The media, particularly British media, recently reported on an ugly incident at a concert by American rock band The Killers in Georgia (the nation-state, not the US state), and framed it as the band's fault.
I should preface my comments on it by confessing that I'm a fan of this band's music, and that this is partly due to admiration for their lead singer, Brandon Flowers. As Joe recently said to me when I expressed mixed feelings about the passing of Sinead O'Connor, all 'stars' inevitably become such because of some inherently narcissistic need to 'make it big'. There's a 'hole' in them they 'need to fill', which, more often than not, leads to mental illness, premature death, and/or soul-destroying colinearity with the very Beast system they're ostensibly singing protest songs against. And so, mindful that this could essentially be no different in his case, from all I hear and read - second-hand, of course, for only those closest to him can really know - about Brandon Flowers, he seems like a 'good egg': faithfully married, raising three children, kind to his colleagues and strangers, and delighting audiences the world over with uplifting music and show-stopping concerts.
With that caveat about 'star performers' in mind, here's what happened in Georgia:
Earlier this month, in Tbilisi, doing yet another full-stadium gig, towards the end of their performance The Killers did their usual - and universally, until now - wildly popular routine of inviting someone at random from the crowd to get up onstage and perform (usually on drums) one of their older hits with the band. In a back-and-forth exchange from the stage, Flowers attempts to suss out their musical abilities, what their name is and where they're from, simply so he can decide whether to invite them up, introduce him or her to the rest of the audience, and join in with playing a song.
Well, because the place has historically been part of Russia, quite a number of Russians live in Georgia, and to this day the two populations remain heavily mixed, economically and culturally, and because a sizeable number of additional Russians are 'hiding out' there to avoid military conscription. In the meantime, because Washington and London covet Georgia for NATO, much (most?) of the population has been brainwashed by American and European NGOs into the same kind of vitriolic russophobia as Ukrainians, so when Flowers learns from the crowd member that he's Russian and, being vaguely aware that this might be problematic, asks the crowd "if it's ok?" that he come up onstage, this happens:
For anyone who can't see the video, the crowd begins booing, and its anger only increases as Flowers attempts to 'transcend divides' by encouraging them to 'embrace-him-as-their-brother-who-is-also-there-for-the-music'. This has probably always worked for Flowers before... until it didn't! On the one hand you could say this was naive of him, that's he's just another ignorant Westerner who probably 'should have known better'. But what should he have known? That Georgians hate Russians, and that that's an acceptable state of affairs? That songs about love and fun must respectfully circumscribe that hate, leaving it untouched to fester permanently? Learning that he was Russian, should Flowers have passed him over and said to someone else, "What about you over there?! Would you like to come up and play?!"
For the media, the lesson is obvious: Flowers should have known that Russia is "currently occupying parts of Georgia" (it isn't - there are two breakaway regions that want to join the Russian Federation because they've had enough of ethno-nationalist Georgians leveraging their geopolitical 'in' with Washington to oppress them), and that this meant he was insensitive to their 'oppression by Russia'. Some headlines are even suggesting that Flowers expressly chose a Russian from the crowd just to spite his hosts and take an active political position!
Which is, of course, BS, of the highest grade. The Killers have assiduously skirted around all politics for 20 years, managing the impossible of avoiding 'categorization' in America's climate of increasingly ferocious socio-political polarization. Yet here they are, 'going out into the world', guided by their usual strategic enclosure of not taking political positions, which has worked splendidly up until now, and find that a political position is inadvertently 'forced' on them. Media reporting goes on to say that the band 'walked off the stage', whereas in fact, despite the hostile atmosphere, they finished their planned set then issued an apology:
The tragi-comic aspect of this is that The Killers are probably - at least in part, and informed by Flowers' Mormon Christian upbringing - motivated to 'spread the good news'. While their lyrics never cross the line of being overtly Christian, if you listen to their music and watch their shows, you can't help but feel 'religiously uplifted' by at least some of it, which on first hearing sounds mostly like kitschy pop, but listen closely and you'll find that their themes typically hover closely around love (both romantic and divine), faith and hope.
Well, in Georgia, having 'melted away' the outer layers of the crowd's 'daily strife and troubles' with music to "unite them in a communal experience," The Killers found that underneath was an atavistic creature that 'cannot hear the music', thus 'cannot hear the good news', and thus to attempt to do so was to 'cast pearls before swine'. That should be the lesson this band learns from this unsettling experience.
So, God Bless Brandon Flowers and The Killers, and, as always, to Hell with the media and their mind-controlled minions!
I should preface my comments on it by confessing that I'm a fan of this band's music, and that this is partly due to admiration for their lead singer, Brandon Flowers. As Joe recently said to me when I expressed mixed feelings about the passing of Sinead O'Connor, all 'stars' inevitably become such because of some inherently narcissistic need to 'make it big'. There's a 'hole' in them they 'need to fill', which, more often than not, leads to mental illness, premature death, and/or soul-destroying colinearity with the very Beast system they're ostensibly singing protest songs against. And so, mindful that this could essentially be no different in his case, from all I hear and read - second-hand, of course, for only those closest to him can really know - about Brandon Flowers, he seems like a 'good egg': faithfully married, raising three children, kind to his colleagues and strangers, and delighting audiences the world over with uplifting music and show-stopping concerts.
With that caveat about 'star performers' in mind, here's what happened in Georgia:
Earlier this month, in Tbilisi, doing yet another full-stadium gig, towards the end of their performance The Killers did their usual - and universally, until now - wildly popular routine of inviting someone at random from the crowd to get up onstage and perform (usually on drums) one of their older hits with the band. In a back-and-forth exchange from the stage, Flowers attempts to suss out their musical abilities, what their name is and where they're from, simply so he can decide whether to invite them up, introduce him or her to the rest of the audience, and join in with playing a song.
Well, because the place has historically been part of Russia, quite a number of Russians live in Georgia, and to this day the two populations remain heavily mixed, economically and culturally, and because a sizeable number of additional Russians are 'hiding out' there to avoid military conscription. In the meantime, because Washington and London covet Georgia for NATO, much (most?) of the population has been brainwashed by American and European NGOs into the same kind of vitriolic russophobia as Ukrainians, so when Flowers learns from the crowd member that he's Russian and, being vaguely aware that this might be problematic, asks the crowd "if it's ok?" that he come up onstage, this happens:
For anyone who can't see the video, the crowd begins booing, and its anger only increases as Flowers attempts to 'transcend divides' by encouraging them to 'embrace-him-as-their-brother-who-is-also-there-for-the-music'. This has probably always worked for Flowers before... until it didn't! On the one hand you could say this was naive of him, that's he's just another ignorant Westerner who probably 'should have known better'. But what should he have known? That Georgians hate Russians, and that that's an acceptable state of affairs? That songs about love and fun must respectfully circumscribe that hate, leaving it untouched to fester permanently? Learning that he was Russian, should Flowers have passed him over and said to someone else, "What about you over there?! Would you like to come up and play?!"
For the media, the lesson is obvious: Flowers should have known that Russia is "currently occupying parts of Georgia" (it isn't - there are two breakaway regions that want to join the Russian Federation because they've had enough of ethno-nationalist Georgians leveraging their geopolitical 'in' with Washington to oppress them), and that this meant he was insensitive to their 'oppression by Russia'. Some headlines are even suggesting that Flowers expressly chose a Russian from the crowd just to spite his hosts and take an active political position!
Which is, of course, BS, of the highest grade. The Killers have assiduously skirted around all politics for 20 years, managing the impossible of avoiding 'categorization' in America's climate of increasingly ferocious socio-political polarization. Yet here they are, 'going out into the world', guided by their usual strategic enclosure of not taking political positions, which has worked splendidly up until now, and find that a political position is inadvertently 'forced' on them. Media reporting goes on to say that the band 'walked off the stage', whereas in fact, despite the hostile atmosphere, they finished their planned set then issued an apology:
The tragi-comic aspect of this is that The Killers are probably - at least in part, and informed by Flowers' Mormon Christian upbringing - motivated to 'spread the good news'. While their lyrics never cross the line of being overtly Christian, if you listen to their music and watch their shows, you can't help but feel 'religiously uplifted' by at least some of it, which on first hearing sounds mostly like kitschy pop, but listen closely and you'll find that their themes typically hover closely around love (both romantic and divine), faith and hope.
Well, in Georgia, having 'melted away' the outer layers of the crowd's 'daily strife and troubles' with music to "unite them in a communal experience," The Killers found that underneath was an atavistic creature that 'cannot hear the music', thus 'cannot hear the good news', and thus to attempt to do so was to 'cast pearls before swine'. That should be the lesson this band learns from this unsettling experience.
So, God Bless Brandon Flowers and The Killers, and, as always, to Hell with the media and their mind-controlled minions!
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