Remember when rock stars were the rebels?

As opposed to slavish thralls of the majority establishment?  Yeah, so do I.  A little word of insight here. If you are on the side of vast national and global, multi-billion dollar corporate interests, you have half of our government and governments around the world on your side, you have the bulk of the billion dollar entertainment industry, national and international news organizations, no small number of leaders of the world's great religions, and almost all educational and academic institutions saying the same thing you're saying, you're as button down conformist as they come. 

Even as I reflect on the life and death of Eddie Van Halen and the memories it brings, I'm reminded just how shallow the bold and brave rebellion I grew up in actually was.  Basically it was 'stick a finger in all the things the establishment wanted torn down anyway'.  Van Halen were the ultimate rebels ... not really.  They rebelled against traditional morals and values, sure.  But the establishment by then was fully behind tearing down such things.  After all, drugged up, sexed up idiots make great suckers for a sales pitch.  They're also easy sells when it comes to ditching the 2500 year long march toward democracy, equality, liberty and the dignity of the human person. 

Turns out, therefore, that most of the bold pop culture rebels of the day were not rebels at all.  They were thralls of this new movement to dismantle the heritage of the Judeo-Christian West, and convince Americans that freedom and equality should be things of the past.  What they wanted to replace it with is anyone's guess, though it's becoming easier to see with each passing day.  Given the lack of deep thinking that emerged since the post-war era, I doubt they gave it much thought.  Lots of drugs, lots of sex, money to buy stuff - that was what a godless life is about, and whatever got more of it was good enough for us.  

So it should come as no surprise that as this establishment begins to coalesce around an open call for socialism, a slight dash of communism, a bit of the old Nazi inspired ethnic hate and elimination of inconvenient humans, and the hope for a global corporate entity that will pour unprecedented amounts of money into fewer and fewer bank accounts, that theses "brave rebels" are increasingly sounding like obedient mouthpieces for this very movement of power and oppression. 

They were always thralls of the establishment, button down and otherwise.  We just confused those who only advocated getting high and getting laid with being a rebel.  Turns out, they were the establishment all along.