I’ve been a big fan of Moby’s for some time (more than some people, probably less than others) and his albums always bring me to certain place and time:
Animal Rights – I was living in New York City in a tiny studio; I would play this nonstop as I was preparing to go out and hit the town!
Play – living in rural Illinois at the time; I had a new little Saturn 5- speed stick-shift sports coupe; I would open up the sunroof and the windows and blast this album as I raced freight trains on badly paved roads abutting endless cornfields...
18 – coming out in the spring of 2002; the wounds of 9/11 were still raw; Moby was in NYC at the time and this album reflected a lot of the anguish and loss we all felt. I used to listen to this mix of electro-blue on the bus, my face pressed against the window, staring at the gaping hole in the skyline where my towers once stood…
Hotel – now here’s where we begin…
I think Moby is a brilliant musician and a wonderful songwriter whose lyrics unveil the depths of emotions, both positive and negative, that we know exist within us all but are difficult to express. I have a deep respect for such a talent; as noted above, his music has been a soundtrack to my life.
So why does he hate me?
Moby’s website http://www.moby.com/ is a pretty good one, with a cornucopia of information for the fan and casual observer alike. It is his online journal where he goes into his anti “far right wing” rants. There are a couple of doozies there; I’ll excerpt rather than link directly:
..canada is such a nice place. i really do wish that the northern blue states could be annexed by canada and thus create 'the united states of canada… i mean seriously, can't we just let the red states go off on their own to do whatever it is they want to do, while those of us in the blue states pledge our new allegiance to the u.s of c?… canada is a great place. the people are nice. please, canada, can't you come and save us from ourselves? we'll leave our guns at the door and return like the proverbial prodigal sons that we are..
Moby, I like being an American, even in a blue state. I don’t wish to pledge my allegiance to a different country that has done nothing for us. I don’t wish to forgeo my contitutional right to bear arms, not to mention the freedom of speech that Canada is so trying to squelch http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/News/2005/04/05/983036-sun.html as it tries to cover-up scandals. So Moby, because we disagee, you insist on running off to Canada, and dragging me along? Don’t I have a say? No? If you say that New Jersey voted 53-47 Kerry, and therefore you are the majority and are taking me to Canada, well, since the country voted for Republican majorities on the Presidential, Senetorial, Congressional, and Gubernatorial levels, why won’t you go along with us? Or if you wish to protest, fine, stay, but don’t excommunicate me for daring to vote how I believed. And don’t forget, outside of the big California cities, it’s a RED STATE, bro…
Now here Moby advocates violent overthrow of the government:
http://www.moby.com/journal?from=40
…north korea has happily proceeded to produce nuclear weapons while we looked the other way and were busy waging a pointless war in iraq… if these were different times there would be an angry mob at the gates of the white house waiting to run the bush administration out of town..
Now Moby, a pointless war? Ask the Iraqis, free from the hell of Saddam Hussein at last, who just voted in a multicultural government (way more multi-culti than anything Clinton ever came up with), and yet he wants mobs to overthow a legitimate election, a government of which over 60 million people voted for. There is a PEACEFUL solution called impeachment, Moby, and if it rose to that level, your Democrats (and the American people) would be calling for it right now.
Anyway, I’m not going to deconstruct hundreds of Moby’s journal entries. My point is that while he has policy differences with the current administration, his cries of “Storm the Gates” and “Move to Canada” do not jive with the peaceful perception that Moby tries to cast around his views. In the above qoute, he seems to advocate facing down North Korea, but could I believe that if Bush attempted it, Moby would not somehow oppose it? What does it say about his loyalty to a nation that helped give him such riches that he fantasizes about moving great clumps of terrirory over to Canada, along with their citizens? There is a tone of outright hostility to Moby’s writings (not with most of his music, though) that give lie to his cultivated image as a peaceful, Zen-like soul who want world peace while listening to the ambiant sounds of Hotel: Disc 2.
Listen, Moby: I am a conservative! I do not agree with everything the leaders of the administration do or say – I question what constitutes “indecency”, I am not an “absolutist” on abortion, and the Terri Schiavo debacle left me very conflicted. But I guess you lump me in with the “far-right” since I do support those in office because overall, their views are closer to mine than the Democrats. Maybe you are not as open-minded as you believe, maybe you are like many liberals who believe free speech is only for opinions that do not veer from their own, and diversity is not permitted in thought, only in race/color/creed.
I hope not. And I will say, on some of the “chatrooms” on Moby’s sight, many of his fans have taken much more center-ground, realistic positions than he has. Maybe, Moby, you should sit down and talk with some of these folks on the right you seem to so openly despise; for there may be more common ground than you believe. After all, isn’t that what you would advocate?
Moby, here’s the question I would have to ask you, should I ever meet you personally:
How so you feel about the fact I love your music and it means so much to me?
Would you want me to throw my albums out?
Or could you find common ground with a fan as different as I am from you?
POSTSCRIPT: My favorite song on Hotel is “Lift Me Up”; which I guess is supposed to be an anti-Bush song ? http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050405/ap_en_mu/music_moby_party_2
...dude, did you really expect Kerry to “lift you up”? I just apply the lyrics differently…
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