Sweden Isn't Shangri-la and Finland Isn't Heaven
Musical Interlude No. 6
Liner Notes:
It has taken me much longer to prepare this post than I ever thought it would. The lyrics took several months to write. So did thinking about whether and how to record it.
At first, I thought I would lay the voice track down over percussion. Then I would add instrumental flourishes. But it ended up too busy and inauthentic. I also considered curbing the background hiss so it would be less audible. In the end, however, I thought that the hiss is appropriately stressful and emblematic of our times. So I left it in.
This is a fairly rudimentary recording, technically speaking. I recorded the voice track with Audacity, an open source audio recording and editing app. The microphone is a decades-old unidirectional Realistic Cardioid Dynamic No. 33-1073A once sold by Radio Shack. The mike itself has a 1/4 inch banana plug that I had to convert to fit the more slender input jack of my Puget Systems computer box.
Years and years and years ago, when I had hair and I fooled around in a high school rock band, I had a Sennheiser performance quality mic plugged into a PA system with dual columnar speakers, a König & Meyer 210/2 boom stand, and an Echolette two box four-speaker stack with a 100 watt tube amp which was about 3/4 the height of the "wall of sound" Marshall guitar amps of that era. I still have the boom stand, but nothing else (not even most of the hair).
There is a contemporary backdrop to this song.
The NATO war on Russia continues, and continues to escalate.
The Israeli War on Gaza approaches its first anniversary.
The impending western war on China continues to gather like storm clouds.
And, in case you had not heard, there's a U.S. presidential election just around the corner.
As I was working on this post, the 26 year old American citizen, Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, was killed by the Israeli Defense Force in the West Bank of Palestine on September 6th during an anti-occupation protest. Israel's investigators say that her death was an accident. I don't believe it. She was killed by a single shot to the head at 'Kent State range' like the four dead in Ohio. Head shots, under these circumstances, are rather precise and well-aimed and intentional. Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi attended high school in West Seattle and she was a graduate of the University of Washington, just a mile or two from where I live. I might have crossed paths with her now and again, who knows.
If the rifle and bullet used to kill Ms. Eygi was not made in America, the policy that enabled her death certainly was. The Congressional Representative from my district, Pramila Jayapal shed a political tear and extended her condolences to the deceased woman's family, as did Senator Patty Murray. Both Ms. Jayapal and Ms. Murray consider themselves "progressives." They routinely criticize the war mongers. As often as not, they still vote to fund them.
In 2003, another young American woman and a graduate of Washington's Evergreen College - 23 year old Rachel Corrie - was crushed to death by an armored Israeli bulldozer in the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip while protesting Israeli demolition of Palestinian houses. There was the usual wailing and teeth-gnashing and the politicos promised 'change.' But nothing did. It rarely does except in those exceptional circumstances of the French Revolution, the Vietnam War, the Chinese Revolution and the Cuban Revolution. And, even then, as Zhou Enlai once said, it's just "too soon to tell."
Anyway.
As I was crafting the lyrics, I was thinking about young idealists like Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi and Rachel Corrie and countless others all across the world and all across time, and I realized that I once was one, too, and, perhaps still am. Or not. Who knows. I might be more like Shakespeare's Hamlet who knows that something is truly rotten in the State of Denmark, but he just cannot... or lacks the resolve... to do anything about it. So he doesn't. Meanwhile, more than 40,000 non-combatants have been killed in Gaza during the last year. Our tax dollars at work.
There were more murders in my part of the City of Seattle. Another weekend, another shooting. Another building burned down. More stores were broken into and robbed. More cars stolen. In the nearby suburb of Kent, on August 22nd, a 56 year old bicyclist was attacked and beaten by a group of juveniles. He later died from his injuries. This sounds like a Clockwork Orange dystopia or a post-apocalyptic Mad Max world.
The violence has become rather commonplace. I differ from most Seattle residents, however, who blame "the guns" for the violence. I blame the perpetrators. I also blame ourselves. I especially blame our political class, our cultural leaders, our media morons and our legal system. People learn in school, but, mostly, they learn by imitating the behavior of others. Proverbially, the fish rots from the head. We cannot be surprised that young people of our society lie, cheat and steal when they see politicians, Wall Street financiers, professional athletes, plutocrats, entertainers, doctors, and lawyers lie, cheat and steal. We inhabit a nation-state that, historically, was incubated in theft and violence. It continues its theft and violence everywhere, at home and around the globe, all the time, as a matter of state policy, in the most blatantly hypocritical acts of criminality, all gilded with glorious and insincere pronouncements in support of democracy, freedom and personal liberties.
Speaking of glorious and insincere pronouncements in support of democracy, freedom and personal liberties...
I worked on this song instead of watching the latest 'debate' between Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris. I am being bombarded by text messages and aggressive political messaging. One candidate is a natural born dummy and the other is a ventriloquist's dummy. One candidate unequivocally supports Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and will give Israel any weapon system it wants. The other candidate (mildly) chides Israel (but will continue arming it), and supports a "cease fire" (likely after most Palestinians are dead). One candidate supports more war against Russia in Ukraine. The other supports war against China. One, Mr. Trump, yearns for a 1950s "Leave it to Beaver" America that never was. The other, Ms. Harris, promises HOPE and JOY as though her candidacy micro-doses psychedelic mushrooms, Ketamine and Ecstasy tablets.
One presidential candidate would steer the Titanic Ship of State full speed ahead into another iceberg. The other presidential candidate would sail the Titanic Ship of State full speed astern into the iceberg.
I am disgusted by the carnival. The mere act of "voting" has become a talisman for a democracy that simply isn't.
Am I depressed, you ask? Cynical? Suicidal? Not at all. Age really is a great liberator. After all, after a certain point in your life, what can they do to you other than advance your personal Doomsday Clock by just a few minutes.
I have simply become more realistic. Ergo, the introduction to this song without music.
Wow, that was a long way around to get to the beginning, wasn't it?
Actually, the long way around is the only pathway to the beginning.
So here’s the song in .wav format and also in .MP3 depending on what your reading device uses. I wanted to use .ogg, an Open Source format, but Substack can’t read it.
Sweden Isn’t Shangri-la .wav
Sweden Isn’t Shangri-la .MP3
For those who like to read along as they listen, I also have posted the lyrics below:
Sweden Isn't Shangri-la Well, Sweden isn't Shangri-la And Finland isn't Heaven; And Canada's just the northernmost colonial possession. We're far too old and have no skills that anybody needs. New Zealand doesn't want more sheep; Can you read Hindi or Chinese? So here we'll work, retire and die enserfed to capitalism; Until, one day, they start a war of nuclear cataclysm. What lessons did we learn in school? From compromised confabulators? Consume Conform Obey Comply; That made us all collaborators in the wars and propaganda and the genocided dead. We practiced seeing nothing; We turned our eyes, buried our heads. Micro-causes, pronoun wars, worrying who gets elected; None of it meant a blessed thing, just got us all distracted. Voting is nice, But just illusory pablum, If two parties decide The only folks you can choose from. A land not brave, A home not free; A mirage for all in non-democracy. We have freedom of Speech, But we can't hear what's been censored In the media owned By the point-one-percenters. Turns out the Bill of Rights Was just a piece of paper, Ignored and discarded like outhouse butt wiper. Why did it take so long to learn That we were just trained poodles? That Uncle Sugar's not so sweet, and society is feudal? Shattered illusions Jury-rigged finance; Would life really have been better in King Louis Macron's France? It's easier to quit, and for quitters to leave, than it is to resist those who lie and deceive. But, Sweden isn't Shangri-la And Finland isn't heaven; And Canada's just the northernmost colonial possession. The investments we saved, for our old golden years; won't ever be enough, and we'll be left in arrears. We were bombarded all day by marketing banter, Vaccines and polemics and A complete lack of candor. But... There are no planets we can move to; We cannot live on Mars or Venus; There is no implant that can save us, And no cure-all intravenous. Grab the bull by the horns, Best live Life like a sport; Best to die on your feet, Not on life support. Petitioning and marching, No, none of that stuff works; But age sets us free, Age's one and only perk. Skip the letters to Congress that nobody reads; Talk direct to your friends and to Gen Y & Z. The essence of wisdom is to teach what we've learned; To share our experiences, so that others won't get burned. There is no better place to go. There are no legislative fixes. Because Sweden isn't Shangri-la And Finland isn't heaven; And Canada's just the northernmost colonial possession. * * * * *