I stumbled across this vid on YouTube this early this morning & debated posting it. For some reason, I didn't. Maybe because I kind of hate it, too. It's sort of bittersweet then, isn't it? Like coady said, "You know who God's Gonna Cut Down? Everyone in this video." I mean, personally & philosophically, I think that statement's got a little more bark to it than its bite, but I definitely agree with the sentiment. Like, fucking Kanye West? Really? I mean, this guy got up on stage at the MTV Europe Awards & told everyone in the house & across the world that the award show would lose credibility if he didn't win. And he lost (the award show & some credibility, I'm sure). And here he is. I think the song has a lot to do with people doing what they do, but somebody "knowing better" (i.e. cliches: the old to the young, the law-abiding citizen to the criminal, obviously the God to the people). And I think it brings up an interesting point in a way: the "civilian" to the celebrity. All we get is their shit: their advertisements; their products; their conveniently packaged, rehashed, pretty-pretty, marketable yet supposedly gut-wrenchingly, thought-provokingly honest souls & takes on the culture they will proceed to buy their way out of with all the cha-ching their soul-bearing rang of. They have the best souls of the year. The most inventive souls of the decade. The most soulful souls of a century. The most inovative souls of a people. It's ridiculous. And we're the ones that "need" to hear it all. This is just another example. And I think from the celebrity point-of-view of this as something they'll benefit from whether monetarily or reputation-wise, it's bullshit. But from the civilian point-of-view, it's sort of like, "Damn, moneymakers. You are really fucking stupid and I'm not buying it." I can appreciate that. Haha. Like, if the irony here is "oooooh that Johnny Cash. He knew best. He was a man of the people. Look at all these celebrities who aren't." ..well, putting them in this video (& most likely paying them to appear) makes them more of the celebrities they are if anything else. ... So... conceptually, it just doesn't really make sense, does it? But, uh, Patti Smith. Yeah. I'll condone that.