NVRMR PODCAST #2: DAVID ROVICS
Crow Qu'appelle & Kit Colt interview the world's premiere anti-Zionist folk singer!
Hey Folks!
Back in October, we announced:
It took us awhile to get around to releasing our second episode, but better late than never. I think you’ll agree that it was worth the wait, because do we ever have a treat for you today!
Without further ado, we present… (drum roll, please!):
EPISODE TWO OF THE NEVERMORE PODCAST!!!
Featuring the one and only DAVID ROVICS! The World’s Greatest Living Anarchist Folk singer, the World’s Most Famous Anti-Zionist Singer-Songwriter, and a leading Leftist critic of cancel culture!
P.S. If for some reason you’re unfamiliar with David’s music, here are a few of his best known songs:
I also encourage you to check out his Substack, where he blogs about Palestine, cancel culture, American history and many other subjects.
I suggest starting here:
Riffing off Dave's "I'm a better anarchist than you theme" I have to ask (now that I have an opening) why keep using the term Anarchist when it has so many negative connotations? When I hear it I think of two things. The dumbass larpers at Chaz and the Spy vs Spy comics from Mad magazine. Not exactly a positive image. Kind of ridiculous actually.
Why not completely reinvent yourselves, including a different more catchy name? Judean People's Front or something? Well maybe not that, but something that captures the essence of the philosophy without the negative associations? Speaking of the philosophy, that is something that always irked me, because you ask a dozen people what it means to be an anarchist and you get a dozen different answers. Reminds me of a concert I went to at the Horseshoe back in TO when Truths and Rights were playing there. During a break I asked the band members what all these different terms like 'dread' and 'i-ration' meant, and sure enough four different answers, and then they started arguing among themselves about what it all meant. Pretty funny actually. Great tunes though. Super inspiring.
The ideas I get. The basic problem I have is how to get there, and what to do when you've arrived. Trouble is, nobody I ever talked to that claimed to be an anarchist had the slightest idea of how to run a modern industrial economy. I've worn a few different hard hats over the years, so I have an understanding of what it takes to put food on the table and gas in your car. That shit doesn't happen by itself. You have to learn how it's done and then be serious about doing it.
I was part of the 70's counter-culture, and even when I realized I needed to do more with my life and went to college, I had a foot in that world right up until the late 80's. No anarchists in my faculty, which was all about science and engineering. Plenty of art students and wannabe musicians though. Most with crappy service level jobs, or on welfare. Nice enough people, but most of them couldn't change the oil in their car, if they could even afford one. Not exactly a promising group of people to run things like air traffic or a nuclear reactor, should they ever get the chance. Not even competent enough to shut one down if they thought nuclear energy was a bad idea.
So what's the plan? I'm basically adrift as far as ideology goes. I don't see answers in any of them. Practical solutions to the problem of survival of as many people as possible under the best possible conditions is what I'm about. That's what keeps me going. I'm a tiny cog in a massive enterprise, but I at least turn up for work and make myself useful. So far that's all I've been able to come up with. Being useful. Not fucking up and making it worse for those around me, nor expecting them to carry me either. That's my philosophy. My two cents.
That was great stuff. I've definitely check out David's channel.
His songs remind me of the Great Maurice Pooby of Courtenay BC, who used to appear on Dave Wisdom's Nightlines on CBC radio back in the 90's. Yeah, CBC believe it not. That was in the before time, in the long long ago.
I can't find any of Pooby's material on the web or YT, but I have about an hour's worth that I recorded to cassette and later digitized. Maybe I'll put it up on one of my substacks if someone wants to hear it.
"if it's bringing you down, if it's making you frown, then just stop listening.... it's only music."
The guy was a rebel genius.