Having a Dylan Moment Over Here

Look, everybody...go to your Kazaa or Kazaa Lite or Gnutella Client or what have you and download and listen to Bob Dylan's song Masters of War, right now - okay? It's some powerful stuff and it's as relevant now as it was back when he wrote it. Oh...and If you think Bob has a "funny voice" or is too "old"...well then F*** you. Deal with it, he's Bob Dylan - a genius - and you're just some random person. Are you the voice of your generation? Probably not.

"Some random person", mind you, includes standout celebs, politicians, sports figures, entertainers, poets, business magnates, founding fathers - you name it. Unless you happen to be Pablo Picasso or Elvis or Martin Luthor King Jr., more than likely you haven't had as much impact on the popular culture as Bob has. Just get it - and listen to every word - and think about what the hell exactly is going on in the world right now and how deadly serious it is.

These days nobody gives a rat's ass about politics, in general. Sorry, but it's true. Your average person on the street doesn't give a damn - a Mussolini clone could be elected President due to voting errors and nobody would get up in arms about it, as long as it didn't pre-empt a Fear Factor rerun on FOX. As long as the MTV is still going strong and Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston are okay, everything is fine.

People think Eminem is outspoken and outrageous. I like Eminem, I'm not knocking him. But whereas Mr. Mathers expounds on the shocking aspects of the language for laughs and entertainment, these kind of lyrics were, for all intents and purposes, a revolutionary act. When I listen to this song I'm just in awe of the man's guts - frankly I'm surprised that Bob didn't wind up in a desert grave somewhere for writing songs like these, with some artfully perpetrated "accident" listed as his cause of death, considering the times in which they were written. Now, though, in our time, they seem even more volatile and provoking. Speaking out, whether you're right or wrong, isn't tolerated these days. Perhaps you've read about the recent Bush speech at Ohio State...if not, you should. It's damn scary. I can't even believe that it happened in the United States of America. I love this country and I want to support our president, but it's hard sometimes...I doubt Nixon himself would have had the nerve to threaten people with arrest or detain them for merely turning their back on him. The sheer gall of it amazes me.

Well, that's my little socio-political commentary for the month, tomorrow I'll return you to your regularly scheduled diet of funny articles and sites and Flash cartoons. I was just listening to that song and a lot of feelings I've had lately about the state of our nation and the globe came to the forefront and I felt like I had to say something. If you're too lazy/bandwidth deprived to download the Dylan song, you can read the lyrics here.