Posted By BillHeise on April 28, 2009

In the late 70s and the early 80s, High Modernism was dying. Led Zeppelin offered to give us a cosmic view of the universe, one in which they could experience the mythic dimension as proxy for “the little people,” who remained frightened and clung to their middle-class existence. Jimmy page lived larger than the rest of us. As a consequence, he got involved in drugs, as did almost all of the “beautiful people” who clustered around the set of Ken’s Russell’s Tommy.

The political indifference of Pete Townsend was replaced by The Clash’s offer of a choice:

When they kick in your front door
How you gonna come?
With your hands upon your head
Or on the trigger of your gun?

Of course Strummer and Jones had meant to have people take up arms, rather than sit by passively shopping in the supermarket.

This turn away from “aesthetic distance” to a more immediate sense of political involvement was one of the nails in the coffin of High Modernism. And, in the late 70s and the early 80s I applauded this turn. But by the 1990s, when was in graduate school, that sort of divisive behavior had been canonized. The result was a sort of “us-or-them” mentality. The chief question that everybody had to answer was whether they were going to take up arms, or whether they were going to surrender passively, like sheep.

Perhaps because of my age, I wasn’t all that interested in politics. I had long since given up the hope that High Modernism could provide the answers to the questions that it posed. However, I didn’t especially think that more political involvement was the answer. It seemed to me that politics still forced alienation upon people as an a priori condition of enlightenment. This is the position that I have taken in my subsequent academic career. (See my post on why I don’t think anyone has “the answer” here.)

It seems to me that the political bent which music took in the 70s and 80s meant that everyone had a political point of view. For those like me who were searching for something different than more political involvement, we could be forced into one of the available political positions. To my academic colleagues, my refusal to acknowledge their political point of view meant that I was one of “them.” No one had to ask me for my opinion, and no one did. They knew.

It’s great if you are one of the “us”es, one of the people who has the knowledge that escapes “the little people,” who are content to shop in the supermarket. But as one of the “them”s, I had some serious problems with this alienating point of view.

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The same thing that happened to me happened to the singer named Googoosh in the 1970s. According to Wikipedia she was “considered the most celebrated recording artist in Iran.” Her fame rivaled in Iran and the fame of the Beatles. But in the late 1970s, Ayatollah Khomeini and the fundamentalist mullahs took over Iran.

In the United States at the time of the Revolution, she returned to Iran despite the possibility of being jailed or even executed.  She was jailed for three months.

After the Iranian Revolution in 1979 she remained in Iran until 2000 but did not record or perform again due to the ban on solo female singers. (Wikipedia)

This ruined her career.

Once again, this sort of jailing behavior is acceptable, even desirable, if you’re one of “us”: the people who know the truth. But if you’re one of “them,” a person who is jailed simply because you think differently than the majority, this same sort of behavior could be a problem.

The song that I have posted this week has become a national anthem for Iranians in exile. It’s a sweet song, and it has nothing to do with the politics that swelled up and ultimately surrounded her. Nevertheless, Googoosh has managed to become a political icon in spite of herself:

In 2000, a feature-length documentary called Googoosh: Iran’s Daughter was released which chronicled the singer’s life and her icon-status while detailing the socio-political turmoil that led to the 1979 Revolution in Iran. Made by Iranian-American filmmaker Farhad Zamani, the documentary began production in 1998 and was made at a time when Googoosh was still forbidden to perform or grant interviews. The tagline of the movie is Her silence made her the voice of a nation. (Wikipedia)

The comments on this video reflect the detour out of a sweet song into a highly charged atmosphere of politics. Some people are all for her; other people are all against her. Some of this is her fault, since she played at the birthday party of the Shah. But I doubt that, had she known the consequences of her actions, and had she had a choice, that she would’ve done it. Political issues loom large here:

Iran is a multiethnic nation. At least more than half of Tehranis are of Azari roots. We Iranians are all of one nation and inseparable.

Are you crazy!! It was Khamenei that civilized IRAN! You are DEEWANNA MAN! wake up. Ahmadi Nejaad is saving your country! U.S is not letting you guys have nuclear energy hello!!! they don’t want you guys going any further so don’t ever say anything about my HERO Khamenei or Ahmadi Nejaad! They are ones that gave courage to all countries like VENEZUALA the president or the prime minister couldn’t say anyting about BushNowHEIsYappingLikeHell.

iran is #1,i swear all da fucking propaganda against iran doesnt even make me twitch,i am going back after 25 years to iran.land of ferdosi,hafez,khayam,shamloo.h ow can i ignore that?

Some of these comments are incredibly stupid, like this one:

Do you even know her? NO! So shut up and go and shave your legs!! Because they resemble a monkey’s legs!!

In other videos, they devolve into arguments about the Zionism of the participants.

I ask: What has any of this to do with Googoosh? Isn’t the introduction of politics alien from Googoosh’s intentions when she was a performer? Is this alienation into politics necessary, or is it merely propaeduetic to one of an infinite variety of points of view, some of which do not carry the heavy penalties (to the “them”s) of the privileged point of view?

In my mind, there are lessons here for people who believe that they are one of the “us”es, who believed that, despite their acknowledgment that they do not have all the answers to all the questions of life, that at least they have more answers than the “them”s, the people will not even acknowledge the patent and undeniable superiority of “us” over “them.”

For more Googoosh, click here.

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