Opinion: On Springsteen, authoritarianism, and the power of the counter-culture

No artist worth their salt should serve at the pleasure of a self-declared King

Bruce Springsteen. Photo by Rob DeMartin.

The best music has always erupted from, been representative of, and lent strength to the counter-culture.

Musicians - or any artist worth their salt, for that matter - do not serve at the pleasure of the King. This should be particularly true in nations where no King is acknowledged.

Whether it is simply raging against the dying of the light, or more specifically addressing injustices of both the man-made and existential variety, music created by artists who don’t view the creative process as transactional - who place expression and creativity above fame, even if they seek fame based on their work, or have already attained it - are meant to do what real journalism once did, i.e., “to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.”

That’s the job. Full stop.

So from whence this whole ‘shut up and sing’ nonsense?

The notion is nothing new. It’s been showing its ugly face forever, it seems, or at least, whenever some listeners get it into their heads (usually echoing something some ‘Dear Leader’ type planted in their brain-pans for self-serving reasons) that music is merely supposed to be ‘entertainment,’ and hey, who wants to pay good money to go to a show and have their over-priced beer-buzz killed by some smart ass who feels the need to bring the issues of the day onto the bandstand?

The notion pre-supposes that the role of a band or artist is simply to act as a jukebox, playing the hits for concert attendees to party to, talk through, scream along with, or take selfies during. That, apparently, is entertainment. Step outside of that by - oh, I don’t know, mentioning that your country is teetering on the brink of a collapse into totalitarianism - and you’ve somehow broken the implied contract between the entertainer and the person paying to be entertained.

I call bullshit. And it’s a particularly stinky form of it that has been tossed around and smeared all over the hallowed halls of free speech and Democracy over the past week.

Most likely, you already know what Bruce Springsteen said on stage during his tour opener in Manchester, UK, last week, and has repeated a version of every night since. Just in case you haven’t heard about it, here’s a transcript of some of the most incisive bits.

At the beginning of the show, prior to the first downbeat:

Good evening. It's great to be in Manchester and back in the UK. Welcome to The Land of Hope and Dreams Tour. The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock and roll in dangerous times.

In my home, the America I love, the America I've written about that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration.

Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us. Raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring.

Around the show’s mid-point:

How we doing Manchester? All right?

The last check on power, after the checks and balances of government have failed, are the people, you and me. It's in the union of people around a common set of values. Now that's all that stands between democracy and authoritarianism.

So at the end of the day, all we've really got is each other.

Just prior to a searing rendition of ‘My City of Ruins’:

Now, there's some very weird, strange and dangerous shit going on out there right now.

In America, they are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. This is happening now.

In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world's poorest children to sickness and death. This is happening now.

In my country, they're taking sadistic pleasure in the pain that they inflict on loyal American workers, they're rolling back historic Civil Rights legislation that led to a more just and plural society, they're abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom.

They're defunding American universities that won't bow down to their ideological demands. They're removing residents off American streets and, without due process of law, are deporting them to foreign detention centers and prisons. This is all happening now.

A majority of our elected representatives have failed to protect the American people from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government.

They have no concern or idea of what it means to be deeply American. The America that I've sung to you about for 50 years is real, and regardless of its faults, is a great country with a great people.

So we'll survive this moment.

Now, I have hope because I believe in the truth of what the great American writer James Baldwin said. He said, ‘in this world, there isn't as much humanity as one would like. But there's enough.’

Let's pray.

Springsteen was widely praised for having the guts to speak truth to power. He was also widely criticized by the ‘shut up and sing’ brigade, folks who apparently have never examined a single lyric in the entire Springsteen canon, and seemed genuinely surprised that an artist so closely associated with America in the popular consciousness would have the temerity to be critical of his country’s current government.

He was also criticized in a screed published on the current occupant of the White House’s chosen social media account - one that moved freely from the bizarrely childish to the plainly threatening.

Here’s the thing, though. Springsteen was merely being who he has always been, and doing his job.

The people who are running whatever it is you might call this current slow-motion train-wreck of a government are not supposed to like it. It’s supposed to piss them off.

The forces that feel inclined to fight against authoritarianism do not come from the mainstream, the richest 1% of the population, or the oligarchy. They come from the counter-culture. From regular people, with irregular strength of character.

And as has been the case for my entire lifetime and far beyond, it will be the counter-culture that saves us, if indeed we are to be saved.

Right now, the voice of the counter-culture is under attack. There are attempts being made to rewrite our nation’s history and remove the bits that the ruling class would like to be forgotten. What Springsteen is doing here is using his platform to give voice to those who authoritarians would prefer to be voiceless.

You might notice that no one, including the current occupant of the White House, has chosen to argue with what Springsteen said based on the facts. I’ve heard no one claim what Springsteen said was untrue. They’ve merely insisted that he had no right to say it.

And that’s something anyone who purports to believe in Democracy should find chilling.

Bruce Springsteen. Photo by Rob DeMartin.