The politics of de-evolution- "the end of democracy in our time"

[DBoon]

Found this in an interview with Gerry Casales and Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo with David Haffenreffer (CNN) from 2004:

HAFFENREFFER: WE talk about deevolution as you look at society, and maybe even the world today. Does it apply perhaps more today than any other time?

CASALE: Absolutely. I mean, all kidding aside, it`s become hideously real. Like what we talked about almost as a kind of philosophy with humor has become true. Deevolution is real. I think everybody watching today would agree that they can`t even believe the world they live in now.

HAFFENREFFER: What`s the driving force behind it?

CASALE: Fear and manipulation of fear. Mark and I met at Kent State in 1970, right after the students were killed. I thought maybe that was the worst thing I would see in my lifetime. And it changed me forever. And I was within 50 yards proximity of Allison Krause, who was one of the four murdered. And it was murder, by the way. And now I`ve lived to see the end of democracy in our time. That`s unbelievable.

from : http://www.clubdevo.com/mp/news_pgs/cnn_thebiz.html

[Alcibiades]

1. DEVO's pessimistic outlook on human nature

has sadly proved to be the predominant spirit of our age. And things looked so hopeful during the enlightenment.

Sometimes I think we would all be better off under a benign autocrat. And then i remember all the progress that's been made in my lifetime: women's liberation, the elimination of overt racism, the success of the great society....

Almost all of which is now in the process of being dismantled by a bunch of pinheads.

DEVO does reveal one important difference between the left anf the right: the left can laugh at itself. The DEVO boys included themselves in "Jocko Homo" and their other pessimistic songs. Right wingers take themselves too seriously to be able to do this. So perhaps if there is hope it's in humor, in irony.

[DBoon]

2. I think of Devo as a contemporary version of WWI Dada

an art movement that satirizes the insane brutality of contemporary society

Dada was founded during WWI as a reaction to the slaughter of that war, and the unraveling of the ideology of progress

[Alcibiades]

4. True

and what I meant to say was not that the the DEVO attitude toward human nature has become dominant, which is not true, but rather that folks have lived down to their assessment of it.

[wli]

3. relatively noncontroversial at this point; we've figured Bushler out

[DivinBreuvage]

5. Not to say they're wrong, but to put things in historical perspective

democracy seriously looked like it was done for in the 1930s too, as extreme conditions drove large numbers of people in the western nations to embrace extremist forms of government. I don't bring this up to say that everything's fine, I just mention it to show that the situation doesn't have to be hopeless.

[Lars39]

6. I've been thinking this for quite a while now...

the un-evolved will wind up killing us all(the evolved), unless we can find a way to stop the madness.