Don't Worry, Be Happy, is Just a Song. It's Not Reality
By Rich Kozlovich
In my opinion Bobby McFerrin is an extremely talented guy as Wikipedia states:
McFerrin often switches rapidly between modal and falsetto registers to create polyphonic effects, performing both the main melody
and the accompanying parts of songs. He makes use of percussive effects
created both with his mouth and by tapping on his chest. He is also
capable of multiphonic singing.
What put him in the world's spotlight was his song, "Don't Worry, Be Happy", and it was really catchy, I liked it. But did you ever pay attention to the lyrics? Let's outline the problems in his song he says there's no need to worry about:
......if there's "trouble in you life if you worry you make it double"...... ain't got no place to lay your head.....somebody came and took your bed.....the landlord say your rent is late he may have to litigate.....ain't got no cash.... don't worry, be happy.
His answer to all of that is, "Don't worry Be happy." Well as a catchy happy tune, and I don't have a problem with that. But as advice for life, telling someone who's homeless and broke to be happy because none of that's worth worrying about doesn't fall under the category of good advice.
What triggered this commentary is I'm now seeing writers who seem to embrace that "don't worry, be happy" mentality posting articles telling the world not to worry, everything will work out in the end, a golden age is in the offing, I especially hate the "everything will turn out right in the end" clabber. People say that all the time as a way to encourage friends having difficulties in life, but do they really believe it? If they do, they shouldn't.
I’ve been writing for over twenty years now, and I had the good fortune to have some some now passed writer friends like Dr. Jay Lehr, with whom I co-authored articles, and Alan Caruba who was among the first to allow me to publish his works and was a big encouragement for me. Both of whom were just a bit older, and had a generally more optimistic view of the
future than I. It’s a generational thing.
They grew up during the
depression and WWII, and saw the outcome, and reasonably believed Americans can
overcome anything and everything. I was the beginning of the boomers, and I didn’t agree because this
isn’t the America they grew up in, an America that created their short term
optimism. Historically, it’s not good long term vision, and the promise of an upcoming golden age is delusional.
I
consider myself a pessimistic optimist. I hope and work for the best,
but I anticipate the worst. And more often than not, that’s what
humanity ends up with. Look around the world and the 20th century
history of Asia, the Middle East, South America, and Europe, and it’s
not been a happy history.
Socialism, and environmentalism, in
all their manifestations, have sacrificed hundreds of millions in
pursuit of their agendas, and Islamists have probably sacrificed more over it's almost 1500 year history, and now all three are converging and assaulting the world's population in an insane desire to control every aspect of human life.
The elite are working diligently to create a modern feudal system with the elites and the peasants, where the peasants won't be allowed to grow their own food, but the peasants will be allowed to eat bugs. The peasants will live in clustered communities with no cars, with only permitted travel. There would be total control over buying and selling based on political and/or religious views, which is already being implemented in places like China, and at one point to a degree in Europe over covid vaccinations. All of which will be controlled by agents of the state. A feudal world filled with kings, peasants, and lackeys, but don't worry, be happy........ or else!
The world is
in crisis now, and the crises are growing daily. Those historians who study and write
about historical cycles all agree we’re in an end cycle right now, and
all end cycles are filled with economic downturns and violence. When
that runs its course a new cycle begins. What the beginning of the new cycle will be like is impossible to say, and it’s unlikely I’ll
be alive by the time the cycles start, but that’s history, and that history is incontestable. It will play out again just as it has for
thousands of years, with the historical pendulum swinging from one extreme to the other, with a small window of harmony between those extremes. But that harmony never lasts long.
By Rich Kozlovich
In my opinion Bobby McFerrin is an extremely talented guy as Wikipedia states:
McFerrin often switches rapidly between modal and falsetto registers to create polyphonic effects, performing both the main melody and the accompanying parts of songs. He makes use of percussive effects created both with his mouth and by tapping on his chest. He is also capable of multiphonic singing.
What put him in the world's spotlight was his song, "Don't Worry, Be Happy", and it was really catchy, I liked it. But did you ever pay attention to the lyrics? Let's outline the problems in his song he says there's no need to worry about:
......if there's "trouble in you life if you worry you make it double"...... ain't got no place to lay your head.....somebody came and took your bed.....the landlord say your rent is late he may have to litigate.....ain't got no cash.... don't worry, be happy.
His answer to all of that is, "Don't worry Be happy." Well as a catchy happy tune, and I don't have a problem with that. But as advice for life, telling someone who's homeless and broke to be happy because none of that's worth worrying about doesn't fall under the category of good advice.
What triggered this commentary is I'm now seeing writers who seem to embrace that "don't worry, be happy" mentality posting articles telling the world not to worry, everything will work out in the end, a golden age is in the offing, I especially hate the "everything will turn out right in the end" clabber. People say that all the time as a way to encourage friends having difficulties in life, but do they really believe it? If they do, they shouldn't.
I’ve been writing for over twenty years now, and I had the good fortune to have some some now passed writer friends like Dr. Jay Lehr, with whom I co-authored articles, and Alan Caruba who was among the first to allow me to publish his works and was a big encouragement for me. Both of whom were just a bit older, and had a generally more optimistic view of the future than I. It’s a generational thing.
They grew up during the depression and WWII, and saw the outcome, and reasonably believed Americans can overcome anything and everything. I was the beginning of the boomers, and I didn’t agree because this isn’t the America they grew up in, an America that created their short term optimism. Historically, it’s not good long term vision, and the promise of an upcoming golden age is delusional.
I consider myself a pessimistic optimist. I hope and work for the best, but I anticipate the worst. And more often than not, that’s what humanity ends up with. Look around the world and the 20th century history of Asia, the Middle East, South America, and Europe, and it’s not been a happy history.
Socialism, and environmentalism, in all their manifestations, have sacrificed hundreds of millions in pursuit of their agendas, and Islamists have probably sacrificed more over it's almost 1500 year history, and now all three are converging and assaulting the world's population in an insane desire to control every aspect of human life.
The elite are working diligently to create a modern feudal system with the elites and the peasants, where the peasants won't be allowed to grow their own food, but the peasants will be allowed to eat bugs. The peasants will live in clustered communities with no cars, with only permitted travel. There would be total control over buying and selling based on political and/or religious views, which is already being implemented in places like China, and at one point to a degree in Europe over covid vaccinations. All of which will be controlled by agents of the state. A feudal world filled with kings, peasants, and lackeys, but don't worry, be happy........ or else!
The world is in crisis now, and the crises are growing daily. Those historians who study and write about historical cycles all agree we’re in an end cycle right now, and all end cycles are filled with economic downturns and violence. When that runs its course a new cycle begins. What the beginning of the new cycle will be like is impossible to say, and it’s unlikely I’ll be alive by the time the cycles start, but that’s history, and that history is incontestable. It will play out again just as it has for thousands of years, with the historical pendulum swinging from one extreme to the other, with a small window of harmony between those extremes. But that harmony never lasts long.