From: @symphony.cc.purdue.edu (null pointer)
Newsgroups: rec.music.misc,alt.rock-n-roll
Subject: Re: SNL 10/4/92- What did Sinead tear up?
Keywords: clueless politics, lame pop music
Date: 7 Oct 92 04:40:48 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.celtic
Organization: Purdue University NeXT Systems

glocke@morgan.ucs.mun.ca (Gordon Locke  ) writes:
>rjc@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Richard Caley) writes:
>>
>>Well, there is no avoiding stupidity. No matter what anyone says or
>>does, some nutter will misinterpret it. I'm sure there are still
>>people who believe that Born in the USA is a jingoistic praise of
>>America and some that havn't worked out that This Land is your land'
>>is (shock) socialist.

As well as some morons who still think you can freely apply the  
lyrics of various rock songs or other popular music pieces as 
important, well-reasoned sociological or political documents,
able to be compared with legitimate texts on the same subjects.

>	While I agree, Richard, that there's no getting around the
>ignorant misinterpretation of an artistic expression, that wasn't quite
>what I was referring to.  Someone could be _justifiably_ ticked off at
>such a thing, not overreacting.  Although I'm quite sure that most of
>the objections we'll be hearing won't be calm and reasoned.  Perhaps
>Shinehead should have exercised more caution before making such a
>violently strong visual statement regarding a subject / person so many
>feel so strongly about (look at Northern Ireland).  But I still respect
  
I would just like to state once that the Troubles in Northern Ireland(UK)
are not based on religious dispute.  It is incidental.  Furthermore,
anyone who percieves religion as the root of the Troubles should either
(a) read more about the history of the situation, or (b) visit NI and
talk with the residents.  The press in this country does an inexusably
poor job of covering the events there with any objectivity, which is
not surprising when one considers the source for the stories recieved
here.

If I have mistakenly assumed that you meant to say that religion
(esp: Catholicism) is a formative part of the Troubles in Northern
Eire, I apologize.  It is a common misconception, and one that
I feel is easily cleared up with a bit of history.

>her expression -- it's just that freedom to express may be abused, and I
>was making the point that maybe that's what happened Saturday night in
>front of millions of viewers.

I would disagree.  Freedom of expression is never "abused", as the
decision to be made about when freedom is or is not abused renders
the freedom non-existant.

She may have lost ground in persuading people to agree with her, however,
by alienating them with a reaction-intentional action.  This is
foolish and unproductive, but not altogether unexepected from
Ms. O'Connor, who, IMO, falls short of having anything valid to
say that hasn't already been said better and more eloquently by
others.  I do not need to be told that organized religion is not
flawless.  This is obvious to me, and to most everyone else.  I will
not applaud an infant standing on stage telling me that the sky is blue,
and I will not applaud Sinead O'Connor for critiquing an organization
which she, despite the fact I may agree with her, knows very little
about, speaking historically and politically.


Matthew Neill Sharp
matthew@symphony.cc.purdue.edu