Politics as prog rock

Here's an analogy that might help you see party conferences for what they are - party politics is just like prog rock.
Both are pompous self-referential masturbatory activities undertaken by mostly middle-class white boys, which are meaningless and irrelevant to most people.
Though its fans and practitioners believe what they're doing is important and look down upon those who fail to appreciate this, the truth is that anyone with genuine intellect or taste is wholly alienated from the process.   
Leaders' speeches or policy initiatives are like 20-minute guitar solos. They are not intended to connect with the outside world, or with facts and ideas, but are merely ways to impress the cognoscenti for a short while.
Both are vastly expensive activities, and equally pointless.
Just as only the initiated could distinguish between Yes and Genesis - or saw any point in trying to do so - so only devotees can distinguish between the main parties.
Both prog rock and party politics abandon efforts to pursue traditions or connect with the people, in favour of a showy trickery which is in fact largely empty and illusory.
In both cases, activities that should be done by the people are wrenched from them, and supplanted by the ideology that people should be passive consumers and admirers of a self-selected "elite."
The question is: what's to be done? And here the analogy breaks down, in two senses.
First, it was easier to ignore prog rock in the 70s than it is to avoid politics now. (Not entirely easy, though. It was hard to ignore Emerson Lake and Palmer in the 70s, though the effort was well-rewarded.)
Second, although prog rock was (partly) swept away by the DIY music of punk and post-punk, it's hard to see a similar process happening in politics. In music, barriers to entry were low. In politics they are not.

Comments

[kinglear]

You have to admit, though, that Yes were rather better.....

[Bob B]

But the Labour Party is always in conference mood. As Harold Wilson used to put it:

"The labour party is like a stage-coach. If you rattle along at great speed everybody inside is too exhilarated or too seasick to cause any trouble. But if you stop everybody gets out and argues about where to go next."
http://creativequotations.com/one/480.htm

[Mark Wadsworth]

What King Lear says, only Yes weren't 'rather better' they were absolutely fantastic until about 1978 (with the exception of Topographic Oceans, that really was dire). Genesis only managed one good song and that was "I can't dance".

I think the better analogy is between politics and pornography. Totally predicable and you know the ending.

[Tim Footman]

When John Reid leaves Parliament he's going to take over the drum stool in a Van Der Graaf Generator cover band.

[Max]

A colleague has just come back to work from covering the Lib Dem conference and is dreading the Tory conference. It turns out that she was propositioned over 10 times, had to physically remove a sketchy, sex-mad LibDem from her arm, and has formed the opinion that not only are these conferences unsafe for women (one perv was 45+ years her senior, older than her grandfather), but that the only reason people seem to be going to them is to have sex.

[ian]

the only reason people seem to be going to them is to have sex.

Isn't that the case with most residential conferences?

[Larry Teabag]

I think Pink Floyd may cause problems for your analogy here... all the same this may be the most insightful political blog-post I've ever read. So thank you.

[Skuds]

Ah but while the Clash and the Damned disappeared, and the Pistols sometimes reform to get a pension together Yes and Rush are still touring and Pink Floyd made front page news when they came together for Live 8.

So it will take more than a political new wave to rid us of party conferences.

[dsquared]

hmmm yes, good to see that those middle class prog rockers were swept away by punks like Joe Strummer.

[Matt Munro]

"the only reason people seem to be going to them is to have sex".

In that respect very similar to workplace teambuilding activities.

Have to say I'm not a prog rock fan but even I can tell the difference between Genesis and Yes.
BTW Pink Floyd don't count as prog rock, to be classified as prog rock none of the musicians must take drugs, if they do it's just rock, apparently.

[Cheese]

Funny how people criticize prog. Upper middle class? Hello? Joe Strummer was the son of a diplomat. While neither Jon Anderson or Rick Wakeman of Yes were rich growing up.
Irreleveant? If that was true there would be no one buying their records today.
White Boys? Hendrix was going to join ELP if he hadn't died (and growing up he was far poorer than those punk bands. Also all the fusion bands were multinational (fusion is a subgenre of prog, there are loads of asian prog bands.Do any black punk bands exist? Punk is pretty much white.
Illusionary? I could argue that the punk bands pseudo lower class image and pretending to be tough was illusionary. After all the Pistols in truth were just a boy band created by McClaren and not a real lower class group.
Get your facts straight.

[lefty]

Bravo for Cheese

I'm sick of hearing how transgressive punk was and how seminal it was to radical politics. The Clash were OK but I'll take the dinosaurs anyday...

[Cheese]

Well there were far more radical political prog bands such as the communist band Henry Cow, who created Rock In Opposition (RIO for short) with like minded communist prog bands because punk had made rock too commercialfor labels to sign more radical music such as Henry Cow, Univers Zero etc.
Funny that.