Where is my island of misfit toys?

A reflection on midlife realizations, exploring the concept of aesthetic morality, the cultural impact of music, and the need for genuine societal change.

PHILOSOPHYCULTUREJUSTICE

Jared Lukes

7/31/20242 min read

Rainy Day Introspection: Realizing my Aesthetic Morality

Sometimes, I sit here on a rainy morning, staring out the kitchen window, thinking about how I've spent the majority of my life fighting for ideals, in the world and my environment. I used to feel pride about this. Lately, I just feel dumb. Maybe this is part of turning over that edge of midlife, but it can be, I think, the thing that takes that passion and fire from you that you have in your youth. The thing that makes you jaded is you start to realize the weird aesthetic morality going on in the world that no one can really change.

The Insect Analogy

Even how humans deal with insects sort of reflects how we treat our world. How you do one thing is how you do anything, you know, #tinyhabits and all. If you were with a group of people and a butterfly flew up, landed on someone's shoulder, you reached out and swatted it dead, everyone would look at you like a murderer. Now, turn that butterfly into a spider. Totally different scenario. Now you're the hero. Change that butterfly from a colorful butterfly to maybe just a moth, and 50% of those people will still applaud you for ending it.

The Musician's Fight Against Payola

Back when I was a musician in my twenties, we started an internet radio station just for local music out of Minneapolis called Misplaced Music. We were tired of the payola situation with the radio stations, so we started an Internet one at the dawn of the Internet. Our tagline was "Musicians Not Models." We were so tired of watching all the bullshit shoegazer music rise to the top, after just watching people like Cobain leave their entrails on the map, how no one picked up the scent... and just continued to completely sell out. It's hard to watch that sort of stuff happen culturally. It's hard to see when people are on to the right thing and just get misguided through money and self-preservation.

Yearning for Authentic Change

I want to be alive for something really cool, a really cool movement, you know, not just waves of dissonance that get stomped out, but real punk rock, real protest, real asking for answers from the people who are in charge. No more aesthetic morality. No more being able to sweep ugliness under the rug just because it involves people no one sees value in. Crooked teeth and all. We need to continue to find justice in a very unjust world because, at the end of the day, we all end up like moths no matter how many days we spend feeling like a butterfly.