of kids really into a genre. Like the kids who got mad when you liked Jay-Z and, I dunno, Jeru tha Damaja or somebody like that. Also: when I called the American public a bunch of idiots - fucking idiots, I think I said - well, I do not exclude myself from that characterization.
Waking up this morning was kinda tough, but this piece from The Awl helps kinda. Entitled "Initial Reaction To Scott Brown's Senate Victory In Massachusetts: An Imagined Monologue By The Republican Party," here's a stage-setting excerpt:
Hey you, come here. I need you to do me a favor. Hold on to this bag for a little bit, okay?
Well, yeah, it is on fire. Funny story about that, I'll tell it to you some time.
In it? Well - and get ready to laugh, this is pretty great - I filled it full of shit. Yep, shit. This, my friend, is a flaming bag of shit, and you're holding it.
Why? You're holding a flaming bag of shit and you're asking me why I filled it full of shit and set it on fire? I was you I'd be figuring out a way to extinguish it rather than doing some kind of, what do you call it, searching moral inventory on how the bag came to be full of shit and set ablaze. Lemme tell you something, kid, I've been around a while: People don't care why the bag is full of shit and on fire. They just want you to put it out. All these questions: Why did you fill the bag full of shit? Why on earth would you set it on fire? Why am I not helping you put it out? Nobody gives a fuck. You're holding the bag. You took it from me. You put it out.
Posted by caps at January 20, 2010 12:15 PM