Where Is The Love?

So I was at the company gym the other day at lunch doing my daily two miles on the elliptical. While working out we have our choice of about 8 TV shows to watch. I usually settle in on New Haven news channel 8 if for nothing else than to ogle over luscious anchor Sonia Baghdady. Today though I got there a little late so I had to settle for ESPN and get caught up on typical sports-stuff. I usually look to the other TV’s while listening to one of them and my eyes drifted towards something called “The Bad Girl’s Club” on the Oxygen Network.

Just looking at this (I never did bother to switch the sound over) appalled and saddened me at the same time. It’s a standard reality show where a bunch of braless twenty-somethings move into a house and compete with each other for some kind of prize. Plenty of bleeped out profanity, blurred naked images, and ill fitting clothes. With the sound turned off though, it really drove home not just how these young girls are being exploited but also how we as a society look to hatred and vengefulness for our entertainment.

My Sonia Baghdady crush proves that I’m no prude, so I’m not here to sing “down with sex and sin”. I’m actually a big fan of both. What I have a problem with is the exploitation of it. That and the fact that these reprehensible behavior patterns delivered via fiber optics to every home on the globe didn’t come with any disclaimer indicating that this is no way to act.

Now word comes out of the United Kingdom that some fellow named Tom Morello is looking to get a song by his band Rage Against The Machine (gonna go out on a limb here and say they don’t do ballads) titled “Killing In The Name” to top the UK charts for Christmas week. I have not heard the tune, so I jumped onto the global scam that is the internet to seek out the lyrics. Initially it looks like a type of anti-war sentiment is at play here which I have no problem with (although Davies did it infinitely better when he wrote “Some Mother’s Son”).

Scrolling down the lyric sheet to what would my wondering eyes should appear but the word “fuck” repeated over and over again. Sure, lets make this #1 in the UK, why not. Aren’t we all smug and superior. Wouldn’t it be great if that during a time of peace on earth and mercy mild we can have a song at the top of the UK pop charts that demonizes war while at the same time spews profanity. What a swell idea.

Another thing, these words don’t even rhyme! The Sex Pistols at least were clever enough to rhyme “queen” with “fascist regime”. Plus they spewed more vitriol more intelligently than Rage Against The Machine could ever hope for. Worse than being profane, these lyrics are pedestrian and sophomoric. But, hey let’s make it #1 in the UK. How many copies do you have to sell to be #1 in the UK anyway like, 20,000?. Sure beats actually trying to express yourself legitimately by producing a piece of art that people will actually buy because its like, you know…. good.

Again, I’m no prude. I have no problem with the word “fuck”. I’m also against censorship. If these guys want to use the same word over and over again to drive home a point instead of picking up a thesaurus and actually writing a lyric, I have no inclination to try to stop them. Isn’t it funny and a little bit sad though that a slang word meaning intercourse has devolved into the most vicious form of hate speak? Isn’t it?

So in the spirit of the season I have to ask, where is the love? Why doesn’t love sell in the same way that backstabbing nubiles do? Why can’t we express ourselves intelligently without flipping each other the bird and snapping our fingers in each others faces? Why are recording artists driving up and down the east coast jumping ugly with Wal-Mart employees because they don’t see their records stocked on the shelves? More importantly, why is all this seemingly okay with everybody else, and is actually considered to be yet another form of entertainment?