Neil Young: Old Man, Take a Look at YOUR Life

One of the few joys of aging is being able to introspectively look back upon your infinitesimally short life, relative to the 4.5-billion-year-old tract of land upon which you reside, and marvel at the ebb and flow, progress and regress, and advancement and decline of mores, technology, our physical world and most importantly, our social and political discourse.

As I introspect with you, most probably a contemporary, I will forsake the obvious, and focus upon the unbelievable. It is unbelievable to me that those of us who were born in the 50’s, and grew up in the 60’s and 70’s, railing against the Man, are now the Man, and we are way worse than our worst version of the 60’s & 70’s Man.

In the 60’s, any sort of government oppression/control; any support of the military industrial complex; any thought that we would be censored, silenced and cancelled, for openly expressing a dissenting opinion – dammit, we viewed ourselves as dissidents! – was our battle, our anathema.

Now, we lay back – fat, lazy, silent? Compliant? Yes. We are the Man, and we are our worst nightmare version of the Man.

NEIL YOUNG!!!

Are you F-ing kidding me?

Neil Young, the author of the anti-war/anti-government song ‘Ohio’; the constant and loud slammer of Nixon, Reagan and Bush, (both versions #41 & #43); the lover of peace and hater of war, is now loudly for institutional suppression of free speech. I’d have more expected Ted Nugent to be an in-your-face vegan. The irony, to me, is similar and obvious; as would be my disdain for someone being such a sell-out of your long-prescribed values.  

Neil Young’s net worth is in excess of $200 million dollars, but he barks about the rich, and their oppression of the poor. He’s an existential climate change guy who never leaves whichever house he owns without being driven in a limousine to his private jet. Ever seen Neil Young on Southwest # 757 from LAX to LGA? (That’s Los Angeles to New York, if you’re keeping score.) Don’t waste your time looking for him.

If we shrug our shoulders at this, this now acceptable censoring and cancelling of what we, the Man, now thinks doesn’t fit our narrative, or, our side’s narrative, where does that further lead us?

I thought when we were young, enlightened intellectuals, that we were fighting against suppression and oppression. We were against the Military Industrial Complex – substitute Big Pharma for that nowadays - but I’m fearing with the limp saber-rattling that’s going on now, the Military Industrial Complex will soon get their long-overdue payday. That includes body-bag manufacturers.

Mr. Neil Young, you let me down. You burst my 60’s Woodstock, Peace, Love and Understanding rainbow-colored bubble.

You’re no different, and certainly no better, than the Southern man whom you vilified in song; he who ultimately helped you build your beachfront homes in Malibu and Hawaii.