All Aboard the Censor Ship!!

This coming May the school will have it's annual Spring Program across the street at St. Lawrence Church. One of the songs my class is doing is called "Over the Deep Blue Sea". The lyrics pertain to age and jumping aboard a pirate ship: "When I was one I--" (KIDS FILL IN BLANK RHYMING WITH ONE) "on the day I went to sea, I jumped aboard a pirate ship and the captain said to me . . ." There's a chorus and the kids continue rhyming with each consecutive age all the way up to ten. It's a fun song, the kids like it.

One adult at the school thought that maybe the kids shouldn't be singing about pirates and that we should sing another song. We liked the song too much to just throw it away, so we opted to just change the type of ship the kids rode on every year before they were eleven. We settled on "Sailor Ship". I wanted the "Censor Ship", but of course the kids don't know what a Censor is, so my choice was out. God, that would be cool. Kids protesting censorship. Ah, in my dreams . . .

I don't have a tiff with any of this, it's not a big deal to me any more than when I find a shitty potato chip in the middle of a handful of adequate potato chips. But again, while doing the day to day routine of getting the classroom ready, I think about what's going on. I was thinking about censoring children, about dirty words. Why the hell would society create communicable words you're not supposed to use? You're not supposed to communicate with dirty words, so how did the languages of the world come up with them? Were they left over from ages past? We just thought "Eh, we've got enough words, let's throw these ones out in the trash, never to be used again. Hey, I said that's trash, don't use it!!! STOP!"

A couple of weeks ago I was hanging out with a couple of 40 year old drunken ladies, all boasting about how nothing offends them. I retorted and said "Yeah, but is there one word, one solitary concept that really bugs you when it's blurted out? Rape? Abortion? Just a word?"

All said "cunt" was the only word that offended them.

Honestly, and maybe this is just because I'm a cold, heartless bastard, but nothing offends me. Nothing irks me in the midst of a discussion. Even if people say really cruel things about my appearance or art I couldn't give two shits. It's weird, since I'm afraid of what people MIGHT say to me, but after things have been said I'm okay, regardless if it was good or bad.

I'm offended if people tell me what to do, though, but that's different. Tell me not to say certain things? Offensive. But other than that -- nope. People get so wrapped up in certain concepts that might be related to race, gender, what have you -- but most of the time a lot of the concepts people get themselves in a knot over don't pertain to them personally. Generally, maybe (again, race, sex, etc.), but not personally.

I wonder why people do that? Is it a byproduct of the human endeavor, to understand and overcome some of our animalistic urges to fight, scream, lust, destroy? We see others do things that we consider wrong and try to change society? Others teach us? The order of society, the norm, is to love your fellow man. Maybe we put things into our "offensive" schemas to give ourselves controlled flags. Policing ourselves. Creating order within the system of society.

I answered my own questions.

Throw a wrench into the spokes and people go fucking crazy. Isn't that ironic? People get downright nasty if you raise a question dealing with those "offensive flags", almost creating disorder in their fight to make you obey the rules their society hath deemed ACCEPTABLE.

I came up with a lyric for "Switch" yesterday. I usually think cynically about my fellow artists, my peers, my liberal cohorts. I've thrown around the term "liberal conservativism" (the notion that liberals get so stuck on language, politically correct means of discourse, that nothing ever changes in the world, even if it's for a positive cause -- liberals are just as bad as conservatives in their closed mindedness even though they call themselves open minded). I call indie music listeners "Mis-phil-anthropists" in the song.

I think what I mean is that underground counterculture of any kind tends to really focus on hating the whole of general society in which it belongs. They've turned their back on the whole and turned to a close knit group of like minded individuals. My group happens to be indie rock/starving artists. One of the norms in this group is to help everybody, there is no difference between different sexes, orientations, or races. A norm that pertains to this is that if anyone starts to mention anything pertaining to those non-differences, whether it be pro or con, ears are pricked, eyes bulge out, and nostrils flare. It's just a matter of WHEN, not IF, someone will retort with a comment back, asking a question back to put that instigator in their place. Nevermind full out racists, sexists, bigots -- most of the time my group is pretty silent with those people, since they can't be "saved" and/or persuaded to see our side. But if people are on the edge, you can bet they'll be getting a talking to.

When I'm "calling out" these people in the song, I think what I'm trying to say is no matter what I'll probably offend someone along the way of trying to change the way art is made. The concept of the song fits in with the theme of Sound. Of. Static. I think art isn't doing the job it needs to do. We're so stuck on not offending anybody but just trying to put new perspectives on already established norms. Art doesn't grab me like it should. Or maybe I'm, again, numb, stupid, and naive. So, most works of art, especially rock, fall short of creating any social change, because it's not poignant enough. Today's rock is pretty weak. Indie rock isn't dangerous at all. It's for dancing, relaxing, reminiscing. At least to me. Sorry if I offended you if you're a diehard indie rock fan (or listen to Minneapolis' The Current).

I'm going all over the place in this (I think I'm just avoiding recording). To wrap it up: I'm offended only when people say I can't do certain things. I'm pretty level headed. I will never kill, steal, sexually assault, tattle. So when someone says I'm doing something "bad" I question it, write about it, since it bugs me. That's my art.

The less offensive something is the more likely it is to be discussed in broader circles.

Cunt bothers you? Maybe one way to kill the word is to not hide from it but to let it into your vernacular more and more. Discuss why it bugs you. Then we can decide to put the word away for good, or to embrace it as much as the word Fuck. Or are people offended by it because it gives the word power?

I've always thought that. You can't say cunt or else it loses it's feminine power.

Hmmm . . . so now it's ownership and entitlement rather than just a putdown to the female anatomy ("It's ours!"). At least in the men vs. women scenario. Women saying it to other women? Again, Skull and Bones, if you speak of it too much it loses it's luster. It's a secret. Secrets make things powerful.

Risque concepts are so fucking interesting to me . . . I wish I had the courage to discuss them in prose more, rather than in just my lyrics and performance.

Radiohead -- "No Surprises"