*note: if you aren't already, read xkcd.
Arcade Fire is probably one of my favorite bands ever, and certainly one of the best bands to arrive in the past ten years. My opinion is heavily biased, though, in part because Arcade Fire's music is unbelievably relatable to where I am now in life, and particularly to a subject I've been thinking a lot about lately. Here's some lyrics to ponder:
"And since there's no on that's around, we let our hair grow long, and forget all we used to know - then our skin gets thicker from digging out in the snow."
"Then we think of our parents, well what the hell ever happened to them?"
"Ice has covered up my parents hands, don't have any dreams, don't have any plans. Growin' up in some strange storm, nobody's cold, nobody's warm."
"'cause nothin's hid, from us kids! You ain't foolin' nobody, with the lights out."
"But now that I'm older, my heart's colder, and I can see that it's a lie."
Okay, I guess that's enough. (those are all from Funeral, btw, an excellent album)
There's a lot of themes in Arcade Fire's lyrics that are hitting me right now, firstly "confusion".
There's this constant idea of how things aren't really clear. Nobody is cold, but nobody is warm. We've been told our whole lives to follow our dreams, to make a plan, but we don't have either of those. And it can feel like the world is incompatible with who we are.
Then there's this idea of our parents are gone - right now, that's literally true. Obviously I still have my parents, and they love me and I love them (blah blah blah...), but I'm without them for the first time. It's not "bad", but it's not "good".
It's all about "growing up", or whatever that means.
It's like I was telling my best friend Taylor the other day: obviously we're not kids anymore, no longer children, but we don't feel like adults. We don't feel like we're part of that group yet - and in a very strong way, I don't feel like I want to be part of that group.
(this is moving from "group opinion" to "jon opinion" now)
The difference between us and children are that children are told what to do and what to believe, and they have no means (or reason, for that matter) to disagree. We are not the same: we think, and reason, and I can't help but reason that a lot of the stuff I've been fed by adults growing up is a load of crap. I don't think money is my ultimate goal in life. I don't think (or want to think) that the authorities are always right, that it's better to be stable than rock the boat. While I do think the Bible is completely truth, I refuse to believe all truth is in the Bible. There is truth outside of it, in other places, sometimes places no "adult" will look because it's too different from them, from what they've known.
So I'm not an adult either.
Sometimes it feels like they've been telling us our whole lives to think for ourselves and be ourselves and all this and now that we are it only helps us realize that they weren't necessarily always honest, or right. That this world isn't corrupt because of some other faceless entity, whether that be the devil or communism or muslims (all of which I believe exist, btw). The world is corrupt because we, people, are corrupt in it. Because people are selfish, and they want power above anything else. That's why capitalism is failing, and it's the same reason why communism failed, and theocracies fail, and everything in this world fails.
Because people want power.
And we've been told that we need to stake out our fair share of power. And at the same time, we're told that we should do what Jesus wants. And you know what? Those seem incompatible to me.
So I'm going to relinquish my right to power. My right to money. My right to all these things I've been told I need when in reality they're the things that will destroy me.
Obviously, that's easier said than done, because in reality I like all those things. A lot. So this will be a process.
I really do want feedback on this: is this just me being stupid college student? Or do any of you feel the same?
(thanks for reading, thanks x 2 if you comment)
