Mercy, Mercy, Me

This week was the 50th anniversary of Marvin Gaye’s classic album “What’s Going On” and there are three tracks that remain very relevant: “What’s Going On”, Mercy, Mercy, Me (The Ecology)”, and Inner City Blues (Makes Me Want to Holler). Although much of the popular music of the late 60s and early 70s dealt with social issues, this was a new direction for Marvin.

There are a lot of parallels between the social upheaval of 50 years agoand society today. Back then, our country was engulfed in the quagmire of Vietnam and today our country is struggling with exiting from its longest war. Back then, environmental destruction lead to the passage of several major environmental laws. Today we are trying to fight climate change and are even having trouble convincing some political leaders that it is a problem. At the 1968 Olympics, Tommy Smith and John Carlos protested systemic racism by raising their fists during the National Anthem and today Colin Kaepernick is blacklisted from the NFL for kneeling during the anthem to protest racism. Police brutality is still very much with us.

But there has been some progress in addressing our social problems but it seems to be a one step forward/one step back cha cha. The environment has improved but we are also dealing with planetary boundaries. We elected our first black president, but then this was followed by a backlash of white supremacy. When it comes to distribution of wealth, there are still Two America and for a country with such enormous wealth, we have one of the highest poverty rates in the developed world.

Although I didn’t realize it at the time, I absorbed a lot of the messages in the music of my teen years. The times I grew up in shaped my current politics. And I didn’t lose my idealism when I got a mortgage. 😉