Dedicated to Lynn Margulis (1938-2011) an epitome of a rebel
Lynn at Boston University c. 1980; Boston University Archives (courtesy of Dorion Sagan)
The exuberant rebellion of youth against all sorts of conformity, ordinarily known as Rock’n’roll, was one of the pinnacles of the Western civilization. Rock’n’roll was the capacity of Western civilization to laugh at itself; the capacity to parody its greed, its naivety, its narcissism and its military side. This capacity of self-criticism gave the West huge advantage over Soviets, Chinese and ayatollahs, notorious for their allergy to every form of criticism. They were dogmatic saints sitting on the high moral ground, killing every form of dissent against their sainthood.
By contrast, the spirit of Rock’n’roll gave the warm human face to the Western civilization. Rock’n’roll represented the acknowledgement of the reality of the human nature. We are sinners in equal measure as saints. Rock’n’roll laughed at the pompous and saintly side of our nature deliberately ignorant of the alternative side. Through Rock’n’roll the rebellious youth invented the perfect instrument for criticizing gerontocracy.
Death of Rock’n’roll
Unfortunately, Rock’n’roll as a cultural force no longer exists. It has mutated into defense of the money-making machine. The mutation was so apparent in mid 1980s when fame-hungry rockers saw an opportunity for self-promotion at the expense of starving Africans. Since then the mutation moved into an even more extreme territory. Old rockers of today are likely to be part of the ageing elite defending the false values. They may be on the same moral side occupied by the Soviets, Chinese and ayatollahs 50 years ago. The modern Rock’n’roll is no longer music and poetry. The new Rock’n’roll is the capacity of the rebellious youth to laugh at politics and the money-making machine.
Let’s try to make sense of the depth of the western fall under the spell of gerontocracy with the help of the original poet of Rock’n’roll, Bob Dylan. Let’s take the verse from his famous song, which reads:
Take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship
as the symbol of the genuine Rock’n’roll spirit, the spirit of magic that gifted the warmth and humanity to the western civilization. Magic of discovery, magic of artistic beauty, magic of laughter stamped by the innocence of the youthful rebellion. West has lost the magic. But this does not mean that the magic cannot be found again. Here is a fictional letter of Bob Dylan to Nobel Committee in defence of the lost magic.
Dear Nobel Committee,
I am writing to you on behalf of myself and Mr Tambourine Man. This letter is a response to your recent award of Nobel prize for literature to the person known as Bob Dylan. I know that person very well. He is one half of me. The other half of me is Mr Tambourine Man. These two halves exist in symbiosis and make up my character. If you take one half of my character out, the other half is dead.
Let me be frank. For me the Nobel prize is the monument to gerontocracy. It is the establishment’s way of saying: you are the best preserver of our saintly gerontocratic values. We honor your dedication to our values. Through the prize we admit you into the house of saints. Your place among the saints is guaranteed. You will remain the saint after your death. The future generations will worship your valuable contributions to our collective sainthood.
But, the true magic of literature, or poetry, for which you singled out me in your annual praise of gerontocracy, can exist only on that tricky and dangerous territory where saints and sinners meet. Only on this territory we humans can discover magic. The territory is unique and unpredictable. You can reach it only with the “magic swirling ship”. If you are true believer in the spirit of the “magic swirling ship” your own piece of magic is waiting for you somewhere on this trip.
What is the spirit of the “magic swirling ship”? In my eyes this spirit resembles a bird. Imagine a bird full of life and youthful cheerfulness happily singing the song of magic. If the spirit has the material form it must be like this bird.
Here is my main objection. I cannot accept what you want to do with the bird. You want to put the bird in a cage. Then, you want to put the cage in your museum. And then you want to take a picture of me, and the bird, full of joy because we were admitted to your museum.
You called me arrogant when I acknowledged politely your call and remained indifferent to it since. This is because I know that the bird cannot live in the cage. If you put it in the cage the bird will die. I cannot accept your gift because you asking me to participate in the act of murder. All my life I was searching for cages to break them. I always wanted to free all sorts of birds, not to imprison them. I hope you understand why I politely declined your gift.
But my message is not a message of a grumpy old man. Yes, I am old. But, I will never accept gerontocracy.
My real message is the message to the rebellious and creative youth of the world. The future of the world depends on you. Try to find the magic so carelessly eradicated from our world by gerontocrats. You can find it only through destroying cages. There are too many of them around. They house too many birds. The bird of magic is the most endangered species in our world. I genuinely hope that you will find your versions of the verse
Take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship
