The Monday Mix (15/05/2023)
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The Monday Mix (15/05/2023)
Hi friends,
A day late with this as I was out watching football and was too tired by the time I got back to sort out the email. Apologies!
I’ve been listening to some 90s music the past week, and even though I was only a child back then, it does make you somewhat nostalgic for times gone by. The world in the 90s feels so different from now. Obviously, my perspective is skewed as I was a child and had zero responsibilities, but there was a feeling of optimism following the fall of Communism that’s hard to see today.
The world has become a more depressed and morose place. Optimism is in short supply, and when it is it tends to be directed in the wrong places. The utopian visions of Crypto are a prime example. Music is a blessing and a curse. I don’t know if I’m the only one but I often associate music with times and places I lived in. If you’re listening to songs you’ve not heard in a long time, it’s hard not to look back with fondness at times gone by and yearn for them.
Kurt Cobain
I don’t think there’s another musician who exemplifies the 90s as much as Kurt Cobain. His music reflected a generation and is still incredible to listen to today. What I find fascinating about Cobain is whether he would hold the cultural significance he does today if he didn’t commit suicide. Had he lived, he would have just been another musician who grew old. That he died young meant he transcended time and became an iconic figure like James Dean before him and Heath Ledger after him. This is because you’re left wondering what could have been and because we tend to elevate people who die before their time.
This is an interesting piece about Cobain and his often troubled life but reading this you can’t help but feel there was a contradiction in him wanting to be a rockstar and just an ordinary guy. Now he’s an icon, go figure.
The End of History
Another famous thing about the 90s is that it was proclaimed as ‘The End of History’ by the political scientist Francis Fukuyama. Growing up, I was raised in a family that talked about politics a lot but it did feel like the big political questions had been settled. Especially learning about history at school, it seemed the big ideological struggles of the past were left there. Well, after the 2008 financial crash, that was disproved. Politics came back with a vengeance.
What people often get wrong about Fukuyama’s declaration is that he was declaring all of history over. He was stating that liberal democracy was the best political system we’d come up with rather than all struggle;e would be over. This piece relates and shows that people become accustomed to a way of living and don’t fight for it or get bored and want some excitement in their lives so they rebel against the system.
The War on Japanese Knotweed
If you own a house in the UK, the two words you don’t want to hear are ‘Japanese knotweed.’ Once considered a handsome horticultural import, it’s a menace that can ravage buildings, grow to over eight feet in a single month and is very hard to kill. One of the downsides of globalisation is that the world is smaller. Plants that were once confined to certain parts of the world can now be easily transported to another. Invasive species can cause chaos, whether it’s Japanese knotweed or bullfrogs in Australia, our meddling in nature can make things much worse.
Music
This is Nirvana’s most iconic song and an anthem for a decade. Again, would this song hold the significance it does if Cobain had lived and Nirvana continued to make music? We’ll never know, but I do feel it would be less culturally significant than it is today.
Book I’m reading - The Dream of Europe by Geert Mak
The follow-up to Mak’s In Europe, looks at Europe since 1999 and specifically from 2010 onwards. I’ve just started and looking forward to getting into it. Thankfully, it’s not as long as the last one!
Quote I’m pondering: – “I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.” – Kurt Cobain
That’s all for this week.
Until next time,
Tom