Jharrin4's Blog

Generation Z is apparently not generation Zzzzz–as in cured up under the covers and preferring to sleep off the funk they’ve faced in their still formative years. Indeed not, at least based on recent events documenting their channeling of Howard Beale a la the movie Network. Not that the Zs likely know Howard’s famous rant as a fed-up newscaster yelling into the camera I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore! That is, documented not by mainstream, corporate media, but by the outer precincts of social media platforms.

In huge numbers, the Zs have shown up, fed up, and ready to fight for a better future by confronting mostly old, mostly white guys, in certain blood-red states who get their rocks off as they seek to make the U.S. an autocracy. You know: virtually declaring the LGBTQ community illegal, telling women they will be jailed or even executed if they terminate a pregnancy (even in cases of incest or rape–of course!) and as usual protecting the gun lobby no matter how many students get shot up by assault weapons in classrooms from kindergarten to university classrooms.

As a Boomer who witnessed (and sometimes participated in) youthful protests in the 1960s–relating to civil rights, women’s rights, the Vietnam quagmire and more, the Zs are a reminder of those movements. The fact that they feel compelled to call bullshit on the actions of the very few who want to control the very many is, at once, encouraging, and disconcerting. Why? Well, for all the social turmoils of the 60s, the end result gave us still more wars, more inequality, more marginalizing, more political betrayals and eventually a racist, fascist, flim-flam man who for eight years and running is the face of hate, and bigotry. The Zs may or may not have any better outcome than the old school hippies, yippies and other protestors seeking that better, kinder–dare I say–democracy?

I certainly hope for a better outcome. We shall see…

Generation Z is stepping up right now. What is different now than back when is our digital world, and the means to use social media to expose the enemy and serve as a call-to-action against them. The broadcast media dare not give the Zs their due. The current call to ban Tik Tok is demonstrative of how the Establishment fears such a facile form of instant communication and collaboration. What was that expression from Gil Scott Heron’s 1971 song that seems prescient today? The revolution will not be televised.

The last stanza from that song goes:

the revolution will not be televised, will not be televised

the revolution will be no re-runs, brother

the revolution will not be televised

the revolution will be live

Not televised, but viewable from the palm of one’s hand, Apple or Android.

Hey boys and girls, kids and kiddies, gents and ladies, what is new on this last day of March, 2023? It’s been two months since I have posted anything. Exactly two months. Figured I should post something before we enter in the cruelest of months: April. Thus, we have April Fool day manana. Are your gottcha! pranks well conceived with hopes of pulling such off with equally well executed timing?

Nah, me neither. Too much work.

Besides, aren’t many of us weary of the expression is this a joke?, by now? What can surprise or shock anymore? Since 2015, there has been a mind-numbing amount of what the fuck entries in our quotidian confrontations with reality. We’ve had a freaky cartoon character who for these past eight years has managed to bulldoze decorum and dignity, and make prevaricating a weapons-grade mind-trap to lure in tens of millions of cult-like followers.

Tens of millions also loathe this Creature from the Media Lagoon. Is this a joke?, some may still be wondering but c’mon. The lesson of the past eight years would seem to be, in its most basic, simplistic form, that the media loves all of the toxic spew it can get from its all-time best ratings earner.

The media, if you haven’t noticed, has completely normalized the notion that this toxic creature’s desire to run for the office he was emphatically voted out of, and who conspired to turn defeat into anarchy, failed at that, but hey, so what? Nothing to see here. Okay? Just listen to the mainstream media. Oh, there is something to see here, for sure. It lingers in our line of vision. But isn’t it all just one bad joke, and enough already?! And maybe we will see it but refuse to believe it is there. All over again. Kinda like that snippet from some wordsmith: It takes a mind of winter to see the nothingness that is there, and the nothingness that is not here. Or something like that.

Well, make of it what you will. We have lived to see much in these past eight years. Currently, the climate is angry, the Domesday Clock is less than two minutes to midnight, women are being turned around to march back into the back alley at worst or stay in the kitchen at best, LGBTQ members are virtually being outlawed, books are banned, but guns are no problem, and rainbows are now considered subversive.

Oh, but on the bright side, the Creature from the Media Lagoon has been–at long, long last,–indicted. But that’s a joke, too. methinks. Ha! April Fool! The suits who run the mainstream media are probably high-fiving one another. Indicted? Nothing to see here..,except the ratings going up.

That’s no joke.

On May 11 the pandemic will have come to an end. I read that on any number of mainstream news outlets today. Wow, that’s what medical science can do in just a few years when facing a global pandemic.

Except the Covid-19 killer-disrupter will only have ended here in the U.S. That May 11 date was set by the Biden administration. So, the financial and medical assistance programs established to address the situation will disappear. I know that Joe Biden’s wife likes being addressed at Dr. Jill Biden, owing to her having earned a PhD in education, but I wonder if any medical doctors were advising Joe on the practicality of making such an announcement? The pandemic is global. It is not over. Likely never will be. Mitigated here and there but not over.

China has had 345,000 deaths from the virus just since December. My guess is by May 11 many more Chinese citizens will have died by then. Are we here in the U.S. to assume that life can return to pre Covid “normality” come May 11?

Of course not. While the U.S. has had over a million deaths from Covid, aided by a certain sociopathic former president who was in office when the virus hit the U.S. in early 2020, his departure allowed medical science to work free of his Oval Office idiocy regarding the spread of the pathogen–including the what the fuck? idea of consuming bleach as a remedy. Medical science has certainly mitigated the pandemic’s ability to infect and kill its victims, but again, like the flu, it is still present. No matter what May 11 is supposed to represent as far as an individual’s sense of danger per masking, disinfectant wipes and casually encountering crowds both indoors and out.

Caveat emptor, as per May 11, or right now, January 31, 2023, here in the U.S. Paging Dr. Fauci…

***********

Did I mention the former president up there? Right. He who not only treated the pandemic as an annoyance rather than a matter of urgency, and who now is on the campaign trail as a candidate for president in the November, 2024 election. Wait. Did I just right that sentence unironically? President Joe Biden may have just made a questionable pronouncement per federal programs and the ongoing pandemic, and his detractors will make it seem outrageous in one way or another, but his predecessor, the guy with a bleached brain, who wants to be president again, begs many questions as well. By orders of magnitude beyond anything Biden has done, his running for office in and of itself is outrageous. The irony! Here is a person, responsible for tens of thousands of unnecessary Covid deaths because of his official dereliction of duty to act in accordance with virological science, should for that reason alone have been charged with second degree murder.

However, as egregious as that matter is, worse still is his now documented role as the instigator of an armed insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. People died that day, too. But never mind, he has not been indicted for anything personally, and somehow he is being permitted to run for the office that he attempted to criminally retain after being defeated in the 2020 election. What. Is. Wrong. With. This. Picture?

The media, evidently, doesn’t have a problem with it. Nor does Joe Biden’s Department of Justice, lead by one Merrick Garland. He has been charged by some State Attorneys, but it now truly appears to all be a charade. Of course it is. The Flim-Flam Man, the sexual assaulter, the tax cheat, the xenophobe, the white supremacist, the insurrectionist, is allowed to remain a free man. Nothing to see here.

November 2024 is far in the future! Any day now the charade will end, right? Certainly. Or at least likely. Okay, maybe. You never know.

Ha! I’m just kidding. But for the non-MAGA, non-looney tune types in the public square or on Capitol Hill, it’s all a sick joke. Try not to think about it.

And remember to pay your goddam taxes. There are laws about that, you know.

Reality. It has been quite a tumultuous aspect of life for as long as humans have had to face it. Reality. Other than being asleep, one must face it every waking day of life. Whatever number of days one may be granted before succumbing to an inevitable endgame. What transpires between the cradle and the grave is sometimes planned and sometimes not. Presumably we all seek satisfaction. Whatever might provide for such. Along the way, maybe the pursuit of satisfaction (dare I say “happiness”?) may be filtered through a wide aperture, magnanimous personal lens. Or maybe a tunnel-vision that serves ultimately only the self.

How thick a skin one has had to have just in the past several years in facing reality. We hear about horrors far flung or literally in one’s front yard. For some, cruel fate has become the quotidian hunter. No place seems safe anymore. Good versus Evil is the narrative of much news. With Evil typically the “if it bleeds, it leads” headliner. One wants to be safe in spite of everyplace now seeming to be subject to assault. We are less shocked anymore from the accounts of cold-blooded killings as than becoming-numbed out from them.

Well, clearly we try to escape reality. For many, through a virtual reality. Caveat emptor on the virtual world of the Internet age. One might be lured into a web of deceit. The self-servers are everywhere and nowhere in cyberspace. That’s the trade-off on seeking satisfaction in a world filtered through a hazy lens that keeps reality tucked behind a deceptive, digital curtain.

In a more passive approach to wanting a distraction from brutal, outside-the-front-door cold reality that satisfies, there’s sports. Sports are big business. Name the major professional sport and then consider the salaries of the players; but don’t scoff at the obscene mounds of money the stars of sports receive. Big money aside, watching players skill levels in action can be exciting, even if one’s teams or individual competitor flops. We watch, they get paid for doing so. It’s a business transaction,

You bet it is. And winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing, said a famous football coach of back when. Yeah. And some sports are inherently violent, but the violence is accepted by the fans. Like football. Football plays are planned and rehearsed. The violence is a spontaneous outcome. Players suffer broken bones, dislocations, concussions, torn ligaments, tendons, muscles. It’s part of the game and the fans accept the possible sight of potential season or career-ending injuries. It’s an ironic way of escaping personal reality for a few hours or so. Watch others intentionally trying to ruin someone’s health. They get paid well for the risk. Not sure how much wrecking one’s health at an early age is worth, but the choice is theirs.

Right now, however, that mentality of eyeballing violent sporting events as “entertainment” of a sort has now been given a really strong dose of harsh reality all its own. Oddly so, I might say. Bear with me…

Mass shootings, gang violence are harsh realities. The stench of polluted politics is a harsh reality. Entertainment is supposed to give the audience an escape, whether light-hearted or heart felt. The audience member understands when the show is over, they are either to going to find it worthy of watching or not. They’ll likely not lose sleep over what they saw. But last night, with tens of millions of eyeballs watching a game that was a football fan’s extra-strength dose of escapism, a player suffered more than an injury. A player went down, and stayed down. And stayed down. Cut to commercial. He’s still down. Cut to more commercials. Still down. Team mates surround their fallen brother, but they know this not a broken this or that, not just a knock-out head slam. He might actually, in front of their eyes and the eyes of the TV audience, die.

As of this writing, he is still alive. In a Cincinnati hospital. Only after being given CPR to get his heartbeat back, get him breathing. But he was laying there, with the TV coverage of this stunning, gut-wrenching event lasting for a long enough time to wonder, will he survive? The moment of his collapse was caught in-the-moment. Replay shows he barely got to his feet after he tackled another player before dropping free-fall on his back. He was almost certainly in cardiac arrest before he hit the ground. From that moment on, all players from both teams, the announcers in the stadium and back in broadcast studios, and the national viewing audience stopped thinking about being entertained. Or winning and losing. Or anything, anything having to do with the game at hand. It had suddenly become all about our inevitable human mortality. A prime time lesson in appreciating life and its fragility. That game will never be played. Players may play again, but they and the coaches, broadcasters, and viewers at home won’t be able to view the game as mere entertainment. It became all too real. It begs the question of how the game now and as always invite such a grim outcome in the name of generating revenue for all involved. Is this Ancient Rome and gladiators? From now on, I have to believe the violence will be unnerving for all to watch, and not just “part of the game”.

The player is 24 years old. Everyday, people his age and much younger die in senseless acts of violence. Little does Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills football team know how he has brought people from around the world together in rooting for his life to be given back to him. People who did not know he even existed. Millions of people saw what happened.

The mayhem and senseless loss of life that occurs so frequently around the world is not captured by live media. And certainly the cold reality that encompasses such dreadful local and worldly events cannot ever be a form of recreational entertainment. That’s the “odd” irony I alluded to earlier. Just maybe this story will have a satisfying ending. It certainly has the potential to make a lot of emotionally insulated people understand what does and what does not truly matter in life beyond their own.

Once upon a time in a galaxy far far away,,,uh…well. Who cares what’s far far away in another galaxy or even maybe all the way to infinity and then beyond that? We’re here on Mother Earth, a decaying, dying planet. Our sphere a teeny part of the physical occupation of the vastness of space and whatever boundaries–if such exists–contain it. But who cares about that? Oh sure, the astrophysicists care, but how is what they do helping save this planet? We have a climate crisis causing misery far and wide. Melting glaciers. Rising sea levels. More and more severe storms. Greenhouse gases. Drought. Rising ocean water temperatures. All aided and abetted by a seeming indifference on the part of governments the world over. Are we doomed?!

Wait! I think I may see a way that rocket science might help save Momma Earth. It has nothing to do with discovering any goddam thing way out there, out as far as any space probe to Jupiter and beyond has to date documented per gases, rock, minerals, cigarette butts or single use plastic bags. Forget the robotic probes. We need a combination of refined manned rocket travel with criminal and moral justice at its core design, a combo that will mitigate if not restore our 3rd rock from the sun to its former self: a healthy green and blue ball with Nature residing in harmony with all creatures large and small. You know, single-cell stuff, quadrupeds, things with feathers–whether or not all of such can fly–and maybe even the bipedal species of primate known as homo sapiens, the most dangerous thing occupying space on our sphere.

Bear with me here. I realize that of all those aforementioned creatures it is only the Homo S. that has anything to answer for as far as our current–and likely last–mass extinction event. This one is all on us, folks, and by that I don’t mean all of us because some of us have been trying to save the day. In small ways, ya know? For instance, I just took out some recycling material and placed it in a dumpster that will haul it away. Probably to a landfill but I did my part. This blog post, however, has an idea about actually, effectively saving the planet.

But first: keep in mind that about 98% of all organisms that have ever existed on our planet are now extinct. The first five mass extinctions occurred between 440 and 65 million years ago. Also consider that Sapien the Homo has been around for a mere 300,000 years. In that relative blink of an eye (Earth is about 4.5 billion years old) the bipeds have clearly been messing things up as far as living in harmony–with one another but worse than that, with Ma Nature. The inter-Homo clashes are legendary: battling over resources and a thirst for wealth and the power that wealth confers. Which bring us to our current state…

Did I mention money and power? Here in the United States, we have the worst government money can buy. Other governments may rule by religious extremism and/or ethnic hatred and genocidal forces, or whatever, but as asserted above, not much concern for the planet on which this bullshit is carried out. Here in the U.S. we have a government that certainly has its religious extremist factions, conspiracy-spewing loonies, and worse, but essentially the problem is money. Money has been ruled as “free speech” and corporations are “people” says the Supreme Court. This lunacy has been allowed to transpire by an entrenched two-party system in which most all of its members have been bought and paid for by corporate America. Massive economic injustice prevails. In 2018 a new, young congressional contingent of progressives were elected advocating a Green New Deal. In two weeks it’ll be 2023. That 2018 infusion of hope for aiding the planet was D.O.A. Why? Because the owners of the much larger portion of congress made it clear it would be too costly to implement such a program. In other words our government is telling Nature that it can drop dead for all it cares. Money talks and micro-plastics are in all we eat.

My plan? The scientists and the jurists with a moral conscience stage a coup–bloodless of course–and then those who value money more than We the People who actually value people and the planet on which we live and have no planet–B, are brought to justice. Those greedy, immoral scumbags elected by constituents who are then tossed aside for bags of greenbacks are sent packing. Where to? Not jail. Not back to private sector. But rather on a long journey. One way. No way back. Into space. On space ships with the best purpose of all. Packed with plenty of food and water but no hope of return. Sentenced to die in deep space. On spaceships built with their bags of money from the C-pacs and K-Street lobbyists. Off they go. And when the fuel runs out that propels them farther and farther and farther away, and the food run out, they can go insane together. I’m talking about a lot of such one-way rockets to nowhere-ville, okay? Greedy assholes from far and wide on our abused and battered Mother Earth, and not just the U.S. The corrupt and collusive cabals the planet-over! That’s the best use of rocket science I can think of right now. And the best use of the dirty money that otherwise kills without remorse. Put it to better use than stuffing the pockets of the few over everyone else just trying to get by. And possibly revive Mother Nature in the process.

What is killing the planet is greed. Greed is the cancer. It has spread to the point of its host inevitably dying. Excise the cancer. But don’t bury it. It will just further contaminate the soil. Yeah, shoot it into space. And good riddance, eh?

If you want to sign onto my plan, contact me at 867-5309. Ask for Jenny.

Ten days ago, I opined on this site that the mid-terms would have no winner. It would seem, at this point a week out from November 8, that the GOP will have a modest House majority while the Dems retain a slim advantage in the senate. Slim as in either 51-50 or 51-49. So, neither party can claim a bona-fide victory as far as democracy vs demagoguery goes. Sure, by at least holding onto the senate, the Democrat party avoided what could have been a visceral implementation of Far Right fanaticism. Democracy, as weakened as it has become recently, is still in place.

Joe Biden’s presidency was not challenged, but if both houses of congress fell into the hands of a GOP that in the past several years has become a creepy, ugly, cult of loud-mouthed Big Lie loonies, he would essentially have become politically irrelevant. Dead Man Walking. The 2024 election would be assured in favor of the GOP. Their gerrymandering and voter suppression tactics would be roided-up. Democracy as nothing more than political road-kill.

And of course!

The GOP has spent decades dismantling the middle class in America. Union busting, deregulation for the banksters and corporations. Tax cuts for the uber rich. Reaganomics. But since 2015, when the biggest loud-mouthed Big Lie loonie of them all announced his run for president–laughable at first glance–a possible fascist takeover of the government was the agenda of the GOP. His becoming president was not funny at all. We the people sent him home in the 2020 election; his many clear and credibly asserted affronts to our Constitution, to committing financial frauds, and most of all inciting an insurrectionist attack on the Capital on January 6, 2021 demanded him being held to account.

However, as the months passed, and passed, and passed, it has become very clear that, while the mid-terms were yet another rejection of his and the GOP’s sickening slow-mo march toward fascism, he is apparently Mr. Above the Law. On this evening of November 15th 2022, he is expected to announce his intent to once again run for president! What’s wrong with this picture? From where I sit, it is an profound outrage that the Democrat Party, and it’s Justice Department, headed by Merrick Garland, appear to be afraid to indict, arrest and hold him to account based on the evidence that the January 6 Committee broadcast to the world. But the fact of the matter is the moment Mr. Above the Law was sworn-in as president in January 2017, he was in violation the Constitution’s “emoluments clause (look it up). But never mind.

So, again, the mid-terms produced no winner,. It’ll be two years of gridlock. A House of Representatives three-ring circus of corrupt, anti-democratic nonsense. But worse than knowing that is definitely headed our way, is the prospect of having to endure the Big Loser being able to possibly be at the top of the GOP ticket in two years. He should by now have been held to account. Convicted. Disqualified from ever holding public office again.

How about the Justice Department making its own big announcement–tonight! the immediate indicting of this felonious fake of a human being. Now that would feel like a true victory for We the People.

Have you voted yet? You know, that mid-term election thingy? Rumor has it that it’s a big deal. As in, one of our two major political parties wants to hang onto its slim majorities in the House and the Senate, and the other major political party essentially wants to do away with elections altogether. That would be the party that brought us the January 6, 2021 attempt at overthrowing our Federal Democratic Republic form of government, as stated in the form of the 1787 Constitution of the United States of America.So, yeah, this 2022 mid-term election thing-a-ma-jiggy? It’s a big deal.

I, personally, would prefer that there be more than just two major political parties. Say three or four? But that isn’t about to happen, because no 3rd national party has gained even a minor amount of traction over the past, uh, 176 years (when the Republican Party supplanted the Whig Party). The two current major parties are quite content with the Frick or Frack choice given We the People who bother to go to the polls. But in this mid-term election, though as usual just a two horse race, the choices have been starkly revealed. The Democrats either keep control (razor thin again, or maybe gaining more of a majority) of the government or the Republican party–again, the Party that essentially orchestrated the January 6 coup attempt-will have control of the House and Senate. And if thathappens, well, it would seem to lead to mob rule of a sort.

I do NOT feel I am in any way exaggerating.After all, Republican members of congress have already publicly stated they will waste no time in impeaching President Joe Bidenif they have the numbers to do so. I’m not sure what Joe has done to warrant impeachment. Oh, right. He controls gas prices and asked for them to go through the roof. Also, we all know he sets the price of groceries. Isn’t he suppose to be the cause of Covid? Rest assured, the radical (crazed) party that has an elephant as its mascot will provide quite a circus.

Again–again!–the GOP and Trump staged the January assault on the U.S. government. The rioters wanted to kill not just high-ranking democrats, but the Republican Vice President at the time, because he would not (he could not) negate Joe Biden’s 7 million vote majority and the electoral college total in favor of Mr. Biden. This seditious crowd of Big Lie loonies wants to control the government.

Did I mention the J6mob wanted to kill Mike Pence? They also had a target on the back of Nancy Pelosi, then (and now) the Speaker of the House. Since that deadly insurrection, the forces of anarchy and division, of racism, and overall hate have become nearly household names: Qanon; The Proud Boys; Oath Keepers; and Patriot Front, among others.Fear and loathing on the campaign trail. Kudos to Hunter S. Thompson

Then there is one David De Pape.He is the reason for this blog post. In case you haven’t heard, Dave, an apparent fellow Far Right follower, broke into the home of Nancy Pelosi, seeking to–what else?–kill her. This assertion may be “alleged” but she was in D.C at the time. Her husband, however, was at home, heard the sound of shattering glass at the back entrance of the house and called 911. By the time police arrived, Mr. De Pape had already fractured Mr. Pelosi’s skull with a hammer demanding to know “where is she!?”My assumption is he wasn’t interested in civil discourse with madam Speaker.

Okay. At this point, I am using David De Pape as the face of the Far Right. His crazed desire to likely kill Ms. Pelosi is very akin to the mob that broke windows of the Capitol building toillegally gain entrance on 1-6-2021. Call De Pape’s action a microcosm of that chaotic, bloody day, minus anyone losing their life in the process. While Mr. De Pape is in custody, the leader of the January 6 attack on democracy is not. I know not why, since he has quite the rap sheet at this point. Just ask the January 6 committee, huh? You know, that made-for-TV committee that revealed the many clear links to the former president and the events of January 6? I’m certain that our former loser president heard about the attempt to murder Nancy but whatever; he’s busy on the campaign trail, wanting see his kind of fanatical, “stop the steal” candidate get elected. So he can somehow become president again in spite of what that J6 committee recommended about indicting him.

The mid-term election looms large and may well spell doom–for Joe Biden and  his Party. You, know, the Democrat Party. That right now has control–albeit-by a slim margin–of the levers of governmental power. Though the Dem Donkeys, ironically, appalingly, appear to be the minority party as far as using such power. Go. Figure. Why has its DOJ not put the Big Orange Kahuna behind bars already?! Afraid? Well, maybe David De Pape will help Joe and company find that fighting political spine…

…as in…Joe Biden has the “bully pulpit” of the presidency. Use the goddam thing, will ya? Get behind that pulpit and pound away at what Mr. De Pope’s action portends if the Republican Hate Cult is given those levers of power. Not that the GOP has any use for the Constitution. But, hey Joe, time is running out—on our Federal Democratic Republic. On people of reason. On the idea of representing all of the people, most of whom work for a living and believe in justice. As in no one is above the law kind of justice. No one.

Joe Biden should demand airtime to directly confront the vile and vicious desires of a political party that bleeds hate and divisiveness. A Party that is essentially aligned with fascism. And white supremacy. The GOP doesn’t even bother to hide these ugly character traits. It’s IN YOUR FACE!

Now is the time, Joe. Sure, you “condemn” the clear desire of a right-wing whacko to possibly kill Nancy. Let’s go on the offense, already! What clearer reminder that the Republican collusion to win the day that January 6th, than one of their acolytes still willing to find and finish what started about 20 months ago?

Just over a week away from the most most crucial mid-term election, perhaps in this country’s history.Huh? Joe? You can’t possibly have anything more important to do.

The other day, a musician friend of mine sent me a video of an event he attended at Chicago’s United Center. Was it a hockey game he saw? Basketball? A raucous political rally? The Midwest pit-stop on the Harry Styles concert tour?; (if that were the case, my 60-something friend could seem to be a lecherous interloper amongst Harry’s largely “pick-me-up” young women fanbase). But I digress.

None of the above. It was The Who. Well, the 2022 version of that iconic rock band that began in 1964. It now has only two original band members alive–Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend. That makes them half an original and half “cover band” then? Whatever. But realizing that those surviving rockers are now 77 and 78 years old can still get thousands of people into a 23,000 seat venue says a lot for rock and roll’s staying power. Hell, aren’t the Rolling Stones on tour, too? It’s youngest original member is a mere 74. Mick Jagger is 79, and had heart valve replacement over two years ago. It was 1962 when Mick and the boys started strutting their stuff.

Good for both of these age-defying rock acts. Hey, retirement is overrated, no? One is what one does. But refusing to walk away from an accountant profession is one thing, being a member of a touring rock act covering thousands of miles is quite another. Wasn’t it Neil Young–who turns 77 next month–who penned and performed the anthem Hey hey, my my, rock and roll will never die?

As for current pop-culture, that Harry Styles tour makes me wonder how someone so young as he–whom critics say is as much known for his performance fashion statements as his musical ability–stacks up against the zeitgeist of the 1960s: Youthful rebellion. Anti-war demonstrations. Civil rights marches. The women’s movement. Questioning authority. Rejecting the political status quo. Rocking in the free world (kudos to–again–Neil Young). Am I simply engaging in superficial, comparative, generational gravitas and its attendant musical expressions? Maybe, but today there is no shortage of socio-political angst for which its youth to confront. Each generation embraces its time and temperament–at least in part–through music, from classical to pop-performance, right? I would presume, at the least, in the current crop of young performers, the up-and-comers may be more activist in using its creativity than their superstar, mega-touring, grab the cash “elders”.

Does it even matter? To quote the seemingly immortal Stones again: Time waits for no one, and it won’t wait for you. So, just get out there and let it all hang out, baby! The Boomer bands had the legendary “groupies”. Harry Styles has the apparent updated version of those women flocking to feel the sexual–if not sociologically edgy–energy of the time: The “pick-me-up” contingent. See me. Feel me. Touch me. Heal me…

Whatever your music preferences may be, the least such should do is distract the mind and engage the senses for the better. Thus, beware the lyrics that inspire mass murder, though, okay? Helter Skelter! Whether that musical therapy comes in the form of Beethoven or “bubble-gum” pop or rock opera (initiated by the Who, arguably, via Tommy) the world would be a worthless place without music, regardless of generation.

Hmm. I wonder if Strawberry Alarm Clock is still together?