(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Music, Sex and the Struggles for Progressive Change that Began in the late 1940s [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-07 Santa at Woodstock Many factors determine whether struggles for progressive change breakout and our successful. If you review the periods of progressive change in America, you will find that its driving sources varied a great deal. Slavery had a more singular catalyst, the horrible injustices of slavery itself. However, some rebellions were likely preceded and included traditional African song and dance throughout the hundreds of years slavery existed. Music and song were actually used by both the Union and Confederate army before and during battles. The Union side also liked to play Dixie before battles, giving it different words, ironically, as the tune seemed to move them. Bag pipers were an important tool to motive combatants going back 3000 years in Scotland. To this day, their sound stirs a listener’s emotions. They need not be used for motivation only in the services of war. Four Intense Decades of Struggle Civil Rights March on Washinton Looking at the many years of struggle which arose starting in the late 1940s, we see another rebellion emerging against Jim Crow, the modern-day replacement for slavery that oppressed African Americans. That struggle was itself a key catalyst which set many other struggles in motion. Not only did it arouse the conscience of many white Americans, but it also set an example for others to launch struggles against other repressive aspects of our society. Triggering a Civil Rights Movement, an Anti-War Movement, a Women’s Movement, a Gay Movement, a Sexual Freedom Revolution, Native American Movements and eventually many others. While America is a Democratic Republic, it has a political and economic system along with a stagnant, often puritanical dominant national culture which severely limits meaningful democratic control to rich and powerful white men. Enter Rock n’ Roll Chuck Berry Enter the music and culture of Rock n’ Roll. Previous black music such as Jazz and blues, going back to well before the 1920s, also played a catalytic role in its development. Pivotal stars like Elvis Presly and Chuck Berry were arguably among of most famous early developers, coming on the scene in 1954 and 1955 respectively. They built off the sounds that emerged in the early 1950s, like Bill Haley and the Comets who did “Rock Around the Clock.” In particular, not so much for the words of the songs, but from the rapid beat and by the way they gyrated and moved to it, Elvis and Chuck were widely credited with a brand-new trend music trend. Elvis was even banned from being shown on T.V. from below the waste! Which by then the music industry and the general public began calling it Rock n’ Roll. It included many variations of expression but was mainly named after the liberating dancing motion the music generated. It was scandalous, rebellious and salacious according to many mainstream establishment figures and preachers. A Selective 1950s Version of Fascism One thing you have to appreciate is the degree of racism, conservatism and sexual puritanism than had dominated mainstream culture during the early 1950s McCarthy era and before. Rebellion against racism by the late 50s was in the high gear and was soon followed by the emerging sexual revolution, literally put in motion by the new Rock n’ Roll music which was intertwined with it. A scenario, long ago postulated by Dr. Wilhelm Reich, theorized that sexual repression resulted in biological pathologies in the body structure which also took root in the mind and behaviors. He further wrote about sexual repression being an important tool to lock the masses into submission to patriarchal authority figures. And interesting if brief look at Reich’s methods for dealing with therapies to alleviate the effects of sexual repression can be found in this article. Though not exactly a direct cause of the rebellion against authority and conformity, the emerging liberated feelings that stemmed from Rock n’ Roll were both physical and sexual and played a catalytic role in the rebellions and the sexual revolutions that went on for the decades that followed. Do not let the let the controversies of Reich’s life after he was forced to flee Nazi Germany and entered the U.S. detract from the great discoveries he made earlier in life. He was viciously attacked during the McCarthy period because of his former left-wing history and wound up on shacky ground with his scientific endeavors and experiments in areas far from his former training as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. Sexual Freedom: A Threat to Authority Figures Scene from “Heaven Help Us”. Some believe that one way to begin to work free people from these sexual chains was to put the body in motion, which is exactly what many kinds of dancing does. Severe penalties, for example, were enacted on slaves who were caught doing traditional African dances with accompanying rhythmic sounds on their rare days off of work. The slave owners instinctively knew that rebellious activities could organically flow from them. Likewise, religious puritans in the 50s feared the behaviors and sexual expression Rock n’ Roll could generate. I recall this in my own experiences at Catholic high school dances in which nuns and brothers were present to prevent close contact and dancing considered too sexual. Such behaviors were depicted quite accurately in the film ”Heaven Help Us”, a true to life satire on the lives of Catholic high schools modeled after the same one I attended in Brooklyn. A must see if you attended Catholic schools of that era. Huge anti-Vietnam War protest in the 1970s. The spontaneous youth movement peaked numerically with Woodstock in 1969, the 3-day concert itself included a rebellion against paying for admission, heavy thunderstorms and lots of sexual expression. But there was no way to organize the large group that attended in a socially and politically constructive direction. Activism elsewhere however continued to flourish and went in many directions and gave birth to a number of important movements and struggles. Culture and Change The lesson to be learned is a simple one that is often overlooked by political activists. Which is that although cultural practices can be coopted and turned against themselves, they are an essential part of engineering and organizing political change. The greatest progressive changes in America have not begun in the halls of government. Those who opposed sexual orthodoxy and repression faced great emotional dangers and often risked physical life and limb, and still face them today. Other struggles came about by joint efforts of ordinary Americans. Workers fought bravely and bitterly from before the Civil War for the living wage salaries many of us have today. FDR finally recognized the rights and strength of the industrial unions, but government never was a factor in organizing them. Unions Decline Union membership today has fallen by 50% since the late 40s. The fascists are more brazen today in part because of the severe decline in union strength, down from a high of over 30% of the work force in the late 1940s to less that 15% currently. It stands to reason that governmental action by opponents of fascism alone may ultimately not be enough to vanquish them given the backing the fascists themselves have in high places and in the national media. And especially given the apparent Justice Department unwillingness to indict the treasonous members residing in our own Congress along with the other which planned and backed Trump’s January 6th Coup attempt. As Important as it is, Voting may not be Enough A cultural anti-hero of the fascists. We currently lack mass organizations capable of organizing a national challenge to the fascists under a united cultural/social/political banner. Exactly how to merge progressive culture and even music with politics in community and larger organizations is the subject for another article and must be both funded and socially beneficial and relevant to the members. The right and the fascists have been using popular culture combined with patriarchal sex repressive strategies (headlined by attacks against abortion and reproductive rights, birth control, gay and transgendered individuals and sexual behaviors not connected to reproduction) to hammer across their depraved message (the poster of Rep. Marjorie Greene is an example), which is also to promote America’s deadly gun and white supremacist culture. Rather than look at the MAGA movement strictly in political terms, it has also become a home for angry, sexually repressed and pathologically damaged individuals as well as a way for Republicans to “normalize” these damaged behaviors by flattery and affirmation of these traits and exploit their prejudices and misogynist tendencies in the men, or submissiveness to male authority and culture in the women. A Problem with Democratic Imagery While we all know that the Republicans really stand for, they utilize and present to the MAGA crowd an appealing bad guy, angry and rebellious image which is swallowed hook, line and sinker by many. They portray Democrats as establishment bean counters and recruit bizarre groups not associated with mainstream political thought that have ridiculous and confusing anti-establishment views. Americans in general tend to be paranoid about trusting government, sometimes with good reasons if you can remember the 60s and the 1968 Democratic Convention. Past governments have also lied like a rug, but not approaching the level of lies and deception achieved today by the Republicans, but lie they have. Democratic politicians have not done enough to counter such images and propaganda. Food for thought when trying to organize supporters and voters. Obituary for an Era The Jefferson Airplane once sang these verses from “We can be Together”, a song about an overreaching youth counterculture that would never be realized but nevertheless challenged “the establishment” that backed the Vietnam War, J. Edgar, and the CIA. It’s reads today like an obituary for those hopes and dreams for aging 60s activists like myself: We can be together Ah you and me We should be together We are all outlaws in the eyes of America In order to survive we steal cheat lie forge f@#k hide and deal We are obscene lawless hideous dangerous dirty violent and young But we should be together Come on all you people standing around Our life's too fine to let it die and We can be together All your private property is Target for your enemy And your enemy is We We are forces of chaos and anarchy Everything they say we are we are And we are very Proud of ourselves Gracie Slick of the Jefferson Airplane. This is the type of raw emotional song, along with many others, that reached out to millions of listeners, but never had a chance of fully penetrating most young minds. Why? Because culture, class, race, youth rebellion and politics remained largely separate entities. Of course, we’ve since learned that music and song alone cannot make change and progress, but neither will change come about without it. To the extent it helps motivate us and puts progressive politics in motion, it is essential. Towards a Progressive Cultural Approach We need to develop a positive culture of our own to defeat fascism. A message of both progress and change and dedication to addressing and solving America’s problem to counter the right, which makes heroes out of villains. We need to be able to organize and call upon large numbers of supporters to both vote and be prepared to demonstrate publicly in support of democracy and human rights. I am as certain as the sun will rise tomorrow that they are plotting another coup of an undetermined nature. 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