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VNV Nation are an industrial, electronic, etc. band based in England and Ireland. Last year, they released a new album: I own it, I like it, and I'm listening to it now. The tone of the album is adverserial, confrontational, very much "where-is-the-future-we-were-promised, why-is-everything-rubbish?". The title of the album, suitably jingoistic in tone when viewed together with the cover art, is "Of Faith, Power and Glory".
It seems to me that the title (when considered along with the content) is intended almost as a list of things a person needs to be happy in life, a list of life goals. This feels pretty overdone to me. Faith, Power and Glory? So much noise, pain and risk.
Then I got to thinking. Faith needn't be an unshakable belief in a deity, a sure certainty that what you are doing is right and just. Faith can just as easily be a small, quiet voice telling you that you can do this, everything will be alright, almost as if the roles were reversed. Perhaps someone has faith in you. Faith's little brother is Trust.
Power. Well, power's a problem. It is said that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and ... to be honest, I don't see how it can not. Think about it. The power to do anything at all, to wish it and have it occur. How long would it be before you started hurting people, because they're in your way or don't share your views? How small, how limited we would all soon seem to you. Of course, the reverse is no better. We all need a modicum of control over ourselves, our actions and out surroundings, for sanity reasons if nothing else. This middle ground is called Agency, the ability to act within the limits of one's environment.
Finally, Glory. To be celebrated, revered, adored. I suspect that gets old pretty quickly: the number of celebrities who seem to be overwhelmed by their fame and end up fleeing the public eye... I half wonder if Glory is something that people deal best with once they are dead and only remembered. Scale it back a bit, though, step it down so we're not blinded by it, and glory becomes something much simpler and more important. Respect, or Recognition (I'm not quite certain which). To be known as someone who is good at a particular thing, or who knows where something can be found, or who has good, well-considered opinions on things... that's far more important than being followed around by cameras, and having your every act catalogued for posterity, surely?
So, FAITH, POWER AND GLORY, not so much. The simpler, scaled-down version is something I think we all look for in our lives. Trust, Agency and Respect.
Maybe it's not such a jingoistic title after all.
Well, the armoury episode referred to in my last entry concluded in a satisfactory manner: the club now has four nice new foils. I plan to follow this up in the near future with another foil and a couple of epees, but that's on hold for a while so I can catch up on academic work :(
And now, briefly to the title of this post. I assume others reading this have noticed the gradual percolation into the core English language of invective and curse words that would not have been used in polite conversation as little as ten years ago. Yes, friends, I speak of words such as "shit", "fuck" and so on (this last in particular). Now, phrases such as "What The Fuck" and "Oh My Fucking God" seem to be commonplace. However, now that these words are available to describe or modify vocabulary in many situations, they actually appear to be used less. Perhaps it's just the loss of the whole "edginess" thing about using forbidden words, but I find myself unconciously using substitutes like "bother", "blast" and the ever-faithful "fiddlesticks" instead, even in circumstances which would have summoned the old words to my lips not six months ago.
Alternatively, perhaps it's just me. Since it's 0114, I think I'll leave you on that note and go get ready for my early morning lecture tomorrow. Sayonara.