Happy 50th Birthday My Generation

Guess Pete Townsend did not have the courage of his conviction. He won't even fade away.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2015/12/music-and-moral-panic 

Cohen's "Folk Devils and Moral Panics" is an essential read for how contemporary media works. You could place almost any modern news story into that book and it would be exactly the same, from Muslims to Ebola to The War on Christmas to Leftist Statists to Millennials. All of these are "societal dangers" inflated well beyond reality to sell advertising space.

bramzzoinks said:

Guess Pete Townsend did not have the courage of his conviction. He won't even fade away.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2015/12/music-and-moral-panic 

To which conviction are you referring? If it's the dying before he gets old bit, the line is "HOPE I die," not "I plan to kill myself before I get old."  

imonlysleeping said:

bramzzoinks said:

Guess Pete Townsend did not have the courage of his conviction. He won't even fade away.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2015/12/music-and-moral-panic 

To which conviction are you referring? If it's the dying before he gets old bit, the line is "HOPE I die," not "I plan to kill myself before I get old."  

He also requested that it is US who should "fade away", not him.

bramzzoinks said:

Guess Pete Townsend did not have the courage of his conviction. He won't even fade away.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2015/12/music-and-moral-panic 

God forbid a poet pens an iconic line, that encapsulates the attitude of then-contemporary youth.

Some day some self-important person might be inclined to misrepresent it and pen an insult based on that.

Was I to infer all this time that rock lyrics were literal declarations? Whoops. Here ya go, Mick.

ridski said:

Cohen's "Folk Devils and Moral Panics" 

Thanks, @ridski!