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Oh, this country sure looks good to me
But these fences are comin’ apart at every nail.
— Neil Young
I love me some Neil Young.
Saw him live a bunch of times in some truly epic concerts— rocking with Crazy Horse, solo acoustic; the whole wild, erratic, eccentric range from the deep Americana of Harvest Moon to a bone-crunching Sedan Delivery.
After the Gold Rush was go-to High Sierra trek music. Unknown Legend (“Out there on a desert highway/She rides a Harley Davidson/ Her long blonde hair flyin’ in the wind”) was the soundtrack for a 1992 trip to Lone Pine, California, and Mt. Whitney where I asked my girl to be my wife.
In college I had me a denim jacket with a Neil Young patch on the sleeve and Waylon Jennings’ Flying W on the back — and that was before they collaborated on Old Ways.
That melding of shitkicker and hippie suited me down to the core — and still does. But cats are barking, dogs are purring, and I don’t recognize the world I live in anymore.
*
There’s something weird and disorienting in watching as a countercultural icon and former warrior for free speech demands that The Man censor a renegade podcast host. In case you missed this latest Through the Looking Glass moment in our cultural history, I’m referring to the recent spat in which Neil Young told the content streaming service Spotify to get rid of podcast host Joe Rogan (whose show Spotify is paying stupid money for exclusive rights) or to remove his music. Young is pissed that Rogan has guests on his show that spread “fake information about vaccines.”
Spotify went with Rogan.
Brendan O’Neill of Spiked Online does a nice job of analyzing the sorry nature of this kerfuffle:
“[I]t confirms, perfectly and horribly, that to be countercultural today is to be on the side of fear, on the side of censure, on the side of madly believing that vast, unaccountable corporate machines have the right and the responsibility to determine what the rest of us may hear and see. I wonder if the Neil Young who once went on stage with an entire rock of cocaine protruding from his nostril could have imagined that he would one day be begging the powerful to protect the little people from ‘offensive’ ideas?”
The legendary cocaine booger.
I don’t believe I’ve listened to a second of a Joe Rogan podcast (in contrast to countless hours with the music of Neil Young) and I can’t add to O’Neill’s take on the contretemps. But contemplating the wreckage did lead to some broader ponderations.
*
My experience with the countercultural left is wide and deep. I got my degree in history in 1987 at UC Santa Cruz. The choice of schools was a little idiosyncratic: It was close to UC Berkeley, where my then-girlfriend was going to school. I didn’t have the math grades to make it into that august institution, but I could swing UCSC. Besides, I liked the idea of going to school in the middle of a redwood forest. I had a romantic — and as it turned out, misplaced — notion that it would be a freewheeling’ sort of place that would naturally welcome my hybrid, Gram Parsons-influenced hippie-shitkicker style.
Yeah, not really.
I found out quickly, that the bastion of countercultural “freedom” I found myself in was full of petty authoritarians whose notions of “tolerance” only extended to their own kind. If you are thinking, “Why, that’s not tolerance at all!” you have touched with a needle the primary content of my education in that institution.
Pushing back against group-think and grievance theater put me squarely in the crosshairs of a “cancel culture” that thrived in the coastal forest environment before it had a name. Fortunately, the teaching staff at UCSC still actually believed in free speech and a marketplace of ideas and that sort of thing, and I avoided cancelation. Then. I am quite certain the outcome would be different now.
There were some genuine freedom-lovers around, of course, like my Arkansas hillbilly lesbian friend Amber, who called bullshit on efforts to have me removed from a Native American history class. Or the guy that ran the shooting range deep in the Santa Cruz Mountains. That guy was an outlaw; “countercultural” in the best, most authentic way.
But, mostly, I learned that a purportedly freedom-loving subculture was, in fact, highly conformist — and extremely hostile to anyone who did not conform completely to its norms.
Turns out, that this was very valuable education, because I learned early that authoritarianism and intolerance wears many guises. It can come wrapped in the flag, or in a tie-dye shirt.
Another aspect of all this that is worth pondering is that the recent efforts to enforce conformity of thought and de-platform dissenting viewpoints has actually created a bigger market for the wrong-think the censors are trying to stamp out. As Matt Taibbi pointed out in a recent Substack essay:
“Censors have a fantasy that if they get rid of all the [vaccine skeptics], and rein in people like Joe Rogan, that all the holdouts will suddenly rush to get vaccinated. The opposite is true. If you wipe out critics, people will immediately default to higher levels of suspicion. They will now be sure there’s something wrong with the vaccine. If you want to convince audiences, you have to allow everyone to talk, even the ones you disagree with. You have to make a better case.”
(Put a pin in this bit of interesting trivia: Until 2021, the most vociferous anti-vaxxers I encountered were hippies. What a long, strange trip it’s been).
I don’t think many of the “counterculture” authoritarians I dealt with back in the day had any confidence that they could “make a better case” about much of anything. Most of them weren’t willing to do the hard work to understand any subject at any depth, or account for evidence contrary to their adopted world view. They wanted me out of that Native American History class because I was a turd in the punchbowl at their group therapy session. So they ran to The Man. Simple as that.
This kind of mentality is pervasive in mainstream American culture right now, and the only real counterculture is one that pushes back against it. So I say to you my friends: Keep on rockin’ in the free world.
Cort Horner says
SPOT on. Another excellent piece, Jim. The transition of radical counterculture from “Question Authority” to “Unquestioningly Obey Authority” is baffling.
Matthew says
I came to the conclusion a long time ago that the Left is all about psychological projection so they say are for free speech and call for censorship. They say they are against racism but only can seem to see people as whatever group they belong to.
I won’t say conservatives never do this, but it seems to happen less on their side.
I may have mentioned this here before, but it bears retelling: Peter Mathiessen did a reading from what would become “Killing Mister Watson” at UCSC, and talked about the plight of the Moskito Indians of Nicaragua, who were being repressed by the Sandinista government. The reception was hostile. You see, oppression of indigenous people is a Very Bad Thing when conducted by white settler-colonialists. When it’s a project of totalitarian Latin American Communists, it’s either “fake news” or just the broken eggs in Stalin’s omelette.
I received a very good education, indeed.
Matthew says
The left is often in denial of how bad the Communists were. I’ve never met a person on the right who made excuses for the Nazi’s. Some might deny that the Nazi’s were on the right (and there’s a strong argument for that.) but they don’t pretend they weren’t as bad as they were.
Near as I figure most liberals, even the sane center-left type, think that there is something inherently good about being on the left. There are some on the right who think the same thing and think anybody who does not vote Republican every time must hate America, too. Thing is it seems endemic to liberal thinking.
The thing is everybody whatever their political beliefs is capable of horrible acts. Nicaragua proved that with both the Sandistas and the Contras routinely committing atrocities.
Jim P says
I wish we could get rid of the purely right/left dichotomy. It isn’t true and gives the leftists a bogeyman to point to.
There is totalitarian on the left and anarchy on the right.
In some form or fashion it’s…
(L) Communism, Fascism, Socialism, Democracy, Republics, Libertarian, ….Anarchy.®
Nazis were just as left as Bolsheviks. National Socialists? That’s why this whole Anti-Fa garbage drives me nuts.
Carey Tosello says
As someone who grew up in Santa Cruz (I escaped to Oregon in 1993) what you describe at UCSC is spot on. We used to refer to them as “loonies” up on the hill, until that craziness flowed down into town and took over city hall. For those that have recently “discovered” the intolerance of the left, Jim is correct that it has existed there for decades, they just don’t try to hide it anymore.
David Crawsby says
Nail, head. Well done.
Jim P says
A great piece, thanks. I can say Young’s music for me was only something on the radio. His protest fail was a wonderful self own. Reminds me of my perpetually hippy brother who is so nonconformist that he’s lockstep with the cancelists. Been that way since forever and completely blind to irony.
I’ve never thought of the counterculture as freedom loving, The quote I come back to is “Socialists love capitalism, they just think the wrong people have the money” you can insert any topic.
In other words, nothing new under the sun.
This is true, especially if you insert “power.”
Pat McGowan says
Here’s the thing about Joe Rogan in my opinion, and I have listened to him a number of times because I was hoping to find a voice on the right that was intelligent. And sometimes he is. He had Alex Jones on and for a period of time, he let Jones hang himself with his own rope. Jones is a complete POS to me because of what he subjected the Sandyhook parents to. Jones proceed to get plastered and the further he went, the more outrageous his claims became and for a while in the interview I appreciated Rogan just letting him go or challenging him a bit. But then he started warning Alex about things he should avoid, not because they were outrageous lies, but because it would harm the rehabilitation that Rogan was clearly trying to give Jones. So Rogan isn’t some naïve “Bro” just saying whatever comes into his mind. He has huge agenda. He is most of the things the left accuses him of; sexist, misogynistic, anti-vaccine, anti-science. I get your argument that he has freedom of speech as a right. I would argue that he also has should have the same limits we all have when that speech becomes dangerous, and yes, I also in complete agreement with you that WHO gets to decide when that speech becomes dangerous is a (the?) quandry. I also think that Mr. Young has every right to leave and to tell people why. I definitely like Neil Young more than Rogan and Spotify’s payments to artists are criminal, so this just pushes me to do some leg work and find another site.
Hey Pat:
I would have had nothing at all to say about this had NY simply said, “I think that guy is an asshole, I don’t want my music on the same platform as him.” It was the “They can have Rogan or they can have Young, but not both” thing that got me. “Something offends me; I don’t want to hear it and nobody else should either” is just assaholic — and it brought back fond memories of UCSC. Thus the post.
BTW, you should ask Vince about his theory re: what NY is REALLY up to here. Totally plausible, and if he’s right, I have a whole new respect for ol’ Neil — like I do for the women who get fired from their straight jobs because of their Only Fans page and leverage it into big traffic and big $$ for said Only Fans page. Unfortunately, I just don’t have that kind of business acumen. Nor an OF page, in case I alarmed you there.
I remain agnostic about Rogan. Never listened to his show and probably never will. My podcast listening is about history, adventure and music. And I concur re Spotify. They are a crime against music anyway.
As for “voices on the right,” I tend to gravitate to National Review. They’ve still got a pretty good stable of thoughtful conservative writers. David French (former NR) is doing his own newsletter — he’s an evangelical Christian who is concerned with walking his talk and I respect him a lot. I like Bari Weiss. Think she’s on Substack now.
Matt Taibbi is my favorite culture/politics read, period. He recently did a column on Tom Friedman that left me hurting cuz I laughed so hard. He’s got the Mark Twain “pen warmed up in hell” going.
Matthew says
According to Wikipedia (for whatever that is worth) Rogan dissents from many right-wing beliefs (though he doesn’t agree with every left wing one either.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Rogan#Views
Pat McGowan says
I realized my “find a voice on the right that was intelligent” comes across as an insult, I should clarify, a voice on the right in the media, and I am happy to hear recommendations.
Patrick McGowan says
Thanks for the leads. I look forward to checking them out. I know NY had a project going that was super high fidelity sound that seems to have disappeared. Now, to check in with The Sober Voice Of Reason to see what he thinks Neil has in his bag of tricks.
You are on the scent…
Reader says
I think Lynyrd Skynyrd had Mr. Young’s number.
Allan Godsiff says
A really interesting piece Jim and I have to say I love reading through the comments ( something I generally tend not to do most place3s) , you have a bunch of very intelligent , thoughtful folk who read and comment on your writing and I am really thankful for that !
Thanks Allan.
Vince says
How about an NFT of Joe Rogan wearing a T shirt, with a picture of Ronnie Van Zant wearing T shirt, with a picture of Neil Young on it?
Now you’re talkin’.