October 12, 2023
"Devo envisioned American culture evolving in the wrong directions, or devolving: dumbing down, losing individuality, succumbing to corporate imperatives..."
"... and treating people as machines while anesthetizing itself with consumption. Those trends, to put it mildly, have not reversed.
'We were noticing an exponential increase in a certain kind of dysfunction going on. And we labeled it,' said [Gerald] Casale, who is 75.... 'But it was mostly, you know, a smartass college guy being clever. I didn’t really think that we’d go where we went, because de-evolution is real. And this is beyond my worst dystopian nightmare.'"
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I wonder if Idiocracy will get banned again from streaming services. It happened during the Obama years, because people noticed how well it tracked with progressivism. Then when Trump became President, the media pretended the movie was about Trump supporters and allowed it to be streamed. The movie actually mocks both sides, but if you watch just the beginning, you'll quickly realize the supposed redneck Trump supporting hicks survive the progressives within about 10 minutes. In Idiocracy, the future may devolve, but the "elites" made themselves extinct first.
My favorite was always "Through Being Cool", especially:
If you live in a big place
Many factions underground
Chase down Mister Hinky Dink
So no trace can be found
We're through being cool
Eliminate the ninnies and the twits
Put the tape on erase
Rearrange a face
We always liked Picasso anyway
If you live in a small town
You might meet a dozen or two
Young alien types who step out
And dare to declare
We're through being cool
Devo were talking about being cancelled before being cancelled was cool!
Tag: Idiocracy (2006)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/
A dark dystopian devolution comedy set 500 years in the future came true in 10 years.
https://images.amcnetworks.com/ifc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Buckets.jpg
https://images.amcnetworks.com/ifc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Idiocracy-14.jpg
I was thinking about Devo just the other day! The context was OPPD. Instead of cheap and reliable power, OPPD is building expensive and unreliable power.
We are going backwards.
Devo is real.
Idiocracy is real. Esp. the healthcare... and the criminal justice system.
Devo was just another quirky act on MTV with a silly song that roused everyone at clubs to dance when it played.
Clicking through on the Pareles tag shows that he really likes to find politics in lyrics. If Devo was trying to say something meaningful, it got lost in the gimmick.
The red plastic flowerpot hats and yellow hazmat suits made a compelling costume.
Evolution. Show me the fitness function!
But it was mostly, you know, a smartass college guy being clever. I didn’t really think that we’d go where we went, because de-evolution is real. And this is beyond my worst dystopian nightmare.
Yeah, I'll say it; we've got too many "smart" people out there who aren't nearly as smart as they think they are.
DEVO's cover of the Stone's (I can't get no) Satisfaction is awesome.
Hope their observation that "step on a crack, break your mother's back" is less prescient.
Ditto the movie "Idiocracy"
Another piece written for women, which is where the de-evolution forces begin.
Put on your energy dome and give in to the "Uncontrollable Urge".
"we've got too many "smart" people out there who aren't nearly as smart as they think they are."
Some of the college-educated are the dumbest smart people you’ll ever meet. My favorites are some of the graduates of the US Military Academies. If it wasn't for ring knocking they'd be lucky to get mop jobs.
"If Devo was trying to say something meaningful, it got lost in the gimmick."
Wow is this uninformed. If Whip It is all you have heard, then maybe. But the gimmick (from the name Devo to all of the weird sci fi mythology) is the political message. Great band. Their music has aged very well.
When I was a grad student at UTexas almost 40 years ago, I once saw a bathroom grafitto:
Are we not cattle? We are Bevo!
Pure genius.
I am a long-time fan. I first heard them, I think, on SNL sometime in 1977 or 78, and they performed a song someone above already mentioned, their cover of "I Can't Get No Satisfaction". I have their first 3 or 4 albums on CD.
No, no, no, no, NO: every day you fuckers say everything's fine, and the status quo needs defending, at every turn.
I swear, I don't know what to think of you people from thread to thread, except I'm surrounded by hypocrites.
By the way, the first time I saw DEVO on TV I was in the Navy, and we were watching a tape of Saturday Night Live in the galley. The white guys grew hysterical when they realized the band was covering "Satisfaction" - not copying it - and tore the kitchen up. They never touched the television, but ripped everything else in the room apart. Throwing around kitchen, utensils, tearing up seat, cushions, screaming at the top of their lungs, etc.
I knew DEVO and was cracking up the whole time, but that's how I learned I loved this band.
Oh - and the phrase "We're Through Being Cool" can apply to both Israel AND Hamas
", succumbing to corporate imperatives... and treating people as machines while anesthetizing itself with consumption."
Casale didn't get the distinction between corporate exploitation and state oppression. Under the former, the individual has options. Not so under the latter. And he doesn't realize that he was wrong, because he misunderstood the real threat.
"RideSpaceMountain said...
""we've got too many "smart" people out there who aren't nearly as smart as they think they are."
"Some of the college-educated are the dumbest smart people you’ll ever meet. My favorites are some of the graduates of the US Military Academies. If it wasn't for ring knocking they'd be lucky to get mop jobs."
Hey. Is that directed at me?
Never heard of them, oddly enough, but after watching about 15 seconds of 'Whip It' I can see why.
I like Devo. Prescient.
Devo
Devo
Devo
OK this is .. weird
When Devo was being Devo, everyone knew they were absolutely correct in everything they performed.
I am consistently impressed with the courage needed to stand in front of thousands of people performing your art.
Freedom of choice, is what you’ve got… Freedom from choice, is what you want.
Devo’s politics sucked - to put it mildly - but you were guaranteed a great time if you got to see them live back in the day. And I got to sing with Mothersbaugh at the Universal Amphitheater in December of 1982.
@Aggie: "Never heard of them, oddly enough, but after watching about 15 seconds of 'Whip It' I can see why."
Did you get to part of the video where they are whipping the clothes off the woman? That's the main thing that sticks in my mind about the band:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/q1phFJR8QiA/maxresdefault.jpg
Devolution indeed. Satire? Sarcasm? Just fun to them?
Th efirst time i saw Idiocracy it was a comedy. Now its a documentary.
Devo's most subversive song is Mongoloid.
The song portrays a guy so underdeveloped he could be considered mentally retarded, but no one notices because culture has devolved so much that he fits right in.
The point is that you don't have to be smart in order to function in society, you just have to be able to fit in with the corporate/consumer culture, which can easily be done, probably best of all, by someone with surprisingly little intelligence. SO as a culture we're all devolving.
Michael said...
"Devo's most subversive song is Mongoloid."
That's probably true. I'm usually inclined to follow it up with "Blockhead" just to emphasize the point.
Entropy is present in society as well as the universe...
'No, no, no, no, NO: every day you fuckers say everything's fine, and the status quo needs defending, at every turn.'
It's apparent you've never read my missives.
World > Handbasket > Hell : )
Joe Smith said...
'No, no, no, no, NO: every day you fuckers say everything's fine, and the status quo needs defending, at every turn.'
It's apparent you've never read my missives.
World > Handbasket > Hell : )
I will try to pay more attention.
"Devo was just another quirky act on MTV with a silly song that roused everyone at clubs to dance when it played.
"Clicking through on the Pareles tag shows that he really likes to find politics in lyrics. If Devo was trying to say something meaningful, it got lost in the gimmick."
It seems, rather, that you were unable (or too uninterested) to see past "the gimmick" to their consistent point of view and critique of late-20th Century materialistic culture, (even worse now in the 21st Century). This is not to claim DEVO as being the great rock philosophers of modern and post-modern society, but simply to point out they did have a conscious point of view, one they had thought about and expressed consistently throughout their body of work.
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