Thoughts on Who Knows What

If I’m being totally honest, I didn’t really understand the beginning of this day’s class. No background in music means I have no idea what a 415 rhythm pattern means; I understand a little in that it’s when the beat hits, but that’s about it. The rest of the class, however, was pretty interesting.

I particularly enjoyed the question of “who are the ‘folks in folk music?’ if only because it’s so complicated. One version of the ‘folks’ is those who were not in touch with commerce, people played music for people for only that reason. It was a time so different from our own where people didn’t try and monetize everything which is something I feel people in my generation might have a hard time understanding. So why did they did they sing for people instead of the money? Well, partially, I’d imagine they, being “folks” from the regions of the world without a strong industry in commercialism, simply weren’t used to it. However, I also believe it may have been tied to the culture of people like that. In that I mean, culture is a binding agent that connects us to those who are important to us. Culture can take numerous forms and span whatever gap it has to, but it’s thread that helps we as people define ourselves. It can also be part of why nationalism exists. Biologically, mentally, physically, we tend to be drawn to and feel connected with those who are similar to us, culture is just one of those things. This connection, however, is known as nationalism.

Possibly the most complicated thing about the USA is that nationalism in the States takes on an entirely different form than anywhere else in the world. This is simply because the USA is too young. Most people can’t trace roots in the States, the only one’s who could would be Native Americans; but when settlers first came to America persecuted them to a point of near non-existence. While Native Americans are still around, even a few tribes are, their numbers are and have been dwindling. Most citizens of the USA are for a completely different origin. Nationalism in America has it’s own definition, its something else that drew us together, and unfortunately I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to pin point what that definition is or why it exists at all.

I like to think of the USA as the sitcom Friends. We are all just individuals who came together as a group, decided to live together, and ascribe to some sort of contract as to how we treat each other. It could also be compared to a “Dungeons and Dragons” campaign where all the players and characters agree to follow the Dungeon Master but also have a say in what happens and how things play out. That being said, you don’t send off your children to war for a contract or loose agreement. There has to be something else that leads people into wanting to fight for our country. It may be that humans have this conflicting balance between rational and romanticism. We rationally know that the USA is just a name, our country is just where we live, and we ask ourselves if it’s worth dying for. The romantic in us says that this is our home and it’s special; it’s where we live so we have to protect it and our loved ones. Nationalism, why we feel pride or empathy for the USA, is all emotionally driven; there’s more to it than laws and contracts. But why do we feel an affinity for a country that has such a messy dark past? Is it really and equal balance that deems it alright that we’ve done bad things? These are questions people have studied for years and never found the answer to. Why nationalism? Why patriotism and pride? Why do we love our country when we don’t have a rich cultural history here and everyone who lives here is so diverse from places all over the world?

And then there’s a question of t0 what extreme should we be going to. One extreme was Hitler, he was also a nationalistic romantic… and we all know how that went. It’s funny to me that nowadays people are advocating for building walls, deporting immigrants and solidifying true Americanism when the meaning of American has never really been clear. This country was founded on immigrants and settlers, we don’t have a vast and extensive sameness like other countries. America isn’t even a full 300 years old which is nothing when scratched into the history of humanity. It’s infuriating when you look at the big picture.