Passive Observer

Punk rock blew my mind when I discovered it in the mid-80s. It said what I was feeling like nothing ever had, and it made me realize that there was music that never got played on the radio. So while I listened to a lot of the obvious punk and hardcore bands of the 70s and 80s, I also started searching for whatever new and interesting sounds I could find. Somehow I missed Crass until well into the 90s.

Crass were a British anarcho-punk band who were smarter than most, possibly because they were a few years older. All early punk rock was heavily influenced by the Situationists, a collection of artists and Marxists in Europe who were active in the Paris student revolt in May 1968. One part of the Situationist critique of western capitalism was the idea that people were conditioned to relate to life via the Spectacle, which meant consuming second-hand experiences through the media or by giving special value to commodities, instead of seeking to experience it directly. The Situationists were all for directly experiencing life until they called it quits in 1972.

Crass took up the idea of the Spectacle in “You’re Already Dead” -

Be the passive observer, sit back and look

At the world they destroyed and the peace that they took.

Ask no questions, hear no lies

And you’ll be living in the comfort of a fool’s paradise.

You’re already dead, you’re already dead,

You’re already dead, you’re already dead.

Crass were also pretty clearly, and crassly, anti-religion, specifically Christianity, specifically the Church of England which, in their view, had given its blessing to Britain’s colonialism and the atrocities that attended it. They also saw Christianity as reinforcing sexism. I have a different view of Christianity — the exact opposite actually. I see it as being absolutely against state violence and patriarchy, but I realize that many people disagree with me — understandably so.

The image of the “passive observer” in “You’re Already Dead” is one I was familiar with before I heard the song. The DIY ethic was a big part of my understanding of what was “punk”. I knew people who started bands, booked their own tours, pressed their own albums and generally behaved like there was no reason they couldn’t do the rock’n’roll thing on their own terms. I was occasionally involved in their activities, but was mostly too drunk and unreliable to do much. By the time I got sober, most of them had moved to greener pastures. I had a lot on my plate learning to live sober, but I did eventually start a few bands, record and release cd’s and perform in many venues in VA, DC and MD. The music thing stopped being fun, but I’m still living a DIY lifestyle. I can’t see living any other way.

Growing up, going to Sunday school, I learned that the world was a bad place and that the job of Christians was to be as good as we could so we could go to Heaven when we died. The idea that history would end when Jesus came back was kind of in the background. The Brethren church I was raised in was not focused on the End Times. I never heard of the Rapture until high school. No complaint there — the Rapture isn’t in the Bible. What is in the Bible is the idea that humans were created to be God’s active agents on His green earth. We are supposed to be ruling this planet according to God’s wisdom, which includes caring for creation and each other. If we were doing it as God would have us do it, there would be no poverty, wars, bigotry or hatred. There would still be natural disasters, diseases and tragic accidents, but the negative impact of those things would be dramatically lessened. Poor countries are poor because rich countries cause them to be so — if we did things God’s way, the USA would help Haiti build infrastructure and develop resources instead of pricing them out of the world market. People in Africa die of malaria and smallpox because people in North America and Europe won’t provide enough medical care to prevent it. Americans die of preventable diseases because the US healthcare system allows pharmaceutical companies to set prices as high as they please. All of these things could be changed, if enough people wanted it.

I think Christians are wrong to wait around for Jesus to come fix things. That’s acting like passive observers instead of the active agents that we were created to be. I am happy to have a job that allows me to work directly with the poor and marginalized — exactly the kind of people Jesus focused on — but there are many other ways Christians can work to make the world more like God wants it to be. I believe that everyone has some kind of passion, if they allow it to come to the surface, that will contribute to making the world better. It might be working with homeless people or children with cancer, developing sustainable agriculture or setting up solar panels. All of us have some interest or ability that can contribute to the greater good, which we will never utilize if we’re focused on making money or what’s good on Netflix.

The members of Crass would likely think I was naive or stupid for believing in a supreme intelligence, especially the one associated with the Bible, but they would likely agree with me on other matters. We’d all be happier in a world where everyone had what they needed, everyone was committed to resolving conflicts, and everyone lived in harmony with nature. We’d also agree that the law exists to serve the wealthy and it is up to us to decide when and how we break it, but that we’re better off not getting caught. And we’d certainly agree that sitting back and doing nothing while the world burns is just as bad as throwing fuel on the fire.

Christians should not be waiting for Jesus. We should be doing the work that God created humans to do — acting as God’s active agents in the world. We are not going to “go to Heaven” when we die — not according to the Bible. That good book says that the final goal of history is that God will bring about His kingdom on the earth, and that we will live with Him here.

God’s peace is available now. We can experience His presence in our lives as we live. We can see His goodness. We can contribute to bringing about His kingdom on earth. That’s what we were made for.