Said Bruce Springsteen, when asked, in his Esquire interview, "Why, I ask, do so many men, whether they’re sixty-five or twenty-five, refuse to take responsibility for their actions?"
Asked if he could "make one request of citizens in this country right now, what would it be?," he said:
I think that a lot of what’s going on has been a large group of people frightened by the changing face of the nation. There seems to be an awful lot of fear. The founding fathers were pretty good at confronting their fears and the fears of the country. And it’s the old cliché where geniuses built the system so an idiot could run it. We are completely testing that theory at this very moment. I do believe we’ll survive Trump. But I don’t know if I see a unifying figure on the horizon. That worries me. Because the partisanship and the country being split down the middle is something that’s gravely dangerous. To go back to your question, what would my wish be? [Sighs] It’s corny stuff, but: Let people view themselves as Americans first, that the basic founding principles of the country could be adhered to, whether it’s equality or social justice. Let people give each other a chance."
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76 comments:
"You’re gonna see yourself as a professional victim. And once that’s locked into you, it takes a lotta self-awareness, a lotta work to come out from under it. I’m shocked at the number of people that I know who fall into this category."
There are entire NATIONS that think this way. Russia, Serbia, China. "We've been put-upon, so we are justified in doing [whatever]."
Wow. Ol' Bruce almost sounds like a conservative there. He better be careful... he could be ostracized by the powerful liberal elite if he keeps saying stuff like that.
Liberal Bruce with a conservative message for you kids!
If people who are born in the USA vote for enforcing our immigration laws, should they be dismissed as "frightened people"?
...that the basic founding principles of the country could be adhered to, whether it’s equality or social justice.
WTF do you mean or social justice?!? In what fucking way was that a founding principle of the country?!?
"Let people view themselves as Americans first"
I'm with Bruce. Americans First!
People who are Americans should view themselves as Americans first. People who are here uninvited should not. Those invited but not yet Americans should be able to become Americans if they view themselves as Americans first.
That is LITERALLY nurture and not nature so LITERALLY not DNA.
Sheesh.
-XC
Bruce does not seem to get that the "changing face of the nation" precludes people from seeing "themselves as Americans first" and these same people do not feel any special connection to "basic founding principles."
Wow. 63% of 'non-citizens' on some form of welfare. I hate linking to the Washington Examiner because they have such a shit web presentation, but why are we acting like Europeans and creating a welfare class with immigrants?
Expat(ish) said...
That is LITERALLY nurture and not nature so LITERALLY not DNA.
Yeah. He literally mean metaphorically DNA. Very poor choice of metaphors, when talking about origins.
Genotype, phenotype, and learned behaviors.
Human first, American second, color for purposes of aesthetics and mutual attraction.
Individual dignity. Intrinsic value. Perhaps inordinate worth. Men and women are equal in rights and complementary in Nature. Character before color. Normalization when merited, rejection when toxic, tolerance of everything else. Resources are finitely available and accessible in time and space. Near-frames of scientific philosophy and practice. Separation of logical domains.
We didn't start the fire... #HateLovesAbortion
A rather conservative message with an exhortation to focus on what binds us - being Americans - rather than what divides us - political tribes. Delivered with the liberal, knee jerk jab at Trump, and not a hint of irony.
He's a musician, why do they ask him, and other entertainers, such questions? WTF does anyone care what Bruce Springsteen thinks about such things?
Springsteen's description of his own father is priceless. If you want the full effect click the link below and then the link to the Esquire article.
Adam Raised a Cain
In the summer that I was baptized
My father held me to his side
As they put me into the water
He said how on that day I cried
We’re prisoners of love, a love in chains
He was standin' in the door, I was standin' in the rain
With the same hot blood burning in our veins
Adam raised a Cain
All of the old faces
Asked you why you're back
They fit you with position
And the keys to your daddy's Cadillac
In the darkness of your room
Your mother calls you by your true name
You remember the faces, the places, the names
You know it's never over, it's relentless as the rain
Adam raised a Cain
In the Bible Cain slew Abel
And East of Eden mama he was cast
You're born into this life paying
For the sins of somebody else's past
Well Daddy worked his whole life for nothing but the pain
Now he walks these empty rooms looking for something to blame
You inherit the sins, you inherit the flames
Adam raised a Cain
Lost but not forgotten, from the dark heart of a dream
Adam raised a Cain
He sounds completely mixed up.
"To go back to your question, what would my wish be? [Sighs] It’s corny stuff, but: Let people view themselves as Americans first,..."
America First! The Boss channels Charles Lindbergh via Donald Trump....
Tramps like us, Baby, we were born to be first!
Liberal Bruce with a conservative message for you kids!
Close... baby steps. To realize the ambition of our charter and organization for a community, nation, and administrative district.
Ah Bruce, it's not just men--whether twenty five or sixty five, who refuse to take responsibility for their actions. It's women as well--who refuse to take responsibility.
Why it was just a bit more than two years ago when a 70 something woman named Hillary refused to take responsibility for her absolutely miserable campaign effort, blamed the Russkis and plunged our country into the Mueller morass.
why are we acting like Europeans and creating a welfare class with immigrants?
Mostly becuase Dem politicians need a perminent underclass on the government dole as a reliable voting bank. They don't really care if it's financially untenable and unsustainable in the long run, they only care about securing their own power and wealth obviously. They can just blame something or someone else if and when things go bad.
To bad about the TDS. He could have had a coherent thought.
I get a kick out of all the people who espouse the notion that if it wasn't for Trump we could Make America Great Again by following the principles of what Trump is espousing.
You're born into this life paying
For the sins of somebody else's past
...
You inherit the sins, you inherit the flames
Social justice is a human construct. The concept of "original sin" seems to be less about that peculiar religious philosophy, than about inheriting the nature of an immoral orientation. Earth is a proving ground to assess and separate character from color.
@Nonapod:
Mostly becuase Dem politicians need a perminent underclass on the government dole as a reliable voting bank.
And big business loves cheap labor subsidized by the taxpayer. Hence, the bipartisan consensus that anything short of open borders is racist xenophobia from privileged whites.
that has nothing to do with dna, it was bruce's generation, the boomers, who insisted on abandoning all cultural more that had served us in good stead for generations,
Hungary Heart -- Bruce Springsteen
Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack
I went out for a ride and I never went back
Like a river that don't know where it's flowing
I took a wrong turn and I just kept going
Nice, real nice. A leader of men.
"I do believe we’ll survive Trump."
Good Lord, what an ignorant, fatuous remark. As if Trump were the Civil War, Spanish Flu, '29 Crash, Vietnam and 9-11 rolled into one. Hey, he's just gonna be another picture on a place mat between Barack Obama and Kamala Harris. Calm down, yo, your optimism sounds like you're fighting back tears.
I appreciate Althouse posting this. I really do. But, I see Esquire magazine and Bruce Springsteen trying to give personal and political advice. I'm just not interested. I read the pull quote, which is somewhat a conservative message, "take responsibility for your own actions" or "don't claim victim status as an excuse". I just don't think people reading Esquire are going to become woke enough to realize that it is Republicans that send that message daily. This is just adjusting the frame, so Springsteen can join the campaign trail in 2020 as a everyday "blue collar" moderate swayed by the Democrat candidate's grassroots message of "larger entitlements" and "more welfare".
A nation is a single ethnic group. WASP’s are a nation. Jews are a nation. The US is not. It is a multicultural, multiethnic empire, like the former Tsarist empire or the Austro-Hungarian Empire or Hussein’s Iraq. Such empires are held together by brute force. Springstein and his Democrat allies are inciting interethnic hatred and violence. They will get it, and we will get the naked Iron Fist of totalitarian socialism.
the bipartisan consensus that anything short of open borders is racist xenophobia
The overlapping and converging interests of first, second, and third parties; a distinct anti-nativism, perhaps motivated by diversity, at both ends of the bridge and throughout; and a political, economic, and social love for high-density population centers.
"Those idiot Americans who want to keep identifying themselves as Americans instead of believing that ethnicity determines values and politics should start thinking of themselves as Americans--like the president does."
I unfortunately went to a Springsteen concert back in the mid-aughts. Part of the concert including bashing W. Bush and Dick Cheney. What a waste of money. If I wanted to listen to that kind of simple-mindedness I would have turned on Prairie Home Companion.
I do believe we’ll survive Trump.
OTOH, I don't believe we'd have survived Hillary. Eight years of a corrupt Chicago Machine POTUS followed by her? No. The Country would have gone to hell.
Let people view themselves as Americans first
Uh, that sounds like what Trump wants, too. No more identity politics.
The popularity of Bruce Springsteen - one more thing about this world that I will never understand.
Schlock.
And do we care what 'artists' think? And why?
"I do believe we’ll survive Trump."
Even if Bruce did not buy into the extreme negativity when a Republican is elected, he would still be required to make that statement.
It is demanded by the cultural Left. Disobey and you will be villainized and ostracized.
Another Clueless Celebrity.
A Partisan’s Partisan. These Leftists think they are the middle.
Bruce, do you think you’ve contributed to any polarization or division among people in the country?
Bruce used to write songs sympathetic to The Deplorables. It was all an act.
RE: "Let people view themselves as Americans first, that the basic founding principles of the country could be adhered to, whether it’s equality or social justice."
He and his friends see themselves as citizens of the world. In a 2016 Zogby poll, 33% of those on the Left see themselves as citizens of the world, while only 15% of conservatives do.
Furthermore, his longing for founding principles doesn't match his support for Hillary in 2016, a person who personifies corruption and tried to get elected by divided the country through unrestrained tribalism.
"We are completely testing that theory at this very moment."
He's apparently blissfully unaware of the 17th Amendment. Or as I refer to it: "That debunked theory."
I'm not a professional propagandist but I think he's bordering on bad think
"I would go back to DNA." That's all I need to conclude that Bruce is a racist.
Take Responsibility is what Democrats say to Lower Income Whites.
Republicans say it to Lower Income Blacks.
Meanwhile, Dems and Repubs have imported Browns to take the place of Lower Income Whites and Blacks.
You have to wonder if Springsteen ever actually listened to Trump or just parrots the party line. As mockturtle points out "view themselves as Americans first" is exactly what Trump is pushing.
You gotta learn to live with what you can't rise above
And don't take any wooden nickels.
Nice, real nice. A leader of men.
Almost as nice as that time Mario Puzo left a horse head in the bed of his Hollywood nemesis and murdered all of his enemies in one fell swoop.
Take Responsibility
Republicans say it to all people, without discrimination by diversity, including: color, sex, and gender, or evolutionary attributes of age (after majority), height, and girth. Self-moderation and personal responsibility form the foundation of a reconcilable society.
Why, I ask, do so many men, whether they’re sixty-five or twenty-five, refuse to take responsibility for their actions?
It doesn't seem like Althouse to let the sexism pass.
I liked Bruce better when he was a surfer with car greaser bonafides and beat up Telecaster. Time moves on. Sigh.
DNA is the building blocks of our physiology, the origin and proliferation of secular bias.
Those who do not know American history are condemned to repeat it.
Many formerly despised ethnic minorities have risen to the upper ranks of average household income in the US. What happened?
@Amadeus 48:
What happened?
Meritocracy. Which has its own set of issues and problems.
Good God, another SINGER who has political options.
Who thinks he's smarter than Trump because he's a leftist.
"Oh lets not give into fear." "If only Hillary was POTUS, everything would be cool"
says multi-millionaire Bruce.
Did Bruce even graduate from HS?
Springsteen is just one more of the elitist, lockjawed horsey set lecturing to his perceived inferiors.
I liked mellencamp, yes his politics weren't any sounder, but the lyrics rang better,
Meritocracy. Which has its own set of issues and problems.
But it's reconcilable. Not on its own, but in conjunction with other principles and policies.
Y'know there's no connection between being able to:
A. Sing a little
B. Write Pop Songs
And...
Intelligent political opinions. Or intelligent anything.
Its funny that some people think "Born in the USA" is patriotic.
That's because all they do is listen to the lyric "Born in the USA"
and pay no attention to the rest of the song.
It did not start with Trump:
In his 1989 inaugural address, President Bush said: “There has grown a certain divisiveness. "We have seen the hard looks and heard the statements in which not each other’s ideas are challenged but each other’s motives. And our great parties have too often been far apart and untrusting of each other. A new breeze is blowing, and the old bipartisanship must be made new again.”
He concluded, “The American people await action. They didn’t send us here to bicker. They ask us to rise above the merely partisan. ‘In crucial things, unity’ — and this, my friends, is crucial.”
Unfortunately, in the years since, that “bickering” has devolved into politically deranged division not experienced since the War Between the States.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/59800-george-herbert-walker-bush
"Unfortunately, in the years since, that 'bickering' has devolved into politically deranged division not experienced since the War Between the States."
Me, I'll always bicker with people who want to force me to submit to them. Even--maybe especially--if they claim it's for my own good.
I don't know or care much about Springsteen's political opinions, but
The River is a really great song.
Somebody has been listening to Jordan Peterson. I thought the quote was his at first.
And the French have been listening to The Donald and want what we have to lead them. Brazil, Italy, Poland, Hungary, have beat the French to that same mind set. Who will be next?
The French have a habit of following our Independence revolutions with one of their own.
pacwest said...
To bad about the TDS. He could have had a coherent thought. I get a kick out of all the people who espouse the notion that if it wasn't for Trump we could Make America Great Again by following the principles of what Trump is espousing.
Springsteen sounds like he's talking about Trump's style over substance. Yet with his other comment that the Democrats don't have anyone right now who can beat Trump, tells me he think part of the problem is the left's negative style in reaction to Trump as well.
Springsteen seems not to consider that Trump's combative style is what is necessary if you wish to take one the entrenched interests. But he does seem aware of his need to make an ambiguous "We'll survive Trump" comment in order not to earn the wrath of those same people.
Its funny that some people think "Born in the USA" is patriotic.
It's more funny that Bruce thinks he can say what he's actually thinking without fear of repercussions.
Let's see how long it takes until he's ridiculed and forced to retract his remarks "if they offended anyone".
Because history shows they clearly will.
I wonder if Springsteen would plead for the basic humanity of Trump and his voters. Probably not. It is the higher duty of the artist to ridicule them relentlessly. .....He admits to psychological problems, but he would never admit that his politics are an extension of his psychological problems.....,,Born in the USA is a patriotic song. They say Milton inadvertently made Satan the hero of Paradise Lost. Springsteen inadvertently made Born in the USA a patriotic song. The music, if not the lyrics, are an affirmation of American identity. America, you treated me bad but the strength of my song and my strength itself comes from the nurture of an American identity.
"So that’s important to communicate to your children: They have to take responsibility for who they are, their actions, what they do. They’ve got to own their lives."
And when you witness generations on welfare, that's what they are. People who refuse to take personal responsibility.
There's an intersectionality scoring tool at
https://intersectionalityscore.com/
You answer various questions and they tell you how intersectionally a victim you are. You can slide the bars and see how you gain or lose points. I got 22 mainly because I am female.
I filled in Bruce Springsteen for him and he got 6.
I’m so happy Dylan stopped talking about politics long ago. He saw what a trap it is.
Some "Americans first" is more equal than others' "America first."
He's woke from a national socialist paradise. Baby steps.
Now, back to a conservation of principles... Revitalization, Rehabilitation, Reconciliation, developed on a foundation of religious/moral principles: individual dignity, intrinsic value, and perhaps inordinate worth. Processed without diversity, conflation, Pro-Choice, and other PC dogma.
"Let people view themselves as Americans first, that the basic founding principles of the country could be adhered to, whether it’s equality or social justice."
What Bruce means is, you don't have to be born in the USA to be Born In The USA.
To paraphrase: "If you had grown up in a household where people refused to take responsibility for their lives, chances are you will likewise refuse."
First to come to mind: Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Algore, any political figure.
Name an elected legislator who ever has said: "I was in favor of this program, and voted for the bills that created and funded it. But it is not a successful program. I was wrong."
Or, maybe government officials - elected, appointed, and hired help - never make mistakes.
Springteen can go crap in his hat.
"Americans first" loses all force if the whole world are automatic Americans as soon as they can sneak in. It's hard to feel you have much in common with people trying to give it away - what you would keep for your children.
There’s some really sensible stuff in there, but he ruins it with the “fear” talking point. It’s the very people who want to take responsibility who he derides as fearful.
You can't be in favor of asking people to be "America First" viewers, unless you're against being a group victim member.
US Dems are all about being members of various victim groups, on an axis of oppressed/oppressor.
Dems, like Springsteen, favor group rights over individual rights. His own failure to take responsibility for his own beliefs shows his hypocrisy about this. Dem "responsibility BS".
Hmm, BS -- what Bruce talks when he's taking politics, plus his own initials.
"Why, I ask, do so many men, whether they’re sixty-five or twenty-five, refuse to take responsibility for their actions?" is NOT a good question to ask the man who wrote "Hungry Heart" and left his wife for his back-up singer.
Well, I'm going to call bullshit, because while Bruce touts individual responsibility, he flogs a political philosophy which says there is no such thing as individual responsibility.
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