now this is punk rock:how much do u despise the government?
 

what do u think about your government?
(i know the one in the U.S sucks)
do you think that they're interfering with the music industry?
how would you express your feelings toward the gov.?
what are some punk rock ways you would deal with them?
rebelion?

does anyone agree with me?

thanx for looking at this DontRunMeOver:)

Cherrychic, this could be a very good thread, but at the moment you're being pretty vague about what your issue is. How do you think the government is influencing and exploiting music to mould people's minds in a certain direction?

Before talking about how music might be being used to 'mould your thinking', it might be worth considering how thorough a moulding process your family, your home community, your school, your friends and religious groups have already put you through. To give a brief overview, I'd say we're born as a bundle of flesh, bones, brain cells etc. with a few instincts, varying capacities for mental and physical aptitudes and no knowledge or opinions whatsoever (apart from that when we're hungry/cold/tired we want something done about it). Beyond these initial instincts everything which we know now had to come from somewhere and also (importantly) to be put somewhere in our minds. Much of this information - and ideas for how we should interpret the information - is not pure, first hand information but is instead greatly influenced by family/schools etc. This means that our personalities, personal morals and everything else about us is largely (not entirely, but largely) a creation of the opinions and personalities of the people and organisations around us.

Being moulded in some way by the government (and a lot of other organisations) is unavoidable. In fact, its already happened. The biggest issue for me would be WHERE TO DRAW THE LINE. The government 'moulds' us by making us learn a national language - is this a negative thing? The government 'moulds' us by creating laws and enforcing them - some of this law enforcement may have a negative effect on us, but I'd say most of it is beneficial.

HOW are the government manipulating people through music? I wouldn't say that the UK government are particularly guilty of ACTIVE manipulation, but then there's always the issue of censorship, watersheds, funding of certain BBC projects which show certain government biases.

What do you think? I'm tying up this ramble for now as its coffee time!

That's ok. If you want more people to comment (a lot have already looked I think, but not many have replied) then edit your original question a bit to give people more direction. Write a list of questions perhaps, write your own opinions. Give some examples for people to think about and to either agree with or to argue against!

dude, thanx i really appreciate ur honest opinion that really helps.

I'd write an entire album of songs, each of which highlighted individual complaints against the government and which gave specific, detailed accounts of how the government was wrong. Not lyrics which sings about anarchy, using it in the cliched punk-utopia way which it so often appears, but more like music which realises that music is not a powerful enough force to disrupt the whole of society but can have an effect if it its focussed at the right place, in the right way. Kick-ass, hard hitting music with catchy singable choruses and let the music drill the messages into people's heads. What effect do you think we would have seen if, for example, Red Hot Chili Peppers had brought out a single called 'Vote Kerry, Not Bush' a couple of months before the last US election? A song telling people to vote, a song telling people to buy from a certain supermarket chain (because a different one supports the military, for example). Ideally, going completely against the government's policy while not even mentioning them - as namechecking just reinforces how important/powerful something is, whereas just ignoring them nicely undermines their influence. Really, this would be a case of 'moulding minds through music' but like I said before, not all moulding is bad moulding.

Rebellion? Personally, I think that blatant rebellion just makes you look like an impotent idiot, there are much more subversive and manipulative things that you can do.

You can mould through music but it very rarely happens where they take any notice. Look at live 8 they did it and supposedly brought that off but afterwards they still didn't give a penny. You have green day try who are with American Idiot trying (apart from sell albums) to mould people..The gov. mainly. There was a song way back which aparently did something...I can't remember...John Lennon and Imagine...John Lennon stayed in his bed for what?...a week to protest something, I mean that is a stupid idea really! Music I think could mould because music can change the way we feel but wheather it goes for everthing I don't know...Could be as Don't Run Me Over says...Could be a waste of time.

Gosh the is a stupid thread.
How come anything anti goverment that serves no purpose to punk music.
Is ALWAYS posted in the punk forum?
You guys are acting the goverment is approving and disapproving all lyrics.
We have free speech idiots notice how leftover crack is still going and dead kennedys are still selling albums.

You're right that the threads in the wrong place, as its not really about punk music. At the same time, free speech means that you have the freedom to say what you want, NOT that everybody else gets to hear it in its pure, untampered-with form and it the original context.