There’s a long discussion – as Puscifer‘s Maynard James Keenan notes – to be had about the state of education, certain disciplines leading to certain political leanings and affiliations, and then what happens when education fails to meet an individual, and how that’s led to the major issues we’re facing as a society today (political unrest, disinformation, bot accounts, AI, involvement of religion in government).
“That’s a long conversation, right?,” he acknowledged to AZ Central in a feature regarding Puscifer‘s newest record, Normal Isn’t, “But you could see, historically, and of course, the whole point of education is for you to understand historically what that means. And so having been the son of an educator and his whole family are teachers as well, I watched in the ’80s, ’90s where the education system was undermined and, you know, you weren’t allowed to fail kids.”
As painful as it must be to be an educator or someone who loves one, watching as the essence of their job becomes limited by teaching methods and regulated by standardised tests that do nothing in the long run, “I feel like that just kind of lowers the education bar. That’s definitely historically where regimes start is to make sure that the people are dumb and then they can just tell them whatever they want and they don’t have the frame of reference or the tools to debunk what they’re being told, to critically think, to reason out puzzles. And then, you end up here.”
Maynard James Keenan refers to history numerous times throughout his chat with AZ Central‘s Ed Masley. He compares what is happening in the US to a “violent oppression,” as he says that “historically, when you have people that are choosing violent oppressions, it doesn’t last. It lasts long enough to hurt and do damage, like generational damage, but it doesn’t last. So I don’t know. I don’t know where that breaking point is in this crashing wave. I’m hoping it’s soon, but I don’t know, man. It’s gonna get darker before it gets better.”
This assumption comes from the increasing limits of women’s rights, the immigration raids, and untethered international conflict, “The separation of church and state, I absolutely believe that, because when it comes to state, it’s like … it’s a mechanism. It’s a car, it’s an engine, it’s mechanics. There’s no faith involved. There’s a mechanics to this thing. You can have your faith, but it shouldn’t affect how your car runs. It shouldn’t affect any of that.”
James Keenan follows up with, “That’s why separating church and state is important to me, ‘cause the government should not be an emotional being. It should be a mechanism. It’s a machinery. No faith involved.”
Ultimately, in James Keenan‘s experience, he finds that being online and dealing with the current state of politics with either side, stems from a bit of a conspiracy theory, but there is evidence of his claims, “And, you know, it’s, of course, a rabbit hole of conspiracy theory here, but there are entire bots and chat rooms that all their job was is to drive wedges between us online, just start fights that were no fights and then get people to join the fight, and then they just step back and let you guys fight over everything. Over anything.”
It joins an echoing response from the alternative, rock, and metal communities as musicians and artists express their frustration with the United States’ current administration and the way they are handling hot topic issues. From actively using their voice with the press to raise awareness about these issues, to creating shirts and hosting fundraising shows in order to donate to charities supporting those impacted by the current governmental shift, to writing songs and taking their songs off streaming platforms; there’s a resounding sentiment from the creative community that “none of this behavior is normal” from the current administration and its followers.
It’s also not the first time that Maynard James Keenan has spoken freely about what is on his mind, making headlines for discussing “fundamentalist extremism,” predatory music industry practices, the current obsession with technology, and now, the political state of the US.
You can check out Puscifer‘s new record here, and find tickets for Puscifer‘s upcoming shows here.
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