November 5th, 2008 11:00am
The Future Is OURS
R.E.M. “Living Well Is The Best Revenge” (Live)
Michael Stipe wrote the lyrics to this song well over a year ago. It’s perfect for this day.
don’t turn your talking points on me
history will set me free
the future is OURS and you don’t even
rate a footnote nowso who’s chasing you, where did you go?
you disappear mid-sentence in a judgment crisis
I see my in and go for it
you weakened shillyou, savor your dying breath
I forgive but I don’t forget
you work it out
let’s hear that argument again
camera 3. go! now!all your sad and lost apostles
hum my name and flare their nostrils
choking on the bones you tossed to them
now I’m not one to sit and spin
but living well is the best revenge
and baby, I am calling you on that
When it became clear that Barack Obama had won the election, I felt what a majority of Americans felt — elation, pride, hope. I also felt something a bit darker, a bit more shameful: The bitter, smug satisfaction of REVENGE. What happened yesterday was an unequivocal repudiation of the Republican party, and of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. I’ll be honest with you: I can barely contain my glee in watching this hideous, cancerous version of a once-honorable party crumble. It’s going to be fascinating over the next several years to observe as the GOP fight amongst themselves and scramble to reinvent their party. My hope is that they can find a way back to being a party with whom I do not agree on a vast majority of issues, but can respect. But in the meantime, they’ve been defeated and humiliated on nearly all fronts, and that is incredible. It took a long time, but we’ve had our revenge.
Buy it from Amazon.
11/5/08 11:21 am
Well-put.
There’s also this:
The age of miracles
The age of sound
Well there’s a Golden Age
Comin’ round, comin’ round, comin’ round
11/5/08 11:24 am
Ha, only a few minutes before I saw this in the comments-to-be-accepted queue, I put the video of that song with that very quote in the tumblr feed. On a wavelength!
But yeah, R.E.M. and TV on the Radio definitely wrote the songs that tapped into this moment. They saw it coming. R.E.M. are more the moments leading up to the moment, and TV on the Radio’s “Golden Age” being the moment itself.
11/5/08 2:39 pm
“I also felt something a bit darker, a bit more shameful: The bitter, smug satisfaction of REVENGE.”
I think it’s fine to feel that. They’ve been putting us through hell for the last 8 years.
Does it makes me a bad person for laughing at Palin’s extremely sad face during McCain’s concession speech? Because I totally was. In fact, every time one of the channels show her, I feel GREAT! It’s like Christmas and my Birthday all wrapped up in one.
11/5/08 5:00 pm
In Arizona (where I am), and I assume in California and in Florida too, there is a hint of shadow on all this joy. Don’t misunderstand, my heart swelled with happiness each time a new state was called for Obama last night. And telling my young son that Barack Obama had been elected president of the United States of America was a proud moment indeed. But the glee is contained by the passage of amendments that build discrimination right into our state constitutions. Desperately, I want to believe that change starts now. Obama’s victory is certainly a monumental signpost for our nation’s progress, and I look forward to his presidency. But in many we’re still a people held back by our biases.
11/5/08 7:04 pm
The anti-gay initiatives are heart-breaking and horrendous, but I have hope that this is a setback that will mobilize people — gay and straight — to eventually reverse this hateful nonsense. We have proof now that positive social change can happen over generations, and that the hard work of organizing can still get results in this day and age, so you know. All is not lost, but what has happened in AZ, FL, and CA is despicable and everyone who voted in favor should be ashamed of themselves.
11/6/08 11:05 am
“revenge” is nice. i’m ok with it. however, i’m a much larger proponent of “comeuppance”.
reclaiming the white house is crucial…
but i gotta see (at least) Rove marched off to jail.
comeuppance.
11/7/08 6:20 pm
I’m ashamed to live in Florida. I stood on the side of US 19 holding a sign to SAY NO TO HATE - DON’T DISCRIMINATE & VOTE AGAINST PROPOSITION 8~!!!! YOU WOULDN’T BELIEVE HOW MANY REDNECK, DIRT BAGS SWORE TO BEAT ME DOWN WITH THEIR REBEL FLAGS - CALLING ME WHATEVER~ IT’S PATHETIC, BUT THINGS WILL CHANGE~!!
STIPE NAILS THE VOCALS IN THAT SONG, LIKE HE’S HOLDING THE MOST PRECIOUS GUN IN EXISTENCE~