Tag: protest

March 12, 2024 – Convoy

March 12, 2024 /

There were some pretty campy movies in the 1970s. Believe it or not, I don’t think Convoy was one of them. Yes, it has some cheesy action and some CB jibber, jabber and the plot was a little thin, but the subplot was subversively amazing. In fact, so good that I don’t think they even realized what they had done.

Convoy was a movie released in 1978 based on the song by CW McCall in 1974. The embedded video is a modified version of the original song which is the opening of the movie. The movie stars Kris Kristofferson as a truck driver who inadvertently leads a group of trucks on a convoy that is essentially trying to escape a dirty sheriff.

This movie is currently playing on Pluto. If you have internet access, then you can also watch the movie for free. My wife was gone for the weekend and I turned this on while I was cooking in the kitchen. I soon found that I was too invested in the story that I needed to finish it.

The night before, I was watching James Caan as The Gambler (1974). I fell asleep before the movie was over so I wanted to watch the last twenty minutes. I saw that Convoy was coming up next. As a fan of The Dukes of Hazzard and Smokey and the Bandit, I figured I was going to like this and I wasn’t dissapointed.

I am not a trucker and I don’t know any. I really don’t get what a convoy actually does other than it is pretty menacing seeing a whole line of trucks bearing down on you. But, I think this movie has inspired a genre of protest whereby truckers impede goods movement or traffic. The last, most famous one in recent memory was the Canadian trucker strike of 2022 over requiring vaccinations for Covid-19.

Known by the CB handle ‘Rubber Duck’ (Kristofferson) or more commonly Duck, realizes that the only way out of his predicament is by driving to Mexico. This draws a lot of support from close by truckers who join up in the convoy. This in turn creates a regional sensation with the public. Remember, we only had three TV stations in those days.

What makes this movie great is that the New Mexico governor tries to coopt the public sentiment and support for the truckers into helping his campaign for senate. There it is, the ugly gold nugget. The people were largely oblivious as they are involved in the party of it all. Meanwhile, Duck and the other truckers could see right through it. There was a lot of political babble from the governor about feeling the pain and taking action with the people.

This is the where we stand. As an example, as soon as the politicians took hold of the tea party, it died. A leader has to be ambivalent of the details and aloof of the results to be effective. We used to call that integrity or doing the right thing for the right reasons. When you have a stake in the results, now all of the sudden the purity of the movement is compromised and the absolutism of right and wrong become subjective. As long as we have lessor of two evils as our choices, it will never work.

End Your Programming Routine: Look beyond some of the antics, this is a great movie. As a matter of fact, there was a time when people believed that legal didn’t equate to right. It took me a long time to get there, but I am here now. Sure, maybe there were other problems around like equality but we are quickly becoming equal slaves.

August 31, 2023 – Rich Men North of Richmond

August 31, 2023 /

In case you have been living under a rock for the last couple of weeks, this song has gone viral. In two weeks, it went to #1 on the Billboard top 100 and Oliver Anthony has ten more songs on the top 100 at the time of writing. YouTube has 46 million views in the last two weeks. Read the comments, people from all over the world are resonating with the lyrics.

Politicians are trying to co-opt it into their own camps. The left is saying that this is the alt-right, hate speech while the right is trying to hitch their wagon to the popularity. What both groups are missing is that they are both the rich men, north of Richmond. They are the cause and the subject of the lyrics.

(lyrics)

I’ve been selling my soul, working all day. Overtime hours, bullshit pay so I can sit out here and waste my life away.

Drag back home and drown my troubles away, its a damn shame. What the worlds gotten to for people like me and people like you. Wish I could just wake up and it not be true, but it is, oh it is.

Living in a new world with an old soul. Rich men north or Richmond Lord knows they want to have total control. Want to know what you think, want to know what you do and they don’t think that you know and I know that you do. But your dollar ain’t shit and its taxed to no end cause the rich men north of Richmond.

Wish politicians look our for miners, not just minors on an island somewhere. Lord, we got folks in the street ain’t got nothing to eat and the obese bilking welfare. God if your 5’3″ and your 300lbs taxes ought not pay for your bags of fudge rounds. Young men are putting themselves six feet underground cause all this damn country does is keep kicking them down.

Lord its a damn shame what the world’s gotten to. People like me and people like you. Wish I could just wake up and it not be true but it is, oh it is.

Living in the new world, with an old soul. Rich men north or Richmond. Lord knows they want to have total control. Want to know what you think, want to know what you do and they don’t think that you know and I know that you do. But your dollar ain’t shit and its taxed to no end cause the rich men north of Richmond.

I’ve been selling my soul, working all day. Overtime hours, bullshit pay.

There are a lot of subtle gems in the lyrics but I think the two are not as straight forward. The first is working class wages and the inflation of the dollar. I don’t see a lot of pride in working hard because you made poorer life decisions and limited your options, but at least you are doing what needs to be done.

That being said, wealth is stolen not just with taxes but also devaluing the dollar with inflation. That tactic is the pyramid scheme to pay off old debt with less valuable new money. While that works for national debt, the real losers are the people earning $30K/year. This is being done by people who make money lending it and collecting it at the same time or the rich men north of Richmond.

The second subtle reference is caring about minors on an island somewhere. This is a nod to Epstein and a class generally above the law. I don’t think the song is saying that they are condoning the behavior but acknowledging that the class exists in the first place.

End Your Programming Routine: I am not going to say much more today. Watch the video and read the lyrics. Think about what is going on in life. Think about what is going on and you decide if this is hate speech or just the life-size mirror being held up on both sides of the dichotomy. The people are speaking, they just need the vehicle to get their voice heard. You go Oliver Anthony.