Soundscape #47: “This Is What You Get When You Mess With Us”
August 3rd, 2007Karma is a funny thing. The whole idea of it smells like something someone cooked up to keep everyone in line. Call it what you will but every religion under the sun has incorporated some version of karma. Even the almighty Google has adopted it as a company policy (Do no evil “Don’t be evil” [my bad]). If you think about it, it’s actually a pretty pathetic concept since it implies that men do good only because they don’t want anything bad to happen to them.
Roy Lichtenstein. Untitled, 1973.
Nothing illustrates this better than the TV show “My Name Is Earl,” which I love, btw. I mean the tag for the show is literally “Do bad things and bad things will happen to you; do good things and good things will follow” (paraphased). Because Earl wants good things to happen, he makes out a list of the bad things he did so that he can make reparations to those involved. It’s fucking hilarious but it does provide some food for thought: the assumed direct relationship between one’s actions and consequences; the quid pro quo-ness of it all do should make us think about what makes us the people we are. Is there an intrinsic good in all of us? Or is it just a matter of not having our actions bite us in the ass in the future?
Playlist:
1. (0:00) The Weakerthans - Confessions of A Futon-Revolutionist (Fallow)
2. (2:15) The Wrens - The House That Guilt Built (The Meadowlands)
3. (3:37) Ambulance Ltd - Primitive (The Way I Treat You) (S/T)
4. (7:34) Air Traffic - Just Abuse Me (Fractured Life)
5. (10:07) Pete Yorn - Strange Condition (Music For The Morning After)
6. (14:05) The Decemberists - Apology Song (5 Songs EP)
7. (17:17) Soko - I’ll Kill Her
8. (21:09) The Format - The Compromise (Dog Problems)
9. (24:34) Metric - Too Little Too Late (Live It Out)
10. (28:59) Feist - So Sorry (The Reminder)
11. (32:10) M. Ward - It Won’t Happen Twice (Duet For Guitars #2)
12. (34:56) The National - Pay For Me (S/T)
13. (38:19) Radiohead - Karma Police (OK Computer)
Leave a Comment