Test Dept made an album with the ‘South Wales Striking Miners Choir’ called Shoulder to Shoulder. It contains the track ’ Shockwork ’ which starts with a speech, rallying up the protestors. Test Dept is an industrial band with an emphasis on percussion. Another track on the album is called ’ Fuel to Fight '. They accomplish exactly that with their music. I can’t imagine a more appropriate band to be at such a rally.
I sometimes miss the sort of politically engaged anger of the 80s. I was born in the 90s so perhaps it’s just a romantic look at a past that never was. People are angry now too, but I wonder if it’s not, more than in the past, fused with algorythmically induced hatred of the ‘other’, instead of honest, rightful anger. Like the difference between: ‘I am angry because there is this injustice, and we’re not going to tollerate you standing in our way to solve this injustice’ and ‘I am angry at you because there is this injustice, which is your fault and therefor I hate you’. Clearly the first version leaves room for the ‘unjust person’ to change and choose to go along with this new move towards justice. The second one leaves the ‘unjust person’ feeling, "wait, what… I am not deserving of such hate, I am not evil, you must be crazy for hating me, and therefor I will hate you in return and together we will spiral down into the depths of civil war’.
Test Dept made an album with the ‘South Wales Striking Miners Choir’ called Shoulder to Shoulder. It contains the track ’ Shockwork ’ which starts with a speech, rallying up the protestors. Test Dept is an industrial band with an emphasis on percussion. Another track on the album is called ’ Fuel to Fight '. They accomplish exactly that with their music. I can’t imagine a more appropriate band to be at such a rally.
I sometimes miss the sort of politically engaged anger of the 80s. I was born in the 90s so perhaps it’s just a romantic look at a past that never was. People are angry now too, but I wonder if it’s not, more than in the past, fused with algorythmically induced hatred of the ‘other’, instead of honest, rightful anger. Like the difference between: ‘I am angry because there is this injustice, and we’re not going to tollerate you standing in our way to solve this injustice’ and ‘I am angry at you because there is this injustice, which is your fault and therefor I hate you’. Clearly the first version leaves room for the ‘unjust person’ to change and choose to go along with this new move towards justice. The second one leaves the ‘unjust person’ feeling, "wait, what… I am not deserving of such hate, I am not evil, you must be crazy for hating me, and therefor I will hate you in return and together we will spiral down into the depths of civil war’.