TRIUMPH Remember Bobby McFerrins Dont Worry, Be Happy? It was used in the Reagan campaign, which irony a large number of surviving El Salvadorans probably failed to appreciate. I have not been able to listen to it since. Recently I heard a similar song - Pharrell Williams Happy Song. It put me in mind of McFerrins song, so I was suspicious of it until I saw the video with all the dancing people. Hard to look at so much joy and not sing along. But then Pharrell Williams had to go and sing his happy song for the Wal-Mart shareholders meeting. Both songs promote happiness for its own sake, which I have a hard time accepting as anything as a politically useful delusion. Besides, they seem to brush aside hardship. This too, I could accept if they hadnt both been put to such destructive political use. It is an altogether differing thing from Elton John singing for Rush Limbaughs 4th wedding. That wedding never hurt anybody, which is more than I can say for the Reagan presidency or for Wal-Mart. Instead, let me commend to you an alternative song, which squarely faces hardship, and calls for that note of triumph in us to get up... and carry on. And in carrying on, to defy, not deny, suffering. It speaks to me. youtu.be/q7yCLn-O-Y0
Posted on: Sat, 14 Jun 2014 00:26:21 +0000