The Lonely Goatherd Blog And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats - Matthew 25:32
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Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
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All original content on MoreThings.com copyright 2008 Albert Barger or the respective authors
May 22, 2003
Elvis Costello gets stupid Elvis Costello can count few fans more loyal than me. I identify with him as a person more than any other musician ever, and count him on strictly musical merits certainly in the top ten artists of the rock tradition.
So count it as friendly criticism when I say that Elvis was plain talking stupid at a dinner where he was being honored by ASCAP on Tuesday, May 20, 2003.
"We all live in fairly dangerous times in terms of freedom of speech and freedom of expression. A lot of the songwriters that I've admired and learned from ... are people who spoke in matters of conscience as well as matters of the heart. I think that it's essential that we defend that right."
Bullshit, Elvis. What danger is this? Is John Ashcroft going to throw the Dixie Chicks in jail? Has he had Tim Robbins took out and shot? Has Sean Penn even been given a traffic ticket for trafficking in stupid ass useful idiocy?
The correct answer is NO. There is no significant censorship of political expression in America or Elvis' home in Great Britain. There's not even a hint of it. No one is trying to stop people from speaking their minds.
The only "danger" is that if you say stuff to piss people off, then they might not buy your records or go to your movies. Fine. You don't have any "right" to expect to say anything at all that you want and not have it affect how people react to you. You have a right to say what you want and not be beaten up or killed, but you don't have a right to expect me to keep buying your movies if you say stuff to make me hate you.
Even this much lesser usage of the term "danger" is not a danger to free speech, but only your pocketbook. Tim Robbins can say whatever he wants all day long. There's no danger of him being censored. Hey, knock yourself out. Sean Penn can make whatever kind of movie he wants to go out and make. He can buy cameras, film, rent a stage. Whether anyone else wants to invest tens of millions of dollars of their own money to back a movie by someone whom a good portion of the country actively hates is another issue altogether.
In summary then, anyone has a right to stand up and say whatever they want without fear of being beaten or jailed. They do not have a right to do things they know are going to piss their fans off and then whine about it if their career hits the skids.
Even this hitting of skids really hasn't happened. The Dixie Chicks are still selling quite nicely, thank you. Sean Penn was never a big star; he among others gets to use this bogus free speech martyrdom as an excuse for an already dead in the water career.
Elvis is way too smart and sophisticated for this nonsense. When he says "dangerous times in terms of freedom of speech" he implies that there is some evil fascist mob mentality out to lynch the poor brave souls who would dare to speak out. There is nothing of the sort, and he goddam knows better.
Now these are somewhat dangerous times in terms of actual DANGER to all of us. There are people trying to kill us, all of us infidels- you, me and Elvis.
It is nonsense unworthy of Elvis to even use that same word "danger" to refer to the possibility that you'll lose sales for your record if you piss on the people trying to defend us from actual danger.
