kakki wrote: > > > And whether Joni calls it "political" or not, many of her songs do > > express a definite political opinion, not always overtly. > > Of course. Or ultimately a spiritual point of view that transcends > political party platforms.
This is an issue that's come up before on this list and I've never understood it, and your comments bring it to mind again, Kakki, although I'm not just addressing you here. Do people really think that identifying with a political party means that a person's brain turns to complete mush? People identify with anything, including an established political party, because *most of* the goals of that group match the goals of the person. There's probably never a time when every single goal of any group exactly matches every single goal of a person in that group. Sometimes, though, only a group can create change so that identifying with a group can be a good thing. Everyone is somewhere along the political spectrum based on their behavior over time, which doesn't mean that the person is rigidly locked into that spot, or that on some issues the person may not choose differently. But to act like there's not a political spectrum, or that people don't tend to behave in consistent ways based on their inner attitude (which then results in their "politics" and a corresponding "label"), just makes it impossible to talk about politics. Labels, if applied rigidly (as in assuming a Democrat or Republican is in "complete agreement with a political party's platform"), can confine, but they can also enable people to have a meaningful discussion. Joni acting as though there are no labels is just some more free-talking foolishness (in my opinion), and is fine, especially if she's giving a monologue as she tends to do, but would make it very difficult to actually discuss such things with her. Sorry if this is coming across as belligerent. I don't mean it to be. I am feeling (and have often felt) frustrated at how the political discussions here so often turn into "I don't believe in labels" comments, as though such labels don't exist. They do. Much better to at least attempt to understand what we mean by them and expand them rather than try to wish them away, at least if decent conversation is the goal. Debra Shea
