Does Metallica equal America?
Posted by: James Lewitzke in Cool Sites, Crazy Ideas, History, MusicThere are many similarities between the Heavy Metal Band and the United States of America.
Here is an interesting article I came across that outlined the Rise and Fall of Metallica, and compared it to the Rise and Fall of American Liberties.
Have the glory days of America really passed, along with reaching the point of bloviating corruption, as some say Metallica has already?
By no means do I believe that our old society is perfect (Slavery, technology, etc.), however Americans during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries did have much less restrictions and more freedom than we do now.
Whether or not both of these bodies have really “changed” is debatable in and of itself. As the title of the article states, don’t take the readings TOO seriously, because both Metallica and America have good parts and bad parts. Not to mention I can go on record and say Metallica is my favorite Band.
What? You like Metallica more than Tool?
It’s hard to guess whether people had more freedom a century or two ago versus today, without a time machine or a fountain of youth. When they wrote about all ‘men’ being created equal, of course, slavery was legal, women couldn’t vote, nor could people who didn’t own land or follow the proper religion … Borat would be right at home. But they didn’t have a record of every bank transaction, personal interaction, and so on. Most cell phones can be used to listen to a person while they’re turned off. Not that that’s necessarily evil if it means a better world for everybody, but that hasn’t been the case so far. And we’ve built much of the infrastructure to 1984.
Don’t worry Forrest, Tool’s really good too (I have three of their albums).
It’s hard to say if anyone had freedoms at any time (From a solipsists’ POV, but that’s a whole another argument entirely).
It’s interesting that you mention that “it’s not necessarily a better world for everyone”. Sometimes it can be difficult to draw the line between “liberty and freedom” with “security and order”. Just how many rights should people have, without causing everyone else to live in fear of being robbed, murdered, etc.?
This is one of the reasons why many aspects of the law, history, etc. aren’t always black and white. And they are often looked at from a subjective, personal point of view, rather than believing everything you may learn in schools and current events among other things, to me, anyways.