I've always been partial to great music that has an underlying theme or message. I tend to listen very closely to the message, as most good songs, irrespective of genre and epoch, have an oratory undercurrent.
Nickelback have encompassed what is wrong with society and given a message of hope, stating that if we all just took a brief moment of time out of our lives, everyone can, could, should, would make a difference... if we just set aside our differences. I don't think there is anyone with a conscience who would not be touched by this video. The fact that Mandela actually suffered for almost three decades before leading his country out of the pit of despair speaks volumes to the human psyche. The others in the video contributing to my belief that there is hope, in spite of my own personal opinion that the world "might" be better off without us.
Considering the current state of play for a rather insignificant species call "Homo Sapien", I believe that we should start looking inward rather than to "divine intervention" to guide us. Considering the vast difference of opinions on "who said what" several hundred to more than two thousand years ago, religion may not necessarily the best teacher on how to conduct ourselves when "common sense" (which I believe is "uncommon") is a better way of progressing humanity. Please do not get me wrong, "Traditional" religions serve a great purposes in steering the overall "moral compass" of society, but we must recognize that
the problem is greater than religion itself... History, as they say, is ultimately written by the those who were victorious, thus I will always call into question the propagada without direct evidence as to its validity.
In that vein, and from the perspective of the modern society and those who are also trying to convey a message, I love the scripted paragraph from "The Matrix", which will always remain one of my favorites...
Agent Smith articulated...
"I’d like to share a revelation that I’ve had, during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you aren’t actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with its surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply, and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we... are the cure."
This post has now turned into a poignant, personal philosophical message which I was originally considering to aggressive, however, when I account for the intellect of the audience reading this, I expect that an equally even response will follow... please accept my apologies if I have offended anyone here.
FYI: I just finished the Beyonce / Shakira video "Beautiful Liar" ... completely apropos with respect to this post, as once again, the dark side of (in this case) men is conveyed via a message of deceit.
OIC!
BTW: "Beautiful Liar" is one of the sexiest video's I've seen (if you are "Latino", you'll know that I mean)...
