I have long been talking about Gaga as a religious figure, a savior buddha of compassion, love, sex, and weed. I love how she always lives up to and even exceeds my expectations, which is just divine. I have been composing my "Gagafesto" over the last year in discussions with people in person and on a pagan forum, and of course this is an ongoing process, so while I would like to produce and actual Gagafesto book at some point, to keep up with Gaga who is everchanging, eternal, and always doing something a blog will do nicely.
Gaga fit my own expectations of the divine and I will continue to talk about those, but with Born This Way Gaga has revealed her own Manifesto of Mother Monster and I have to talk about it on her terms.
The creation of the new race she makes is just what I mean when I have been talking about her divinty. We need to move past prejudice, and when we do we will have a new world. A "new race" implies something in which old ideas of race no longer apply - and the bad ones are really outdated and harmful, yet still persist and wreak terrible damage. Since she is focusing on moving past prejudice and judgement, you know the "new race" will be accepting of all kinds of people. And this applies to religious views, too. There has been so much damage done by religious prejudice and intolerance, it is just time to move past that, and we can - Gaga is showing us a very obvious path for it, but we have had this opportunity all along, in many forms - this is just the way it is showing up at this time when everything is really coming together. The path that Gaga sets forth in the Manifesto of Mother Monster is this new race - it is the little monsters surely, and really all people who want to move past intolerance. We absolutely must overcome some things that are holding humanity back, to save ourselves and the planet from ourselves.
We need the transformation that Gaga is providng for us, and again, there are many other ways to do it but we really need to get it going so thank Gaga there is a superstar to show us how. I personally want to "gravitate toward the good" and focus on my own faith that by creating this race, setting this example, and sharing this "boundless freedom" with more and more people, that will cure the world of its ills. I firmly believe this. I say that we are long past due overcoming War as a species and when people say "you have to have war to have peace" I feel certain that we can, and should have while back, outgrow war, and that even then peace will still be necessary. Even in a Golden Age of peace, with no war, there will still be misunderstanding and argument and peace will be needed. With these beliefs, I have a particular view on the "birth of evil" that occurs on the same day.
Let me say it this way. When Gaga says "you may think it would be easy to gravitate toward good" I am reminded of a twist in human nature. Because while I think it is easy for us to imagine that we do think that is easy, the obvious choice - because everyone likes to think of themselves as good, generally - we don't always, or even often, allow ourselves to focus on the best in things. What is even worse, possibly, is that we can somehow imagine that "other" people aren't good, like we are. And I think this line in the Manifesto calls these ideas into question, because from my perspective if we truly believed in focusing on the good, as we tell ourselves we do, and considered that others had the same intention, and therefore tried to undertsand each other, things would be fine. And I would have to say it is an ironic line - because it is easy enough to point out why someone else "should" be focusing on the good.
But Gaga introduces the idea of embreacing the evil. I personally am "bothered" by the use of machine-gun imagery - that is what "I bring into it" of my own prejudices, against military, that sets me off. But I understand it, and think machine-guns are a fitting symbol for evil. And I think the principle Gaga is describing of protecting something wonderful and pure with evil is apt for human history. While watching a documentary on the history of India I saw this principle at play. Territory would often be conquered wiht violence and expansion or invasion, but the greatest cultuaral achievements would be made in times of stability. Still, those great societies would be succeptible to attack and would have to maintain armies. This is the ancient world up to modern day, and I know people argue that the same principle applies. I truly think we are capable of transcending war - I think we have been capable of this for some time, but the modern era seems to have circumstances that make it both more possible and more necessary.
I certainly can appreciate Gaga's expression that she will protect the new race. I do think there is a mentality in the world that believes violence is necessary and "understands" violence - their lives are ruled by fear and they can be scared. Little monsters have a role in scaring the society, I think. I'm good natured about it, writing my gagablog, discussing with people, and singing songs I write, some for Gaga. I mention in my song Savior Mom (Lady Gaga) the theme of sustaining and support between Gaga and the monsters, and I really believe and appreciate this. While I don't think violence is needed and things can be achieved in much better ways without it, such as nonviolent revoltions that hopefully will continue to be all the rage, it is a way of making it clear that Gaga intends to protect the new race and the promise we have to change the world. Because I think we are the key to making the new world where there is no violence.
Some might say it is just my anti-military perspective that makes me unwilling to see the machine-gun evil as more than a symbol, that Gaga must mean this literally in a way, since she supports the military in a sense with her activism against DADT. I am reminded of Richard D. James, the Aphex Twin, in England, who bought a tank and a personnel carrier. The interviewer aked him if he needed a liscence to drive a tank and he said no one really pulls you over. But he is just rich and funny, I'm sure he is not planning any sort of attack. And I feel justified saying that Gaga is not advocating shooting people - I base this partly on my affinity for her and intuition but also on statements she has made that she is completely against violence.
I do think she is using this representation of evil to show that she is willing to embrace evil, the darker side, to protect the light. And this can be understood more mystically, a topic I will have to address soon. Thanks for reading, thanks Gaga and Little Monsters, I love you!
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