SINGING THE JOHN
BIRCH SOCIETY BLUES
After diligently studying and even on occasion attempting to create various and sundry
poems and rumor of poems, it has become my perhaps minority opinion, that the greatest of all
American literature was not encouraged in the ivory towers of our expensive universities, nor
formulated by our most revered authors, nor was it scrawled down on napkins and on the backs of
stained and torn menus in coffee houses of the late fifties and early sixties (as some would
argue). Rather it would seem, our finest poetic artistic achievements evolved among the
sweat and toil of southern cotton and tobacco fields, no less from illiterate slaves living in
unimaginably cruel and callous conditions, where death by hanging was punishment for
attempting to impart on them the ability to read. It is not altogether quite clear what
this insinuates about our modern theories of science and education, but nevertheless, I remain
stubbornly entrenched in what must somehow be an erroneous conclusion of ill-informed and
misguided prejudice.
Although the descendants of some of these early American lyricists might take umbrage at
one endeavoring to form a comparison between their enslaved and extremely ill-treated
great-grandparents and certain, mostly light-skinned beat poets of the late fifties and early
sixties, nevertheless these more modern and not particularly at all persecuted imitators, somehow
came to understand and comprehend the supreme advantage of average people singing together in
attempted harmony toward a common socio/political cause. Consequently, in the early nineteen sixties there definitely appeared to be "somethin' happenin'
here", ¹ but exactly what such common cause might be was not at the time,
altogether particularly clear (and perhaps even to this day remains somewhat clouded).
Thus the television show "Hootenanny" was born, much to the delight of many of our
nation's youth and certain record company and television executives and likewise, to the utter
dismay of most American parents; in particular those who believed in the vice president of Ike,
attended the local fundamental church and who thought that the "Red scare" reprobate hearings of
Senator Joe McCarthy were fundamentally, a good idea. Looking back, it is perhaps
difficult today to comprehend that such cutting edge 'radicals' as The Limeliters, The Kingston
Trio and The Brothers Four would cause much of a stir. But these were conservative times,
when Alan Freed had only a short time ago coined a name for "that satanic music", Buddy Holly
had worn thick, plastic-rimmed glasses and most record companies still insisted on a coat and
tie, wholesome 'happy days' appearance (if not reality).
As hard as it may be for some to imagine today, folk singer Pete Seeger was banned from
Jack Linkletter's (son of Art Linkletter) "Hootenanny" as perhaps, a final nod by the
television industry to the waning genocidal cancer of McCarthyism, ² thus
inaugurating a mass exodus from the show of the best talent available: Bob Dylan, Joan
Baez, Peter, Paul & Mary and several other relatively unknown "folkies" decided to boycott in
protest. Not surprisingly, the fledging careers of many eventual folk and rock legends
were given a solid boost in the right direction, roundly and soundly condemned by flag waving,
Bible thumping, self-aggrandizing, self-righteous preachers of doom and, in the naturally
resulting reciprocal, worshiped and revered and mostly made millionaires, by the fun loving,
freedom seeking youth of the time. Perhaps a soon-to-be-penned song of the evolving
counter-culture could have contained the now obvious: "So you want to be a rock-and-roll
star, then enlist your parents in a self-righteous war. . ."
It may be true that some form of very limited societal restraint is necessary to hold
together the fragile ties that bind our modern civilization. ³ But censorship is
always a very dangerous thing for many reasons, not the least of which is it turns brothers
against sisters, fathers against their own sons and those of one hue in our Creator's rainbow
of We The People Of Planet Earth against those of a slightly different variation of color and
culture. And as we move on into the present 3rd millennium after the birth of the
founder of Human and Civil Rights, many conservative Americans tragically continue to equate
this most liberal of all major historical personages with religion, valid protest with lack of
patriotism, freedom with 'liberalism' * and natural change with evil.
Although I myself now earn a comfortable living from internet commerce, I continue to have
reservations regarding certain technological changes that have happened in my own lifetime. In
addition to the obvious foolhardiness of developing ever more destructive weaponry leading
toward possible (some might insist probable) global annihilation of all species including our own,
the recent ability to tie everyone on our planet together economically and 'socially' by
electronic means without the necessity of personal confrontation and interaction poses most
definite long-term negative probabilities. Our children have
most certainly lost a considerable amount of innocence in recent years and it is undoubtedly a
psychological and resulting, ongoing societal negative, that our nation's youth are spending
more and more time in front of computer, television and motion picture screens and less and
less time interacting in what for centuries, has been considered the normal rough-and-tumble
play of peer-pressure adolescence.
We must be careful in restricting and in guiding our children through the modern maze of
political, social and technological complexity, remembering that we ourselves not long ago,
refused to trust anyone over thirty and that some of us also, got into a great deal of trouble
accordingly. Parents tend to quickly forget what they themselves embraced and rebelled
against in their youth and many, in their often well-meaning desire to protect their sons and
daughters from duplicating their own mistakes, unwisely squelch and scorn the youthful
ambitions of their offspring, not allowing the natural creative process of growth through
experience to freely flow and forgetting or never perceiving, that allowing our children to
learn from mistakes is part of the necessary formative process toward becoming conscientious
and well-rounded citizens. Criticizing and condemning children, rather than patiently
applying kind and proper direction from afar, is perhaps the very worst form of unpatriotic
behavior, as it leads to the creation of future destructive social maladies and the
resulting, gradual (and sometimes violent revolutionary)
unweaving of the positive fabric of our ever-fragile culture and civilization.
If there is a positive lesson to be learned from our volatile political and social upheaval
of the sixties, it is perhaps most pronounced in the evolution of the Rosa Parks/Martin Luther King,
Jr. experience, where a few mainly unknown people of apparent upright heart and sound intention,
ultimately conspired together in peaceful coalition with many thousands of like-minded
individuals, to gradually change a no longer deniable (due to stark televised images) overt
racist reality of American society. In studying the life of King and perhaps more
importantly, evaluating the mature content and effective symbolism of his unequaled modern
oratory, we can see the gradual realization of a very brilliant and perceptive individual moving away from
dogmatic traditions of both conservative and liberal persuasion toward a calibrated search for
the truth centered on Human Rights and social justice, underscored with hands-on, practical help
for the oppressed, sick and poor.
4
In a proper search for what is true and correct and perhaps more importantly, what
actually works toward the collective good of our fragile planet and its war-weary inhabitants, one must
be willing to disregard both conservative, liberal and other bias. Individuals who insist on
habitually defending conservative or liberal positions brand themselves into a black hole of
conceited, self-serving and worthless drivel. A better idea, it would seem, is to attempt to pierce
the generational darkness and twisted deceit of whatever culture of lies we are born into,
letting conservative, moderate and liberal chips of fallacy fall where they may along the
wayside. And in doing so, allowing a solid political and social platform of all-partisan
perspective to develop into a rational, cohesive and workable whole. To defend a religious,
traditional, modern or scientific perspective rather than to search for what is actually
true is to become, what the founder of Human and Civil Rights may have referred to, as
immature "children, sitting in the marketplaces", 5
who did not perceive the darkness of their superstition and
vain traditions until the flood of Armageddon's 'starwars' nightmare reality came and turned
their New World Order of lassie-faire unbridled capitalistic crapulence into a Babylon
of profuse burning rubble.
Paul Robeson on the
Web
M.K. Gandhi
Institute
"We must be the change we
wish to see" -- Mohandas K. Gandhi
DEDICATED TO: Paul Robeson; actor and All-American athlete, political activist,
vigorous opponent of racism and champion of Human and Civil Rights, who stood up against the
nauseating and insipid cancer of McCarthyism and to Arun and Sunanda
Gandhi, founders of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for
Nonviolence.
Credits:
1. "For What It's Worth" by Stephen Stills; from The Buffalo Springfield (1967).
2. Pete Seeger, subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1955, was one
of the few called to face this lunatic tribunal who declined to invoke Fifth Amendment privilege. In 1961 he was
sentenced to ten years in prison, though fortunately, this conviction was subsequently overturned. Among many
other significant contributions, including the now famous social anthem "Turn, Turn, Turn" (see
Season for more details), Seeger is perhaps
more responsible than anyone else for promoting the tradition of the
so-called "spirituals" into the mainstream of America's consciousness; he introduced the now famous
song "We Shall Overcome" to the American Civil Rights Movement, based on the original slave anthem "I
Will Overcome". In the latter part of his career, Mr. Seeger has become a strong
environmentalist, perhaps concluding that it will do little good to achieve a semblance of
Human Rights and social justice if our planet is no longer inhabitable, which seems to make a
whole lot of common horse sense to practically everyone except the current Bush Junior
Administration and the 108th Congress of "Gilded Age" corporation-greased malfeasant
miscreants.
3. Those who pretend to believe in total non-censorship are generally those who have not thought
such a conclusion through very carefully. 'Adults' have been known to stretch limits way
beyond what is decent to detail here, including graphic depiction of sexual acts between adults
and small children and even animals with children, films of actual rape and murder and
worse. In addition to not allowing the cry of "fire" in a crowded theater, there are a few
other restraints that are necessary if we are to achieve a reasonably livable, safe and sane civil
environment. Nevertheless, the practical and adverse implications of even very limited
censorship should be weighed very carefully before any legal societal restrictions are applied.
4. All the more amazing, due to the fact that he was still a young man at the time of his death,
Martin Luther King, Jr. was gradually changing from an important American champion
of desegregation into an international champion for the larger picture of Human and Civil Rights,
which incorporates many diverse issues such as help for the sick and poor, environmental awareness
and preservation, peace and social justice, free public education, individual and collective
freedom and several other important issues into a singular cohesive Just Cause. As Pete
Seeger and many other sixties activists have moved toward strong environmentally conscious
positions, likewise historically environmentally aware individuals such as Jesus, Albert
Schweitzer and Jacques Cousteau also display strong empathy for the sick and poor; King himself
was planning a national "Poor People's March” even up to the night before his untimely
death. (For more information on this singular Just Cause rising from the ashes of
history's ongoing war and rumor of war, see Key of History: Theory of
Social Justice and Peace.)
5. Matthew 11:16
*FootNote: It has been the author's unfortunate experience to discover that most modern
individuals who consider themselves liberals are in reality, quite conservative within their own
mindset of conformity. Many of those involved in so-called liberal causes, who would never dream of admitting that they are prejudiced
or against freedom of speech and religion, often go to very great lengths to prevent people of conservative
and often even moderate persuasion from having a voice at their organized "liberal" events. Again,
many 'liberals' the author has encountered at Unitarian and similar-type gatherings often
become very upset when someone attempts to question some of their own pedantic sacred cows, such
as the modern 'half-right-at-best' Synthetic Theory Of Evolution, the obvious and overwhelming
evidence of the existence of evil as a separate reality from good within our modern species and
the validity of education as somehow being, a 'one-trick-pony' panacea for the salvation of the masses. It
would appear from careful observation that modern people who insist on branding themselves as
"conservative", "moderate" or "liberal" are in the reality of our often uncompromising day-to-day
experience, very similar hypocritical and restrictive peas sprouting from a common prejudicial
pod of superficial traditions, superstitions and often baseless assumption. Many modern
'educated' individuals have adopted the insane notion that
theories of God and science do not belong in the same discussion, whereas a 'science' that does
not carefully weigh evidence for or against a Creator is no better than the fundamentalist
pharisaic diatribe of the self-righteous purveyors of doom noted here within the main
text above. (See The
Myth of Modern Science, The
Tree of Knowledge, The
Theory of Intelligence, Of
God and Monkey Business and Adam
and Eve's Apple for more information).
**FootNote II: Title inspired by an early Bob Dylan song entitled “Talkin’ John Birch
Paranoid Blues”; officially released on The Bootleg Series (1991), though it traces from
very early in his career.
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