(The following is dedicated to the glory of music and the greater glory of God, whose gift it is.)
I was once accused of “being negative” for downplaying goodies of pop culture. My defense, then and now, remains: how else to consider items of culture that drop beauty, truth, and reality from their foundation, giving even love a cheap spin? My once joking prediction that one day it might be a crime to “be negative,” punishable in a court of law, is evidently occurring in places like Canada.
It isn’t just old-timers at risk of prosecution for “cultural negativity,” for a link has never been found between age and aversion to cheapness.
Those repelled by sleaze in whatever package will always be among the living, facing slurs like “snob, elitist, aristocrat” – to mention a few polite ones. But love of quality, particularly as it attaches to truth, beauty, and its relation to reality, keeps the faithful unfazed by smear. They may be silent, but such hardy people live in every neighborhood: individuals who don’t fit in with the crowd and choose to stay off the beaten path, not because there is something wrong with them but because they see something wrong with where the........