2 weeks Ago
On his first trip to the Kennedy Center after naming himself chairman of its board last month, Donald Trump uncharacteristically mused a bit about his childhood and his early piano-pecking, claiming he has an “aptitude for music.” His uncommon reminiscence was — as usual — amplified to silly levels by his communications director Stephen Cheung, who told the press that his boss “is a virtuoso and his musical choices represent a brilliant palette of vibrant colors when others often paint in pale pastels.” Well, yes, the Village People’s “YMCA” is usually associated with vibrant rainbow colors, but I suspect that is not what Cheung was promoting.
For many of us over the past few months, music has been a refuge from the constant manic arm-waving of said virtuoso and the offensive caterwauls of the unskilled orchestra he has assembled. It’s true that all humans share the biological aptitude for musicality written into our genes over the evolutionary history of our species, regardless of our political and cultural preferences. But how we tickle that musicality by the genres and quality of the actual music we select differs dramatically based almost entirely on our cultural experience and personal tastes.
In other words, the physiological tools to enjoy music come predominantly from nature, but the kinds of music one appreciates depends mostly on nurture. I think it is safe to assume that one of the bands I am appreciating more lately — R.E.
M. — is not getting any airtime at the White House. For example, the 1987 R.
E.M. album “Document” is not likely in rotation in the West Wing, as it was largely a clap-back at an out-of-control Reagan administration (the Iran-Contra hearings having revealed the seedy underside of its foreign policy) and a moralistic Congress trying to dictate the language that could be employed in the arts.
The opening lyric from the first cut (“The time to rise has been engaged”) was a ringing call to resist the creeping authoritarianism of that time. Nearly forty years on, “Document” is more relevant than ever. One song on its playlist that feels particularly apt to our situation is entitled “Exhuming McCarthy.
” The title refers to Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI), who led a movement (eventually called McCarthyism) to rid the United States of any hint of communism, which eventually expanded to include any of McCarthy’s political opponents among those who must be identified and removed. Recognizing that the spirit of McCarthy, if not his reincarnation, was taking over in the mid-1980s, R.E.
M. wrote and recorded “Exhuming McCartney” to not just warn the country that it was being pulled back into a bad place, but also to remind it how to effectively resist. That key is buried deep in the song’s lyrics: “Let us not assassinate this man further, Senator, / You’ve done enough.
/ Have you no sense of decency, sir? / At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” Many of you may recognize these lyrics as the words of Joseph Welch, a lawyer who was the U.S. Army’s chief legal representative defending Army members accused of communism by McCartney and his posse in a congressional Committee hearing.
When Welch challenged McCartney to name names instead of just grandstanding, McCartney instead spun to accusing a young lawyer in Welch’s law firm of communist tendencies. Welch responded: “Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness..
.” and when McCartney tried to press on with his character assassination, Welch clapped back with the melodic and memorable words captured by R.E.
M., climaxing with the denunciation “at long last, have you left no sense of decency?” The entire gallery (including senators from both parties) erupted in applause, exposing the hollowness of the man and his followers. Although McCartney’s indecent song of divisiveness may have ended that day, its malady lingered on.
As mentioned earlier, it revived for a bit in the late 1980s, leading to some terrible policies but great music to help push it back. Today it is back with even more virulence, spreading rapidly and disastrously across our country. We know we all must resist, but where are our leaders hiding? We acutely lack enough of our own brave Joe Welches, particularly in Congress and the courts.
We need prominent men and women willing to risk their own safety and positions to loudly denounce the dissonant indecency of this self-styled virtuoso and his inharmonious ensemble. Fintan Steele is an ex-Benedictine monk and priest with a Ph.D.
in biology/genetics. He spent most of his life in science communications, including scientific publishing and, most recently, for biopharma and academic centers. He and his husband live in Hygiene.
Email: [email protected]..
