Modernity Has Failed Us, And I’d Love It If We Made It

by ROB SEIMETZ

“Modernity has failed us, and I’d love it if we made it.” This is the phrase echoed throughout the song Love It If We Made It by The 1975. The leader singer of the band, Matt Healey, is quoted about the song saying, “It’s an interesting one, because there’s not a lot of context and a lot of things that I say in a kind of direct quotes of people or the headlines that I’ve read.”

Just listening to the opening salvo of the song.

“We’re fucking in a car, shooting heroin
Saying controversial things just for the hell of it
Selling melanin and then suffocate the black men
Start with misdemeanours and we’ll make a business out of them”

The person “saying controversial things just for the hell of it” is Donald Trump. He says controversial things for the hell of it because it feeds his ego, and the even scarier impulse is to feed is fascistic and fist fighting supporters that wave swords in the streets of New York.

Love It If We Made It, also directly quotes Donald Trump. The evidence is laid out when Healey belts out the lyrics:

Consultation
Degradation
Fossil fuelling
Masturbation
Immigration
Liberal kitsch
Kneeling on a pitch

“I moved on her like a bitch”
Excited to be indicted
Unrequited house with seven pools
“Thank you Kanye, very cool”

“Thank you Kanye, very cool” is one of the many infamous tweets from the Donald. Trump even thought it was “very cool” when Kanye West recently visited the White House singing his praises while continuing to ignore the degradation of Florida from Hurricane Michael and Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria. He also fails to seek consultation over the connections of our fossil fueling masturbation for centuries that are leading to these larger hurricanes.

“I moved on her like a bitch” is a quote from the 2005 Access Hollywood recording of Trump from Billy Bush.

As the 2018 midterm elections approach we must think about the certain segments of people in this country Trump is moving on and are under attack like immigrants, the transgender community, and people of color. In Trump’s eyes these are his “bitches” that he wants to subjugate and rule over. This is what is in the mind of Donald “I’m a Nationalist” Trump. This is just the start of even more growing segments of the population Trump will impose his Nationalist will on.

When it comes to the 2018 midterm elections we must keep our eyes on the fact that lives are at stake, and what little that is left of social safety nets in this country are on the chopping block. Modernity has failed us, and it’s marching us evermore towards full throttle fascism.

In an ideal situation we have the opportunity to vote for a viable third party candidate, or do not have a radical right wing republicans making much headway in the polls. Unfortunately, many of us are not in that situation. Modernity has failed us from both Republicans and Democrats.

Some will say we need to look at these upcoming midterms with our heads and not our hearts which I agree with. It’s been said we must be “clinical” when making strategic and tactical decisions at the ballot box as leftists. I would say we need to be surgical.

The injury we are performing surgery on is the causation of modernity failing us. Many surgeons will tell you performing surgery on an injury will help healing process of the injury for the time being, but it certainly won’t preclude our body from having complications down the road due to the initial injury itself which in this case is modernity and our fossil fueling masturbation. This is why we must be surgical in our approach to the ballot box and use our head, but fight against modernity with our hearts.

“The poetry is in the streets”, Healey believes this in the song and I believe our poetry as leftists fighting against modernity will be in the streets as well as we fight against modernity with our hearts to penetrate what’s in the heads of our neighbors. The ballot box is not the be all end all of our fight, but it is a way to look at choosing how hard we want the fight to be against the most oppressed and attacked in this country.

When Florida Gubernatorial Candidate Ron DeSantis, or as I like to call him Ron DaSatan goes on television calling for Floridians not to “monkey this up” by voting for his black opponent Andrew Gillum we have a big problem. When see him releasing a political ad building a wall out of blocks with his daughter and reading his son Trump’s book The Art of the Deal what we see is something downright disturbing. If Floridians do not get out there and vote and vote strategically with Gillum having just a 5 point lead over DeSantis, DeSantis will turn Florida into his own personal hell. Florida is hot enough as it is and will only be getting hotter with climate change, and if DeSantis gets elected he will get to play a real life satan which is scary since when I see his face I imagine that’s what satan’s face would look like. His hell will be turning up the heat by unleashing the Police State on people of color, ICE on immigrants, and lack of healthcare on to the poor and working class communities, while ignoring capitalogenic climate change in a State that is on the front lines of climate change.

When another Gubernatorial Candidate initially spoke about repealing a 30 year State Sanctuary Law we must make sure he does not get into office especially in a tight race. We can show solidarity with the immigrant community by marching in the streets, but we also must show solidarity by showing up to vote and not vote for a third party candidate that has zero chance of winning. Lives are at stake it’s definitely something to remember.

I’m not saying to vote for Democratic Candidates in close races because you believe in them, and I’m saying to vote on issues not people when it makes strategic sense. The Democratic Party is dismal, out of touch, soulless, and a corporate party no doubt, but to say it is the same is the Republican Party of Donald “I’m A Nationalist” Trump is downright delusional.

Modernity is causing the planet to hemorrhage up blood faster than ever before especially with the power structure in place. We need to get a handle of where the hemorrhaging has increased. We won’t be able to do that with more Republicans in office.

The Republican Party is the party of, to quote Healey, in Love It If We Made It:

Oh Fuck your feelings
Truth is only hearsay
We’re just left to decay

It’s the party of Fake News and Fake Personalities with Fake Moralities that would love nothing more then leaving us to decay as they align their pockets packed with white power.

I share The 1975’s sentiments in this song. I’d love it if we made it too. But I think we must redefine what “making it” means in the Age of the Anthropocene. It won’t mean humans as a species “making it” for very much longer. That ship has sailed, the snowball is now rolling downhill, the rubicon has been crossed, or any other point no return metaphor you want to insert.

Making it will mean trying to ease the steady stream of attacks certain segments of the population have experienced for a very long time. It will mean giving these segments of the population a little breathing room in these perilous times. So let’s walk the fine line of putting things into historical context but not letting the historical put blinders on what the current state of affairs are. Things are only getting worse it’s just matter of how fast we want things to worsen.

I want the LBTQ community and immigrants from Central America, South America, and Mexico to be able to hold their loved ones at night and put the world behind them even if it’s for a day, hour, or minute. Rest assured this will not happen if Republicans take control of the House and Senate, and Trump gets re-elected.

What perilous times these are. And it’s time to leave you with some of the final lyrics from Love It If We Made It:

The war has been incited and guess what?
You’re all invited

The war against the living planet waged by the capitalist class, the war makers, the ecological destroyers was incited a long time ago. You’re all invited to multi task and permeate in the system we were born into by using surgical precision with your head at this midterm election while at the same time fighting against modernity using your heart. In a world of so much death and hatred there are still things to love, sentient nonhumans to love, and oppressed people we must love and show love for. Very soon this may not be the case.

“Modernity has failed us, but I’d love it if we made it…”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/10/26/modernity-has-failed-us-and-id-love-it-if-we-made-it
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