Don't ask me...I'm only visiting this planet!

A week is a long time in politics, right? It is a long time in sports too…and many think a long time in music. But there is little doubt that in society a week is but a blink of the eye…a week may have long term consequences not because of the passage of time, but because of the occasional momentous events that can happen in an instant.

But if, generally speaking, a week is NOT a long time for society, what is?

Is a year a long time?

Maybe a decade?

What time frame do we see as being needed to effect momentous changes in society?

The liberal progressive march has been spread over decades….the transition from a God fearing country to a country where God is banned from the halls of public buildings has taken a mere half century.

As I pondered this my mind drifted back to the late Larry Norman and his lyrical essay on the decline of a nation, and indeed society. Written in 1973, it tells of the then decline in society as referenced by pop culture…

“Reader’s Digest

Alice is a drag queen, Bowie's somewhere in between

Other bands are looking mean, me, I'm trying to stay clean.

I don't dig the radio, I hate what the charts pick

Rock and roll may not be dead, but it's getting sick.

All over the world disc jockeys sound the same

And every town I play is like the one from where I came.

Rolling Stones are millionaires, flower children pallbearers,

Beatles said "All you need is love", and then they broke up.

Jimi took an overdose, Janis followed so close,

The whole music scene and all the bands are pretty comatose.

This time last year, people didn't wanna hear.

They looked at Jesus from afar, this year he's a superstar.

Dear John, who's more popular now?

I've been listening to some of Paul's new records.

Sometimes I think he really is dead.

It's 1973, I wonder who we're gonna see

Who's in power now? Think I'll turn on my TV,

The man on the news said China's gonna beat us,

We shot all our dreamers, there's no one left to lead us.

We need a solution, we need salvation,

Let's send some people to the moon and gather information.

They brought back a big bag of rocks.

Only cost thirteen billion. Must be nice rocks.

You think it's such a sad thing when you see a fallen king

Then you find out they're only princes to begin with

And everybody has to choose whether they will win or lose

Follow God or sing the blues, and who they're gonna sin with.

What a mess the world is in, I wonder who began it.

Don't ask me, I'm only visiting this planet.

………………………………………………………………....Larry Norman, 1973

When looking at these lyrics one must first understand the era they were written. The first clue is the title…”Readers Digest”.

In the late 60’s and early 70’s almost every house around the country subscribed to the Reader’s Digest. It was a small book filled with short uplifting stories and small humorous stories designed to inform, entertain and leave a positive and healthy message.

Today the Reader’s Digest as an organization is fighting a declining market. The Reader’s Digest magazine is long gone…and the company is little more than a direct marketing company, designed to sell products under multiple brand names. The Digest of the 70’s is no more…and is barely remembered …except by old farts like me. Even the title of this song foretold demise.

The first verse sets the scene….

Alice is a drag queen, Bowie's somewhere in between

Other bands are looking mean, me, I'm trying to stay clean.

I don't dig the radio, I hate what the charts pick

Rock and roll may not be dead, but it's getting sick.

All over the world disc jockeys sound the same

And every town I play is like the one from where I came.

The reference to Alice Cooper and David Bowie is a reference to the need to be outrageous, the need for rock and roll to depart from its musical roots and enter the world of dramatics… a trend that has not changed since then…singers to follow like Madonna, Michael Jackson led the charge toward today’s dramatics in the vein of Lady Gaga and every two bit performer who hides their lack of singing ability behind a dramatic performance.

The reference to drugs, lack of originality and that the music scene is controlled not by the people but by the record companies who bought airplay in various forms of pay to play schemes led to a very profound statement….”and every town I play is like the one from where I came”…a profound indictment on the loss of innocence, the loss of personality, the loss of character and individuality. He was not speaking of physical attributes…he was speaking of the destruction of individualism into a form of all inclusiveness where to be different was to be abhorred…the destruction of the individual.

He was foretelling the effect that society’s demands for all-inclusiveness would have on society…it was killing the very thing that made it great.

“Rolling Stones are millionaires, flower children pallbearers,

Beatles said “All you need is love” , and then they broke up.

Jimi took an overdose, Janis followed so close,

The whole music scene and all the bands are pretty comatose.

This time last year, people didn't wanna hear.

They looked at Jesus from afar, this year he's a superstar.”

Here we see a progression of the uselessness of pop culture. We see how the past is no longer relevant with pall bearers representing the hippies…and yet money is thrown at entertainers….The Beatles thought they had it sorted out…but nope…

The drugs sex and rock ‘n roll culture was taking more victims…and yet the music scene was not going anywhere. Adding insult to injury was the depiction of Jesus, not as a savior but as a superstar…one that was no longer a personal figure but a cult musical figure.

This verse continues the narrative of decline.

"Dear John, who's more popular now?

I've been listening to some of Paul's new records.

Sometimes I think he really is dead.”

Subsequent to the Beatles break up, the rumors of Paul McCartney’s death were rampant…but the music was all that mattered…and even in death, bad music, bad culture could prevail.

“It's 1973, I wonder who we're gonna see

Who's in power now? Think I'll turn on my TV,

The man on the news said China's gonna beat us,

We shot all our dreamers, there's no one left to lead us.

We need a solution, we need salvation,

Let's send some people to the moon and gather information.”

This could easily have been written today…changing 1973 to 2012….we still wonder who we are going to see…we still wonder who is in power now. We can’t determine the difference between the two major political parties because there is little difference…the threat from China remains…the search for salvation continues but today we seek answers in places far more distant than the moon.

“They brought back a big bag of rocks.

Only cost thirteen billion. Must be nice rocks.”

I am quite surprised by how accurate Larry Norman’s read of the current situation was. The rocks cost a lot…but at the end of the day are still rocks. Did the investment in getting to the moon create opportunities…no! Refusal of government to take that technology and further advance it, to develop moon colonies…to go where man has never been before…was stifled and buried with the bag of rocks.

And finally….

“You think it's such a sad thing when you see a fallen king

Then you find out they're only princes to begin with

And everybody has to choose whether they will win or lose

Follow God or sing the blues, and who they're gonna sin with.

What a mess the world is in, I wonder who began it.

Don't ask me, I'm only visiting this planet.”

The fall of nations foretold, and the reality that kingdoms are really not kingdoms. The Arab spring foretold…along with the continued demise of America.

The corruption of religion, the attack on religious freedoms, the collapse of moral guidance and certitudes…

The mess the world is in…in 1973 it was bad enough…but looking at this history it is no wonder that today’s world is so screwed up.

This song…part history lesson, part crystal ball is a warning to us all that demise follows pop culture…or is reflected by it?

If pop culture is a reflection of today’s world…it truly is a mess…

Larry Norman left this world in 2008, having been very influential in the development of Christian rock music. He was considered a fool when he wrote and performed these songs…songs that challenged the status quo…songs that demanded we be aware of the current path that leads us to a future of decline.

We refused to listen.

Whitney Houston is the latest of a long line of folk who have succumbed to the demise of this world…who have succumbed to the lie that is sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll.

Who will be next?

I don’t know, but it will be someone…because this is a perennial problem that is the result of the very lifestyles portrayed in this warning from 1973.

39 years ago, Larry Norman spoke a truth that is as valid in today’s world as it was in his.

How do we change course?

By speaking loudly, by educating the uneducated, by caring about who our leaders are and demanding they hold high moral values, by refusing to allow the excesses of pop culture to drive our society but rather by keeping our eyes firmly planted on all that is good, all that is just and all that is right.

We need to do the right thing…as corny as that sounds…

I don’t have the answers…I just know that our God given freedoms must be protected and defended at every turn…and that the liberal progressive march that has engulfed this country must be prevented from advancing any further.

The decline must be stopped…and then turned around.

We must play our part…after all, time is short…and as Larry Norman said…we are only visiting this planet.

…..devereaux