I’d like to start off by thanking those of you who emigrated with me from the Kazakhstan of blog sites, MySpace. I’d also like to welcome any new readers.
I’ve been blocked for a while, in part I think due to my disillusionment regarding my MySpace experience and also because I was anxious to choose a topic which set a tone here for things to come. I believe I’ve found that topic based on the emotional conflict I’ve experienced since I came across this information. Apparently it’s old news – I guess the shit hit the fan sometime in 2005 – but its news to me.
Beck Hansen is a Scientologist. I learned this last night in a chilly moment.
There is a part of me that would like to say “so what?” and simply continue to enjoy his music, as I have for years. I first discovered Beck about a dozen years ago, ordering Mellow Gold as one of my twelve selections when I joined BMG’s music club. When I received my order I popped the album into my CD player, heard the intro to “Loser”, a song I had already heard and hated, and quickly removed it. I’m still not a big fan of the song.
Two years later, desperate to find something new in my collection, I decided to give the album another chance. I skipped over “Loser”, listened to the rest of the album, and fell in love. I’ve bought every album since, even wrote a blog over in la-la-land praising his latest, The Information, which owned my car’s CD player for two weeks straight. He has eleven of the one hundred most played songs on my iPod. I don’t actively pursue any other artist with the salivating anticipation I grant Beck.
Beck, in interviews, has tried to portray Scientology as a legitimate philosophy, and addressed questions regarding his adherence to this “faith” as intolerance. The fact is that Scientology is a mind-control cult. Ultimately it’s nothing more than a high pressure sales pitch. It pursues rich Hollywood crackpots because they’re cash-cows and useful pitch-men (and –women) and it financially rapes it’s lower income victims. Its followers simply can’t be trusted as objective. What really bothers me is the number of interviewers I see taking him at his word, accepting Scientology as something legitimate but just misunderstood. One review extolled the virtues of the Scientology drug rehabilitation program, neglecting to mention that a full frontal lobotomy would be equally successful. When I look at the effect the faith has had on Cruise and Travolta, essentially melting their brains (did anyone see Battlefield Earth? Thankfully, no.), I am appalled at the laziness these reporters display in attempting to present the truth.
I’m having a very difficult time reconciling this information. I’ve been a diehard fan for years. In fact, the night I learned of this I had a nightmare. I was on a tram which had recently pulled into a station. My brother was with me. He told me that he had taken a few Scientology courses and he was happy with his progress. I tried to explain to him that it was a scam, but I was interrupted by another passenger, who told me that he too was a Scientologist and I should respect my brother’s right to choose his own beliefs. I told him he was interrupting a personal conversation and I had no patience regarding his input. He persisted to the point that I threatened him violently. When it became clear he wouldn’t heed my warnings I made it very clear I was going to kick his ass. He began punching me but the effects were more irritating than harmful, like someone continually poking you with their finger. Eventually I drove him off but when I turned back to my brother he was gone. I started to search for him but woke up before I found him.
At least a half dozen Beck songs randomly worked their way into my iPod playlist as I drove to work yesterday. I skipped over all of them, not sure how I felt or whether I could ever listen to Beck again. It was as if they were mocking me. It is so hard for me to see Beck in this light. His music is sooo fucking good! This is the apple in my Eden. Because I know I have to give it up or sell my soul and the real internal debate regards the merits of damnation, not the right or wrong.
Trying to rationalize a way to reconcile this it occurred to me that logically what I was engaging in was an argumentum ad hominem, an attack against the person. It’s a fallacy, to imbue a logical perspective with what is known of the individual to invalidate their point, ignoring the merits of what they are actually saying.
But this is art. How can you apply logic to art? Do you separate the individual from their work? I sometimes think our increasing ability to do so explains the sorry state of modern art. Art isn’t anonymous. Does it stand on its own or is it somehow tied to its creator? I think it only gains strength the more we know of its origins. As a musician myself, how can I look to Beck for inspiration now that I believe he is nuts, or worse, simply not in control of his own beliefs? There is a picture of L. Ron Hubbard on the cover of Guero!
I love Ted Nugent’s music but I abhor his politics. I was once a casual fan of Limp Bizkit but I saw them live and realized that their lead singer, Fred Duurst, was an imbecile incapable of speaking to me, and I haven’t listened to them with any enthusiasm since. On the extreme side I have no desire to see any of Hitler’s art (he was a painter). However, if I were a historian specializing in World War 2 I might want to study it in an attempt to gain understanding (I am not in any way comparing Beck to Hitler).
I am foundering already with the passing of my moral compass, Kurt Vonnegut, who spoke more truth to me than any man but my father. Beck is still here, and I am tempted to embrace him as my brother. The problem, I realize, is that I have absolutely no idea who or what he is anymore.
Further reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Secrets/
http://www.lermanet.com/beck/
http://www.alternet.org/story/29534/
http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=1710http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/magazine/06BECK.html?ei=5070&en=d4911438e2e245fc&ex=1177300800&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1177146649-mPknNwRuhYMy6ie+gsef7g
2 comments:
I totally identify with what you're saying. I have just about every CD of Beck's and yes, I too have his music dominating my ipod (I run, and his stuff really helps me move- esp. e-pro!). But you're right about the influence he is under.- I find that I need to place my own interpretation on his songs, and just try to enjoy them for the musical genious they are. But I refuse to internalize some of what he's saying.
Thanks for the comment! I'm torn - he really is my favorite artist but what I've read about Scientology seems so sinister. It's difficult to reconcile.
I like your approach. I really don't want to give him up. I'm thinking about erasing him from the iPod, just to knock him out of prominence in my playlists, and then reloading him and letting him start from scratch. It will give me the time I need to forgive and forget, in a sense...
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