Thought du jour - 16 August 2011

"Just as early industrial capitalism moved the focus of existence from being to having, post-industrial culture has moved that focus from having to appearing." - Guy Debord

Thought du jour - 25 July 2011

"I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough." - Eugene V. Debs

Thought du jour - 19 July 2011

"People who talk about revolution and class struggle without referring explicitly to everyday life, without understanding what is subversive about love and what is positive in the refusal of constraints, such people have a corpse in their mouth." - Raoul Vaneigem

Pop Matters: The Housemartins, "Hopelessly Devoted to Them"

"In the morning, when I’m woken
By the sound of my alarm
Stretching out my arm
I want to screw it up in my palm

And I’ve taken this route to work
A thousand times or more
And when you’ve seen it all before
you tend to get a little bored

They’ve got the keys to all my doors
They hold my where and when
So I guess I’ll always be
Hopelessly devoted to them

In the office when I’m working
There’s a funeral atmosphere
I know I lost someone dear
But I didn’t see him disappear

And I’m lying in my bed
'Cause its keeping me awake
And you think there's no escape
They’ve bound me up in their tape

They’ve got the keys to all my doors
They hold my where and when
So I guess I’ll always be
Hopelessly devoted to them."

One of the great, underrated bands of the 1980s, The Housemartins combined great pop melodies and harmonies with radical and biting lyrics by lead singer Paul Heaton, who was concerned with social inequality, and the class system, often reflecting a fair dose of social gospel Christianity (although Heaton has repeatedly stated that he is an atheist). As the phrase on the cover of their classic album London 0 Hull 4 said: "Take Jesus - Take Marx - Take Hope".

I heartily recommend listening to both London 0 Hull 4 and The People Who Grinned Themselves to Death (their second and final album) while reading Situationist philosopher Raoul Vaneigem's The Revolution of Everyday Life.

Paul Kimball

Pop Matters: Billy Bragg, "Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards"

"In the former Soviet Union, the citizens demand
to know why they're still the target
of Strategic Air Command,
and they shake their fists in anger
and respectfully suggest,
that we take our money from our missiles
and spend it on hospitals instead."

Indeed.

Paul Kimball