A Little Hardcore Philosophizing.

So this is an exercise to show that heavy music can actually be intellectually stimulating and not just a massive headache.

As a quick note, the above video is by the band Blacklisted. These guys are heroes of hardcore. Bloody brilliant stuff. Anyone interested should check out their latest, No One Deserve To Be Here More Than Me.

But moving on, let me now direct your attention to the title of the song: "I Am Weighing Me Down."  Aside from being redolent of self-loathing, this song opens the door to some pretty, um, weighty, philosophical reflection. Let's all put on our French Existentialist caps for a minute and have a think. From my brief encounter with the subject, I understand Albert Camus' opinion to be that there is no God, no higher design, and no objective meaning in existence. As such, we human beings are charged with the responsibility of creating our own individual pleasures, pains, etc. Everything is subjective. The issue, however, is that we don't fully embrace this freedom. It should come across as a blessing, not a curse.  (This is where the I Am Weighing Me Down part comes in). Because there is no objective truth in each of our lives, we are at liberty to change ourselves as we see fit. We are not constrained by any conceivable blueprint; we shouldn't feel weighed down by ourselves. In fact, we should feel light as a feather, able to create meaning however we see fit. Unfortunately, people tend to fall victim to false conceptions of themselves, and feel powerless to change what they perceive as their 'true selves.' They think that they can't do something because, "They're not that kind of person." Yet we are whatever type of person we want to be. And even if you can't abide by all of Camus' existentialism, it is still possible to embrace the freedom that it advocates. You don't even have to be French to find it rather inspirational. In my opinion, people just need the occasional reminder and encouragement to reclaim control of their lives. Environmental degradation, for example, is often the result of our feeling of helplessness to change our habits of consumption. But as inherently free and untethered individuals, we do hold that power. Chew on that a while.

Anyways, the point of all this was simply to show that hardcore and metal can have redeeming intellectual qualities if you know where to look for them. In this case, Blacklisted's song title reminded me of one of humanity's great misunderstandings. It's all philosophical extrapolation from there.

And black metal is great way to learn some Latin as well actually. They're rather fond of that whole cryptic aesthetic, constantly forcing listeners to google what the fuck things like 'Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt' mean.