Meant to podcast yesterday, for real, but Matt had some brief stomach thing, and then it turned out that suddenly another child had to move from one room to another because that’s just the way it is sometimes. So anyway, super sorry about that.
On the plus side of the equation, I have two things I wanted to get to—I thought maybe one at a time, but maybe I can mash them up…UPDATE: only getting to one today. Tomorrow will be part two because there is a common ingredient.
It may be admitted that a lot of things have gone wrong with Industrial Complex Evangelicalism, but one particular ailment has appeared in the last few months. At the critical moment when prominent thought-leading Christians might have offered hope to the beleaguered, to the person who doesn’t know the Lord, nor has ever heard of him, that turned out to be the moment they suddenly found they didn’t have anything compelling to say. All their confidence shriveled up and died. Claiming to be prophetic, they forgot the source and heart of all prophetic words—Jesus Christ the Righteous.
I have two tragic examples of this. The first is the astonishing rise of Oliver Anthony (paging the Angry Ghost of Christopher Lasch—you should totally follow him). Notwithstanding what you think about Anthony, whether he is a brilliant singer or a mediocre one, whether he is the manufactured distraction of some secret cabal or organically grew up out of the Appalachian soil, whether he should swear or shouldn’t (I can’t go find all these links, if you scroll long enough you’ll see points on both sides), one might admit without any controversy whatsoever that National Review Online is always good for a fantastic ratio. From their extremely tone-deaf article:
In a world full of Nashville pop-country sludge, Anthony sings with an authentic passion, and many people were instantly taken with his raw and raspy voice. In just the time that you may have been on summer vacation, he came out of nowhere, going from a complete unknown to a musical celebrity as the song spread virally on YouTube and Twitter. That’s a great American story, but I don’t understand the adulation on the right for this song’s message.
Um…why don’t you understand? Do you lack essential gray cells? Have you been poorly educated? Did your internet connection fail? If I were a suspicious sort of person, I would think you must be trying very hard not to hear what other people are saying, O Author Of Articles At National Review, in order not to understand why people are full of adulation for this song.
Honestly, scrolling past videos of the crowd who went out to see Anthony this weekend, I thought of that time when all those people journeyed into the Wilderness because they were desperate for bread and healing. Or, more recently, all the people who drove to Asbury because they were desperate to feel the presence of God, one way or another. Was that this year? How many hundreds of people traveled far distances, searching for the Holy Spirit, hoping that God would meet them? Why did they do that? Doesn’t anyone want to know? Do you suppose there might be a way to find out?
The writer at National Review just can’t understand. Instead, he’s going to sneer and then scold the worldwide throng who are hearing more than mere notes, who are not just caught up in a fun summer sensation but are galvanized by the unexpectedly heartrending articulation of all their frustrations from the past ten, or even twenty, or even thirty years. Ironically, the scolding actually proves the point of the song that the writer at National Review, for whatever reason, is not able to understand. He goes on:
My brother in Christ, you live in the United States of America in 2023 — if you’re a fit, able-bodied man, and you’re working “overtime hours for bullshit pay,” you need to find a new job. There’s plenty of them out there — jobs that don’t require a college degree, that offer good pay (especially in this tight labor market) and great benefits, especially if you’re willing to get your hands dirty by doing things like joining the Navy, turning wrenches, fixing pumps, laying pipe, or a hundred other jobs through which American men can still make a great living. If you’re the type of guy who’s willing to show up on time, every time, work hard while you’re on the clock, and learn hard skills — there’s a good-paying job out there for you. Go find it.
Hang on. I must unclench my teeth for a hot minute. Read more widely, man. For decades clear and comprehensible writers have been describing and analyzing the enormous problems at the center of our now decadent and degraded culture. Finding—and here’s the word that ain’t worth a dollar—“meaningful” work, whether you are a man or a woman, in this benighted and unenlightened technological and spiritually vacuous time is exactly the problem. People, men in one way and women in another, have been trying to hold on to the jobs they have, to preserve the various scraps of dignity left to them for a long while now, and there’s not much left. Oliver Anthony was doing those kinds of jobs so lauded by NRO Laptop Elite who don’t actually have to work in a factory and who would never think of driving a truck full of Walmart produce and plastic. Anthony had that kind of employment, but while he was doing it, he watched those who possess spiritual and political power trample into the dust not only the work but the greater social order for which all that work was offered. So much stuff has been written about this. You can get a lot of it on Kindle and even audible if you have a hard time sitting down to a whole book.
But verily, here is the good part—and by “good” I mean so dumb and terrible that it literally explains why Oliver Anthony shot to the top of the charts:
And if you go home and spend all night drowning your troubles away — either on TikTok or by drinking too much — my friend, that’s your fault, not Washington’s. Not that Washington is helping any — it’s not. But when we waste our lives, it’s still our own fault.
The word “our” there feels cruel. There is no “our,” NRO. That’s the problem. You haven’t been your brother’s keeper. You haven’t cared for the people who have been trying to play by the rules laid down for them, but at the same time have watched the erosion of all the meaning attendant upon all their work. Their families are destroyed. Their jobs are dumb and stupid. They can always afford beer and weed, but they can’t afford shoes that last longer than 6 months. Their children have to be shipped off to soul-less, hideous, brutalist structures to be taught how to hate their parents and despise God. Sure, just don’t get drunk. Yes, obviously. But what about the American Elites who so degraded and corrupted American culture that TikTok was even a thing that people feel like downloading?
The tragedy of young men killing themselves through drink or drugs — the catastrophe of deaths of despair — is a crisis of our own making. The federal government in Washington — Anthony’s “rich men north of Richmond” — has had a destructive role in our society. But Washington is not the cause of our national sickness; it’s a symptom.
Again, sir, don’t say “our”. There is no “our” or “we” or anything like that. The hubris is so thick it could only be hacked apart by some blunt force reality.
We, as citizens, as men, still hold it in our power to ignore the corrosive effects of our politics and the popular culture and get on with living the good life: get a job, get married, raise your kids up right, get involved with your church, read good books, teach your boys to hunt, be present in the lives of your family and friends, help your neighbors.
What’s so silly and dumb about NRO this morning, or whenever this was written, is that if you go on and listen to Oliver Anthony’s YouTube channel, he has literally been saying this. It’s almost like they’re plagiarizing him. The difference is, instead of scolding and lecturing, he’s doing the thing that Christians have often congratulated themselves on for the last ten years. I see you, he says, I hear you. I want to hear your “story.” Except he isn’t using that word in inverted commas. Goodness, I can’t hear it without shuddering. It’s been verbed into hypocritical oblivion. It lacks all meaning. Except for over the weekend Anthony raised it to life again.
For real, a lot of men are doing all these things, but they’re doing them knowing that there is no care or interest from anyone who possesses substantial cultural or spiritual power. These men know that God is their only refuge, which is a good thing to know. Having heard by the hearing of the interwebs that someone was brave enough to say it come what may, they climbed into their pickup trucks to drive long distances to witness its public declaration.
Yes — it is a damn shame what the world’s gotten to. But we can fix it. We don’t have to just dream about it. Indeed, if we want to, we can fix it on our own even if Washington is standing in our way or looking down its nose at us. I don’t expect Oliver Anthony — or any singer-songwriter — to put a fully formed philosophy in a three-minute song, and I don’t need to agree with its message to enjoy it: There’s always room for Etta James to sing the blues. Steve Miller Band’s “The Joker” is a masterpiece, even if I’m done living that particular kind of life. And Woody Guthrie is a genius, even if his politics were juvenile and absurd. I wish Oliver Anthony the best, and I’ll give his next single a listen, but he should consider singing about what makes America a great land — a land of opportunity, not of guaranteed success. It’s a land that’s made for you and me.
No, I guess you don’t need to “agree” with the message of the song to enjoy it, but I feel like it shouldn’t be beyond you to try to understand why on earth people would take the trouble to see Anthony in person, or download and listen to his song over and over, instead of listening to TaySway for another long afternoon. Could it be that there is something deeply wrong? That people are wandering around, helpless and hopeless? That they are looking for someone to tell them that it’s going to be ok, that the darkness isn’t going to win in the end?
Part Two tomorrow—how Christianity Today reported on what is going on in the ACNA.
Have a nice day!
We are longing for truth and real justice Anne. Anthony speaks it on such a visual and genuine level that no wonder people would flock to hear him! Oh, that we too, who love the Lord would offer genuine and sincere truth that is relevant to lives. Thanks for your article.
The more articles I read about this song, the more stunned I am at how many people are hell-bent on misunderstanding it. Not only do they misunderstand what he is trying to communicate; they also seem to misunderstand what a song is.