Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Kanye West
I'd like to preface this entry with a bit of a rolling tale on how I came to this posting. Like most whites, I'd never heard of Kanye West until he made his statements regarding Mr. Bush during that Katrina fundraiser where Michael Meyers was left looking so out of touch with reality. Of course, the mainstream media exploded over the issue, but I was too busy being outraged over a FEMA payola program that's paying some appropriately connected corporation like $100 per square of roofing while that same fucking corporation is paying their illegal workers like $2 dollars per square to do the actual fucking work. Sometimes the corruption of the current administration seems so outrageous that it just can't be really happening.
Then Kanye West is on the cover of Rolling Stone, but I don't pick up that issue. I just didn't. Next I see a bit on the 'Mind of Mencia' program and realize that Kanye West be the artist behind the 'I ain't say'n she's a gold digga' song. That song rocks.
So I go onto the internet tonight and I hit his website. I watch the gold digga tune. I dance in my chair and maybe wake Cindy up in the next room. He's got one other song available for streaming, something called 'Diamonds.'
Damn. Check that tune out. I guess too much of my consciousness just bought into the prevailing propaganda concept that Mr. West is an opportunitst who decided to trash Bush to get a bit more media time. I like rap and hip hop, but I certainly don't have my finger on the pulse of the culture. I'd never realized how tuned in Mr. West is.
Personally, I've got a multitude of reasons for refusing to ever marry my beloved girlfriend. Above even the disdain I feel for how 'marriage' is being used to attack homosexuals, I hate the way the institution works in our country. The basic groundrules having been set down by the DeBeers corporation in order to sell more diamonds. Yeah, I'm sorry but that's right; putting a diamond on the finger of your lover has nothing to do with any sort of tradition (a ring is traditional, a diamond is not) and everything to do with an advertising campaign. It's a true testimony to the power of advertising, that in a generation, everyone will just assume that without a diamond, a wedding is incomplete.
A shiny rock that ain't good for much other than cutting glass and industrial drilling became the symbol of timeless love in our country. Increase demand . . . we all know what that means. So all of western Africa gets totally fucked over, children get their hands chopped off and dictators get sold weapons all to insure certain companies get to keep the rights to mine these shiny rocks. Kanye West's video has a scene where a good ole fashioned white 50's couple exchanges rings only to have the woman's hand begin spurting blood all over the place.
It's a powerful image.
Wake the fuck up people. The media tells you that your engagement ring should cost two months worth of your salary. That two month salary - enhanced exponentially by the poverty factor - goes directly into feeding and arming some murderous army in Africa. Charles Taylor is in the news right now, if you wanted to learn about how these systems work you could do so in a matter of clicks and hours; it's not that complicated, it's been happening on this planet for hundreds of years.
A diamond is just a fucking rock, a mineral. It has nothing to do with Love. If you Love your partner than LOVE THEM. Be in Love! It has nothing to do with a shiny rock. Shiny rocks only get children killed, they have no value to us. Mr. West's video has some of those images in it. I'm going to pick up a few of his CD's this week, I think he might have a lot more going on than the mainstream press wants to deal with.
Great, now I've attacked the institution of marraige and implied that every diamond is a conflict diamond. grr
Then Kanye West is on the cover of Rolling Stone, but I don't pick up that issue. I just didn't. Next I see a bit on the 'Mind of Mencia' program and realize that Kanye West be the artist behind the 'I ain't say'n she's a gold digga' song. That song rocks.
So I go onto the internet tonight and I hit his website. I watch the gold digga tune. I dance in my chair and maybe wake Cindy up in the next room. He's got one other song available for streaming, something called 'Diamonds.'
Damn. Check that tune out. I guess too much of my consciousness just bought into the prevailing propaganda concept that Mr. West is an opportunitst who decided to trash Bush to get a bit more media time. I like rap and hip hop, but I certainly don't have my finger on the pulse of the culture. I'd never realized how tuned in Mr. West is.
Personally, I've got a multitude of reasons for refusing to ever marry my beloved girlfriend. Above even the disdain I feel for how 'marriage' is being used to attack homosexuals, I hate the way the institution works in our country. The basic groundrules having been set down by the DeBeers corporation in order to sell more diamonds. Yeah, I'm sorry but that's right; putting a diamond on the finger of your lover has nothing to do with any sort of tradition (a ring is traditional, a diamond is not) and everything to do with an advertising campaign. It's a true testimony to the power of advertising, that in a generation, everyone will just assume that without a diamond, a wedding is incomplete.
A shiny rock that ain't good for much other than cutting glass and industrial drilling became the symbol of timeless love in our country. Increase demand . . . we all know what that means. So all of western Africa gets totally fucked over, children get their hands chopped off and dictators get sold weapons all to insure certain companies get to keep the rights to mine these shiny rocks. Kanye West's video has a scene where a good ole fashioned white 50's couple exchanges rings only to have the woman's hand begin spurting blood all over the place.
It's a powerful image.
Wake the fuck up people. The media tells you that your engagement ring should cost two months worth of your salary. That two month salary - enhanced exponentially by the poverty factor - goes directly into feeding and arming some murderous army in Africa. Charles Taylor is in the news right now, if you wanted to learn about how these systems work you could do so in a matter of clicks and hours; it's not that complicated, it's been happening on this planet for hundreds of years.
A diamond is just a fucking rock, a mineral. It has nothing to do with Love. If you Love your partner than LOVE THEM. Be in Love! It has nothing to do with a shiny rock. Shiny rocks only get children killed, they have no value to us. Mr. West's video has some of those images in it. I'm going to pick up a few of his CD's this week, I think he might have a lot more going on than the mainstream press wants to deal with.
Great, now I've attacked the institution of marraige and implied that every diamond is a conflict diamond. grr
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While you are partially correct (and mainly about the point of just be in love - not in love with gifts) there is a tradition behind the diamond. Just not a European one.
It is from Egypt where the diamond over the vien running to the heart was supposed to infuse love into the heart of the wearer from the giver. Bigger the rock bigger the effect. It was never supposed to be romantic ;-)
It is from Egypt where the diamond over the vien running to the heart was supposed to infuse love into the heart of the wearer from the giver. Bigger the rock bigger the effect. It was never supposed to be romantic ;-)
yea, and they took that cute little idea and ran with it didn't they?..huh huh..
anyhow...i think i love you..no realy..i do...you speak the truth ....about marriages and how the christians are using it to bash gays...you speak the truth about the administration...and that moron forest gump(bush)...ahh, well, since we are seperated by so many miles and you already have a honey.. i will just have to admire you from a far..but if she croaks,im after you sweet cakes..
anyhow...i think i love you..no realy..i do...you speak the truth ....about marriages and how the christians are using it to bash gays...you speak the truth about the administration...and that moron forest gump(bush)...ahh, well, since we are seperated by so many miles and you already have a honey.. i will just have to admire you from a far..but if she croaks,im after you sweet cakes..
It might have been a custom to give big rocks in Egypt, but believe me, the level it has reached in the West is unparaleled in the world's history. Everything Aurelius mentioned in this posting is pure 100% fact and I can't stop being impressed about his knowledge base. Keep on posting and I keep on reading!
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: Friday, April 07, 2006 5:53:00 AM
: Friday, April 07, 2006 5:53:00 AM<< Home
