Treason

another 'unearthed' song, that time somebody carved my lyrics into a table, Moloch, and Mani.

My friend Shelbi called me over after my show last Friday -

“What were the lyrics I carved into the table at (venue name) ?!”

I remembered this occasion. How could I forget? Wouldn’t any songwriter, especially a Gen-X songwriter, who, while mainly known for acoustic sad bastard and folk tunes, still always has The Clash and Nirvana circulating in his veins, kinda dig some lyrical vandalism?

“Yeah… it’s from ‘Treason’…. man.. I haven’t played that in forever.”

I still had my guitar on, so, with an audience of my wife and a few friends, including Shelbi, I plucked out the decade-old tune, trying to remember the words.

We found the lyric:

They tell us

To change is surely treason

But brother, there is no other way

The song and the vandalism were from nearly ten years ago at this point. It carries themes of political polarization, siloed thinking, and the acceptance of cruelty and injustice by turning a blind eye to suffering, while also making the excuse that ‘defeating the other side’ justifies whatever means it takes to win.

Photo by Ivan Vranić on Unsplash

I’ve been listening to an excellent podcast, The Last Invention, by Longview. It explores the history and technology of AI and AGI, and conducts in depth interviews with advocates who think AGI is not only inevitable but necessary, as well as skeptics who think it will be humanity’s demise if not stopped, and lots of voices in between. A recent episode highlighted AI “Scouts” - those who believe there is great potential for good that could come from the technology, but believe a clear code of ethics and morals is essential to guide its creation and use.

I was particularly fascinated with the perspective of Liv Boeree, a former professional poker player and game theorist. I was surprised when she started by talking about Moloch, a Canaanite “god” spoken of in the Hebrew Scriptures. Worshippers of Moloch offered up their own children to a fire sacrifice with the promise that the sacrifice would bring forth prosperity and fertility. Liv utilizes the concept of “Moloch” to analyze scenarios where excessive competition drives all participants toward a detrimental outcome. She illustrates how compelling short-term incentives can lock individuals or groups into a destructive cycle where immediate, zero-sum gains ultimately force the sacrifice of long-term interests.

Boeree applies this principle to the current push for acceleration of AI and AGI, but it can apply to a myriad of issues. Most of the worst atrocities that have occurred in history reached a point where a large number of people were locked into a destructive cycle, a narrative that had to be defended and held, became a thing in itself, and demanded continual sacrifice, ultimately causing great destruction.

Chalk the bad stuff up to “necessary collateral damage” and “well, if we didn’t do it, someone worse than us would have.” Moloch.

tell me that story with conviction

the one that helps you sleep another night

we all want our stories to be noble

we all want our choices to be right

“Treason” got left on the cutting room floor of the “Closet Songs” sessions. I was pleased to be reminded of it. I’ll be releasing the original demo of it, which originally appeared on a now out of print CD version of “Closet Songs,” on a collaboration record with some friends over in the UK. I hope to do a proper recording of it someday, but for now, here’s a live take from the home studio

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Finally, as I’m writing this, I learned of the passing of Gary “Mani” Mounfield, bassist for The Stone Roses and Primal Scream. I got absolutely obsessed with Stone Roses a few years back, and the beating heart of that band was the rhythm section, Mani and Reni, who defined a sound and scene and influenced so many bands, myself included. I’m saddened by this loss, at the young age of 63, and my heart goes out to his twin teenage boys, who lost their mother a few years ago to cancer.

Here’s to Mani, and the Roses, and Madchester, and to Music!