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The title of Toure’s Op-Ed piece in the NY Times on Sunday, April 24, was Prince's Holy Lust. Toure, who
authored a biography on Prince, opined about the worthiness of Prince’s
“religious expression”. Toure’ defines
this as "Oversexed Christianity", and in a positive way. The
Dictatorship of Relativism and radical secularism are at work here.
A quick glance at the lyrics Prince penned do reveal his
imaginative “soul searching”. Perhaps they also reveal his soul searching for a
way to cope with a materially overcharged world where hazards are mostly
emotional hurdles that can be overcome.
Prince hardly broke new ground there, was unoriginal and seemed confused. Hedonism and Epicureanism were in use by him as dominant themes and they pre-date Christ. These philosophies are at odds with Christianity because of their focus on the self and pleasure as the supreme good and a careless ethic towards life itself. Remember any philosophy at its core is essentially a search for authentic truth.
The reality is that Prince’s death is eerily similar to too many pop-stars who died in or near their prime. When will it stop and what are we doing to help abet the many nameless young people who succumb to death in much the same manner, whether by suicide or overdose or both? What philosophies are our teens and twenty-somethings following? Are they being misled by the lies of materialistic individualism which is so prevalent in American culture? Is "Holy Lust" now the religion that, in Karl Marx's terms, has become the opiate of the masses?
Prince hardly broke new ground there, was unoriginal and seemed confused. Hedonism and Epicureanism were in use by him as dominant themes and they pre-date Christ. These philosophies are at odds with Christianity because of their focus on the self and pleasure as the supreme good and a careless ethic towards life itself. Remember any philosophy at its core is essentially a search for authentic truth.
The reality is that Prince’s death is eerily similar to too many pop-stars who died in or near their prime. When will it stop and what are we doing to help abet the many nameless young people who succumb to death in much the same manner, whether by suicide or overdose or both? What philosophies are our teens and twenty-somethings following? Are they being misled by the lies of materialistic individualism which is so prevalent in American culture? Is "Holy Lust" now the religion that, in Karl Marx's terms, has become the opiate of the masses?
And then there is Prince's estate and the unfortunate and mysterious circumstances of his death. Rumors swirl about his legacy and what he has or has not "passed on".
In reality, this will generate a very high, albeit postmortem spike in popularity. Profits will stream in via "rag-tag" journalism. The true beneficiaries of his legacy may be music industry executives and estate attorneys. Will they become inebriated by the financial windfalls that they reap? Is this the resurrection that Prince imagined? A legacy of corporate profit and income for the same record company executives he once despised so much so that he changed his name to a symbol?
Where he died is equally tragic. He drew his last breath on an elevator going up to the bedroom suite in his mansion. One need not speculate exactly what had happened in the immediacy before he lost consciousness, except to say that his last act was to “punch a higher floor”.
This, ironically can be found in the Prologue to Let's Go Crazy. We hear Prince's voice asking us to "do" this when we are in despair. Akin to a Eulogy, and an eerie one at that, the song begins:
And if the elevator tries to bring you down
Go crazy, punch a higher floor
In reality, this will generate a very high, albeit postmortem spike in popularity. Profits will stream in via "rag-tag" journalism. The true beneficiaries of his legacy may be music industry executives and estate attorneys. Will they become inebriated by the financial windfalls that they reap? Is this the resurrection that Prince imagined? A legacy of corporate profit and income for the same record company executives he once despised so much so that he changed his name to a symbol?
Where he died is equally tragic. He drew his last breath on an elevator going up to the bedroom suite in his mansion. One need not speculate exactly what had happened in the immediacy before he lost consciousness, except to say that his last act was to “punch a higher floor”.
This, ironically can be found in the Prologue to Let's Go Crazy. We hear Prince's voice asking us to "do" this when we are in despair. Akin to a Eulogy, and an eerie one at that, the song begins:
And if the elevator tries to bring you down
Go crazy, punch a higher floor
Later in the song we hear- (lyrics)
“Are we gonna let the elevator bring us down? Oh no, let's go....CRAZY"
Rather then, let us not.
Let's get sane and begin to find a solution for the plague of adolescent and post adolescent mortality, in many cases driven by depression, illicit (and licit) drug abuse and alcoholism.
Prince Rogers Nelson, Requiet en Pacem!
DAS+
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