From: charless@sco.COM (AutoPope)
Subject: Re: Esoteric Skinhead O'Connor (Was stuff about Mac D's)
Organization: The Somewhat Contagious Operation, Inc.
Date: Thu, 08 Oct 1992 07:54:13 GMT


In article <1asgoaINNfkl@bigboote.WPI.EDU> padutton@wpi.WPI.EDU (Peter Alan Dutton) writes:
>In article <1992Oct6.111639.7977@ac.dal.ca> 01sybok@ac.dal.ca writes:
>>In article <1992Oct5.134746.8281@umbc3.umbc.edu>, potler@umbc4.umbc.edu (Laura Potler (GSFC)) writes:
>
>>> peeve: skinhead o'connor. where i agree with some of her ideas, her methods
>>> 	are a bit extreme.
>
>>This reminds me. My aunt told me that Skinhead was on Saturday Night Live 
>>a while back, and was singing with a lot of Jewish religious things around her
>>(I don't know what sort of things she had as props, since I don't know anyone 
>>who is Jewish... not counting a couple of net-people). Anyway, at the end of 
>>the song she holds up a picture of the Pope, which she rips to shreds, and says
>>"Let's fight the real enemy." Does anyone know what the HELL she was talking 
>>about?

According to the news in the UK, it was a political statement about the
Catholic church hierarchy's formal opposition to freedom of choice in
an issue to which innumerable flame wars in quite a few newsgroups
are devoted.

>This was just this past weekend - she had a Star of David around of neck
>(which she has since mentioned reflects her interest in Rastafarianism), a
>few candles, and sang a stream-of-consciousness a capella rant about 
>racism and child abuse, which was inoffensive, but tiresome and trite. At
>the word "evil", she holds up a picture of the Pope, and proceeds to do what
>you say.
>
>I didn't understand her point either, but apparently, she has always believed
>that organized religion is evil and somehow responsible for her being 
>abused as a child. How organized religion is too concerned with material
>things. Maybe she'll choke on all the dough she's raked up in the last few
>years.

Actually, that's a point I agree with 100% (the bit about all
organized religion being evil).  On the other hand, she sure
picked a dumb -- politically tactless -- way to make the point.
Those organized religions have a lot of clout, as Mr Rushdie has
discovered; and they have an awful lot of dumb zealous supporters
who are ready and willing to dehumanize anyone who doesn't follow
the divine party line.  Merely not believing that the man in the
uniform has a hot line to god and Must Be Obeyed In All Respects
is bad enough for some of the sad control freaks out there.  Most
people -- most believers, even -- are too smart to buy that line
...  but I'm willing to bet that somewhere, right now, there's a
nut-case with a gun and a bible trying to figure out how to get
close enough to give Sinead O'Connor a lesson in ``loving
obedience'' ...

The existence of this shit-headed minority is a mega-peeve.  I
blame 90% of what's gone wrong with human history on the tendency
of people to follow the herd and refuse to think for themselves
or take responsibility for their own thoughts and deeds.  I think
it's also not entirely unconnected with the point she was trying
to make on TV.  Religion as a teleological tool isn't innately
bad -- merely unfalsifiable -- but religion as a political tool
is downright evil ...

>Antipeeve: Her career is probably all but over now.

I hope not.  I for one will continue buying her recordings.  I
happen to think she's great.  (On the other hand, I have a
nostalgic hankering for the days when it was truly possible for a
popular musician to be gratuitously offensive.  Shit, my earliest
teen-age crush was on Siouxie Sioux ...)

>>Peeve: "stars" who use political causes to grandstand
>
>I couldn't agree with you more. I couldn't care less what Joan Jett has to
>say about abortion, what the Go-Go's have to say about fur, or what John
>Cusack has to say about George Bush. 

It depends if they've gone into music to spread the message, or
decided to spread the message from the height of their stardom.
The former is politics by any other means; the latter is usually
banal gibberish from has-been pop megastars who're so far out of
touch with reality that they believe what their own PR people
tell them about themselves.

Peeve: People who can only ever see one side of an argument. Do
they think we live in a Klein bottle?
-- 
Charlie Stross aka charless@scol.sco.com ..... UNIX oriented text mangler
WARNING: The opinions voiced in the preceding electronic document are the
product of a warped mind. Take two before meals. 
Newsgroups: alt.peeves