Love the post! To your point about gospel-centeredness as “justification is the gospel”, one of the things I’ve noticed is that this gospel doesn’t lead to the sanctification of dark triad traits, it even seems to attract certain dark triad types, who are more interested in being treated, labeled, and seen as a good person, rather than actually being transformed into a good person. I am not suggesting that this crowd is a majority of dark triad types or that the message has no positive effect, only that the message doesn’t seem to be beneficial for dark triad types.
I appreciate that you think deeply and "outside the box", willing to challenge both the conscious and un-conscious presuppositions of culture, Christendom, and even your own. But if I had heard the song before reading your explanation of it, I wouldn't have figured out your intended conclusion. Maybe punk listeners are better attuned to thinking abstractly between the lines to draw out your intended meaning. But for me, I was left with nothing more than Bohemian Rapsody, with no clear inclination of anything leading toward "better". I understand you don't want to come off as blatantly preachy, but (maybe it's just my own failure to see deeper) it seems to me the lyrics would just reinforce classical nihilism, which isn't your goal.
If I may be so bold (I don't know you, and I'm new to Substack) as to suggest you consider rewriting some of the lyrics to point to more obvious motivation of finding meaning in pursuing the better and avoiding the worse.
Sorry, I don't mean to offend your artistic ownership of your composition.
Thanks for the thoughtful analysis and even critique, Mark! My own thought pivoting from philosophy to music has been to leave as much implicit as I can. My tendency is to be very explicit with what I am thinking, and saying. So in this case that manifested itself in pretty direct critique of some stuff, but leaving a positive conclusion open ended. I like it that way because more people can listen to it and put the pieces together themselves. But I hear you that the positive solution is left undescribed. I’ll try to do that in my other writing and Music!
Love the post! To your point about gospel-centeredness as “justification is the gospel”, one of the things I’ve noticed is that this gospel doesn’t lead to the sanctification of dark triad traits, it even seems to attract certain dark triad types, who are more interested in being treated, labeled, and seen as a good person, rather than actually being transformed into a good person. I am not suggesting that this crowd is a majority of dark triad types or that the message has no positive effect, only that the message doesn’t seem to be beneficial for dark triad types.
I appreciate that you think deeply and "outside the box", willing to challenge both the conscious and un-conscious presuppositions of culture, Christendom, and even your own. But if I had heard the song before reading your explanation of it, I wouldn't have figured out your intended conclusion. Maybe punk listeners are better attuned to thinking abstractly between the lines to draw out your intended meaning. But for me, I was left with nothing more than Bohemian Rapsody, with no clear inclination of anything leading toward "better". I understand you don't want to come off as blatantly preachy, but (maybe it's just my own failure to see deeper) it seems to me the lyrics would just reinforce classical nihilism, which isn't your goal.
If I may be so bold (I don't know you, and I'm new to Substack) as to suggest you consider rewriting some of the lyrics to point to more obvious motivation of finding meaning in pursuing the better and avoiding the worse.
Sorry, I don't mean to offend your artistic ownership of your composition.
Thanks for the thoughtful analysis and even critique, Mark! My own thought pivoting from philosophy to music has been to leave as much implicit as I can. My tendency is to be very explicit with what I am thinking, and saying. So in this case that manifested itself in pretty direct critique of some stuff, but leaving a positive conclusion open ended. I like it that way because more people can listen to it and put the pieces together themselves. But I hear you that the positive solution is left undescribed. I’ll try to do that in my other writing and Music!