Are We Not Men?

From Gene Kelly to these guys?

In the The Wizard of Oz I think most people laugh and delight in their own surprise when the Wizard was revealed. The curtain is pulled back and the apprehension we felt for Dorothy and the others is dissolved. I have always admired those people that "pull back the curtains". It takes a certain sense of courage and insightfulness to do something heroic like that. All lofty qualities aside, just watching the curtain being pulled down by someone else is fun ride within itself, right?

Musically, one of my "heroes" are a band called Devo. Influenced by the tidal wave of televisions, computers and corporations and the advent of punk and new-wave music, Devo looked at the world and observed (part tongue in cheek) that society was not evolving at all but de-volving. They called their band Devo and early on termed their sonorous reflections as, "the sound of things falling apart."

The last time I saw them was in 1988. Pretty soon I will travel out of state to see them once again. Besides being just a fun thing to do, I find my attraction to their work the same after all these years. Certainly, the process of de-evolution has not abated. So, to sum some things up better than I could, I cite (with permission) a portion of a recent article published by internet magazine Ear Candy: http://www.earcandymag.com/. The interview portion is with Devo member Gerald Casale.

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The only thing worse than not getting the musical joke posed by Devo is getting the joke. Devo bass guitarist Gerald Casale proved this point when he told the audience to “Scream like a chimp if de-evolution is real”. Sure enough, the audience began chanting like monkeys before feeding time at the zoo. Devo stands for the notion that notwithstanding mankind’s self-congratulatory notions of progress, mankind is regressing (devolving) rather than progressing. Not knowing this allows the uninformed masses to feign shock as mankind goes down the tubes. On the other hand, knowing this doesn’t give one any real power to change the situation. The same weak mindedness that compels the masses to chant like chimps on cue also makes them blind to the cliff they are falling from. Our collective house is on fire, yet the sheep mentality of the masses prevents those in the know from putting out the blaze because the fire is handy if their cigarette needs a light. Instead of lamenting our fate, Devo revels in it. The fittest shall survive, yet the unfit may live. At the end of the day, we’re all Devo.

INTERVIEW

E.C.: Do you feel vindication or depression over the de-evolutionary philosophy being proven correct more or less?

Gerald Casale: (laughter) Yeah, people would expect that we are just kicking up our heels going ‘we were right’ but it’s not really true because ours is a cautionary tale. We were serious about it but we thought we were making a smart-ass college joke. We had no idea. That’s all I can say. We had no idea how real de-evolution would become and its not fun. We’ve lived to become in the middle of a devolved world for real.


E.C.: It’s kind of sad but you have to laugh or cry or both.

Gerald Casale: It has happened. Man has regressed. The most dark, most petty, most stupid tendencies of human nature are the ones that are getting the spotlight basically; driving the boat. It is reflected by our selection of leaders and further evidenced by the preponderance of fundamentalism around the world. I’m not just talking about Muslim fundamentalism, I’m talking about Christian Fundamentalism, Jewish fundamentalism; all the anti-democratic right wing, fear based forces that have coalesced, that have basically entered into a dirty dog fight – barnyard style – and all decent men and women are victimized by it around the world. So we are all just spectators and not merely spectators but victims to these psychotic warring factions.

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I "get the joke", so to speak, and pretty soon I'll be having a blast sharing the joke with a room full of people that "get it"....maybe.

Maybe.

Hopefully.