Born To Run Off At The Mouth
“But rock n roll has played also another role in American life, which is to prove that Herbert Marcuse was right. There will be no revolution in America. This society will contain its contradictions without resolving them; it will absorb opposition and reward it; it will transform dissent into culture and commerce. Marcuse’s mistake was in believing that this is bad news. It is good news, because we will be spared the agonies of political purifications. But it is also comic, as protest songs become entertainment for the rich, and Bruce Springsteen the idol of the elite.”
— I have no horse in this race: I don’t really care about Bruce Springsteen (sure I love “Born to Run” and “Nebraska,” whatever!) but I’m not going to read about him, nor do I care about reading about reading about him. But still, there’s something delightful about someone going in so hard against David Remnick and Jeffrey Goldberg on their recent Springsteen pieces, as Leon Wieseltier did this week. Mostly it’s delightful to see someone not mellow with age, even if all the noise is lost on me.