Monday, January 21, 2019
One of the Beatles' most inscrutible
efforts is “Lady Madonna, children at your feet, how do you manage to make ends meet.”
It is especially inscrutible because it
comes at the heels of another major Beatles hit, “I don't care too
much for money cause money can't buy me love.”
Which one is it? Is the work that
Madonna does worthless, or is she doing something that means
something?
In Brothers Karamazov, the businessman
tells the preacher that he is doing what he is doing at other
people's expense. In fact the preacher was doing something that was
very valuable. He was teaching people ethics that made people
employable; and the businessman owed a lot to the priest.
Can Lady Madonna pay the rent? Whether
she does or she doesn't says everything about where we are as a
society. Do we reward righteous and altruistic behavior? Or do we
proclaim such things worthless even as we continue to benefit from
such behavior?
So here we have a band impugning
altruistic conduct even as he attacks money-making. This is wrong in
just about every possible way.
Both lady Madonna and people who are
money-driven are better than people who attack both altruism and
money-making. And I would rather be dealing with either of the
preceding than with people who attack the above without suggesting a
viable alternative.
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