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People Lose Control
By joseexist in Musings On Muses
February 26, 2010

People lose control in many different ways. Some simmer for a lifetime, and some boil over immediately. The manifestation of their anger or discontentment can range from something as benign as a frown up to, and sadly, far beyond mere harsh words. The heights of tragedy are overpopulated by those who are without impulsive control and lunatic psychotics who always seem to write the darkest pages of history with their actions.

It’s hard for most to fathom the rage that broils the minds of some. How could any human being carry out the tragic attacks that garner overzealous 24 hour major network ‘coverage-to-death’? Yet, these things continue to happen. Schoolchildren are gunned down along with teachers. Office workers are attacked in their offices with an aircraft. The perpetrators of these vile acts are heinous villains to some and martyrs to others. No matter what they are regarded as, the fact remains that they are murderers. People died and you can’t change that.

Whatever precipitated these events is the information we need to prevent them from happening again. In some cases we might be able to thwart the situations. In others we might only be able to watch them unfold again. It’s a difficult thing to try and watch a ‘simmering-soul’ close enough to stop them from going over the edge in time.

Songwriters have long used tragic events or situations for inspiration or simply written songs to tell a story about their world from their unique perspective. In cases where that perspective was deeply felt and shared by the population at large revolutions were easily started. Governments were forced to bend to the will of the people and changed for the better or were overthrown. Some revolutions were squashed as well. Things don’t always turn out for the best.

One shooting event some years ago inspired me to write a song about it. I didn’t do it to glorify what happened but to scream at the reporters who had began to act in a paparazzi fashion. Another similar incident recently occurred and I wondered if others reacted the way I did? I watched the initial reports to get some details about it and then turned the channel.

News broadcasts have a way of overdramatizing events. The daily deluge from the major networks overloads our minds with information that we are never given much time to interpret properly. The human with the microphone stuck in their grill looks us dead in the eye and delivers an animated message we take at face value. All the while a ticker below slips by, subliminally seeping its messages along. Live shots are usually encumbered by ad-hock graphics that do more to obscure the scene from us than to deliver the information in written word and fancy fades. Those graphics fight a battle with the picture just above the ticker. (TMI!) Give me a newspaper in hand and online!

I’m not a hater of a good news broadcast though. I do watch a couple of majors. I have a handful of favorites and whenever the weight of my contemplations become too much I push a button, or two, and watch something else, or go pick up a guitar. The world will boil and simmer, and broil, and melt, explode, contort, ‘ballistisize’ and de-sensitize at will. I reserve the option to imagine a better place and make an effort to get there physically and mentally. I also reserve the right to take the time and effort to make this reality, which in and of itself is a blessing, a better place as well.

Muses aren’t always bright and uplifting things. Mankind has a dark side that is always difficult to deal with. My music is by far no exception. I’m no prophet but some of my lyrics have turned out to appear so. I chalk it up to either coincidence, or just a sensitive soul.