US v. Lennon, Brangelina, Clooney & McLuhan

US v. Lennon, Brangelina, Clooney & McLuhan...in "IRV'S EYE VIEW"

by Irv Kass

Wednesday, 04 October 2006

http://www.mediamogirl.com IRV'S EYE VIEW Hello, again, everybody. It’s kickoff time for MM.com and I’m the odd ball in the MM pantheon. Okay, there are lots of odd balls in the MM world but here’s why when you read my “stuff” it may be worth noting a few things. First, I’m a guy; second I’m a boomer so probably old enough to be your father if you were born in 70s or 80s; and I love this stuff—technology, the web, video etc. If you haven’t seen the United States vs. John Lennon run out and see it now. It’s an amazing movie about a person who we could really use today. To see the similarities in the national mind set back in the 70s, with Nixon and his crew promoting an unpopular war, compared to today’s White House promoting an unpopular war, makes those of us who lived through that time yearn for a new activism. It’s not an accident that John Lennon and Yoko Ono were in the forefront of the anti war movement. As artists they could do what politicians and other activists are incapable of, or unwilling to do. First, they had the resources of John’s success as a Beatle. Financially they could do what they had to do because they were rich, very, very rich. But it was their sensibility, a certain simple, but not simplistic, appreciation of the madness that was raging around them and the cost in human lives and in our own humanity, that propelled them into activism. They also welcomed the media and understood how being in the spotlight could be bigger than their own success and fame; they used their celebrity for a higher purpose. Now you’re probably thinking that we have models, today, of celebrities who are in it for a larger, better purpose; and, you’re correct. George Clooney, Bono, even Brad and Angelina, do “good” by putting themselves on the line for worthy causes. But the scale of what was happening in the Lennon/Ono persecution and prosecution has no similar, analogous model today. So here’s the challenge. We must use our power in the world of viral marketing, blogosphere driven, personal expression with video proliferating on the web, to move toward bringing a different sort of leader into the front of the global stage. Marshall McLuhan, way back in 1964 (Understanding Media) anticipated our current electronic age with great acuity. Among his many clear and perceptive observations was that artists serve as sort of the canary in the coal mine anticipating and leading where the corporate and political leadership is unable to go, unable to see, or unwilling to take us. Each of us who has access to a computer can see, hear, and create, in ways only imagined just a few years ago. We have industrial giants like Google that profess a creed of “Don’t Be Evil”. And we have websites where everything, good, bad, and ugly, can be posted for the world to see. But what we see lacks the sort of connective power and narrative magnetism that great popular art can deliver. “All We Are Saying Is Give Peace A Chance”, became the anthem of the protest rallies because it was the sort of tune you take for granted and cannot get out of your head. Creating this simple musical stanza made John Lennon more dangerous to the entrenched power in Washington than all the reasoned arguments and sensible rhetoric that came before. Who will sing the song for today and how will the tune go? I’m hoping we find out soon.