On The Fence, Not To Offend

I used to like the Dave Matthews Band. There, I said it. Under The Table And Dreaming was great. So was Crash. Before These Crowded Streets was terrible, though it seems some people liked it. I know that every band changes, and not every fan will like every album, but this was too much. So I stopped listening. I removed the CDs from my stereo (I still owned CDs in 1998). I threw out the baby with the bongwater. But it wasn’t just because BTCS sucked so aggressively and completely. It was because of Dave Matthews Band Fans. Between 1995 and 1998, DMB had become popular. They had a heap of airplay and, yes, videoplay. Consequently, they were exposed to a larger audience, and as you expand the number of people in an audience, you increase the chances of including douchebags. Some of these douchebags chased the band around the country, collected bootleg recordings of live shows, forced you to listen to said live shows, and acted offended when you denied that DMB was the one true musical way. Others just thought that the band was some great music to listen to while they got drunk and high. Either way, these kids were some serious douchebags. And I don’t like to hang out with douchebags. I don’t like to share my time, my space, or even my tastes with douchebags. So I stopped listening to Dave Matthews.

As it turns out, some of God’s biggest fans are some our biggest douchebags, too. It makes it hard for me take religion and faith seriously when I see some of its most visible proponents advocating assassination, endorsing bigotry, and lauding the deaths of US servicemen for no other reason than they are sure it is what God wants. I'm troubled by the certainty with which so many of these men and women speak, as though they know beyond a shadow of doubt that they are right, that they have a direct line to God. I suppose that’s what is so maddening about being an agnostic. I’m only sure of my inability to know, with 100% certainty, anything beyond my observable world. There may just be a natural level of skepticism built into some people, the way others have faith. I don’t know. There’s a lot about faith that creeps me out, and there’s a lot about religion that just plain pisses me off. It’s something I’m working on.

In the meantime, I’m trying to tune out ground interference and remember that Ants Marching is a pretty good song after all.