editor’s note
Canadian writer and activist Naomi Klein
ideas are all about—changing the way we think. Thinking
just released a new book. I haven’t read it yet, but caught about changing thinking, I peruse the stack of tunes I’ve
her on the radio a couple of times, talking about it. It’s stumbled on recently and glancing down the list of songs,
called This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate. certain titles jump out at me. Like reading old spy code in
Like her seminal w ork on ad vertising and cor porate the newspaper, I’m suddenly seeing it all differently…
culture, No Logo, this is a book about big ideas and fr om
what I hear, it takes no prisoners.
cheap talk from government trash
There are plenty of good ideas out ther e—
all I ever needed was a second chance
technological, ecological, socio-economic, musical—
we can’t keep on ducking and dodging
and there are also lots of bad ones. The battle for which
when we’ve already been given our marching orders
big ideas we allow to tak e up our time , energy, and
it’s cruel but it’s true
brainwaves, is constant and often
fierce. Education?
we explore, expand, exhale, and expire
Yep, we did that. Environment? Good god, we’ve never
stopped. Energy efficiency? Yes please. So wha t about
through a window of time I had a dream
musical ideas that change the world? It’s been done before.
I was the death man
Look at the hippie revolution: music drove so much of the
singing into eyes of hesitation
change that happened during the sixties and seventies. So
always when I’m back in town
why do we seem to be up against so man y of the same
I stay up all night
issues today that the flower power kids protested? Unjust
my mind at odds with the physical world
wars, poverty, racial prejudice, corrupt governments…
you name it, we’ve still got it. It isn’ t necessarily that
these silly games we play
the musical movement didn’t do anything; maybe it’s just
ancient and alone
that, like fashion, these issues are cyclical. But if y ou’re
they say there’s going to be nothin’ left
cynical you’d probably argue that none of the issues e ver
I say your love will set you free
really went away, they were just recycled and re-named,
because they can’t knock you from yr mountain
relocated to new places.
and we’re all living for something
I don’t mean to come acr oss all heavy here. This
so wake up, the clock is always on
issue isn’t about the shit side of life;it’s about music, love,
we were born singing, we were born with a sound
and ideas.There’s a lot of good stuff in her just like there’s
e,
the screaming sound of desire
so much good in life, even when things sometimes seem
pretty grim. As Sightlines’ Eric Axen tells writer Brennan Ideas can c hange the w orld, but in this o versaturated
Anderson in the feature interview on page seven, “I think culture in which we live, it’s not easy to find the r ones
ight
the world can be a pretty terrifying, depressing place—I to pay attention to. Maybe that’s it, that’s what we have to
don’t shy away from bummer material but I also try not do: pay attention, really pay attention. So here’s an idea
to add to the bummer. There will always be silver linings.” that brings us back to music again, paraphrasing Timothy
Naomi Klein’s book isn’t all doom-and-gloom, either. She Leary’s counterculture slogan: Turn On, Tune In...and
proposes solutions, a shift in thinking. And that’s what big Turn It Up.
– Matt J. Simmons
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