MGMT. Ever heard of them? I don’t know how to describe their music, but I do dig it. I was introduced to “Kids” while listening to Pandora at the Gym. There is something about their electronica sound that just grabs my soul. Next, I heard “Time To Pretend”. As I paid more attention to the lyrics I began to be captivated by what they were saying, not just how they were saying it.
The following are some of the lyrics from “Time To Pretend”:
I'm feeling rough, I'm feeling raw, I'm in the prime of my life.
Let's make some music, make some money, find some models for wives.
I'll move to Paris, shoot some heroin, and %#(* with the stars.
You man the island and the cocaine and the elegant cars.
This is our decision, to live fast and die young.
We've got the vision, now let's have some fun.
Yeah, it's overwhelming, but what else can we do.
Get jobs in offices, and wake up for the morning commute.
As I focused in on the lyrics, I noticed what was happening. They had carried a common and widely held worldview to its logical conclusion. If all that life amounts to is getting up early only to commute to a desk job so that we can return home and do it again, then what’s the point? What if John Lennon was right and there is no heaven or hell, then there is only earth, a morning commute, a less than satisfying job, taxes and a repeat button. What would be the point?
MGMT proposes another way to live. If it’s all pointless, then why not move to Paris, shoot some heroin, get some super model wives, divorce them after they have kids and loose their super-model look, drive elegant cars, and snort a bit of coke along the way. If the choice is early morning commute and desk job vs. heroin and super models, I think I know which one I would choose.
But even that decision doesn’t help the need for our souls to know why they exist. If we move to Paris, shoot the heroin, get the super model wife and upgrade her first chance we get, we will still, in the words of MGMT, “choke on our vomit and that will be the end”. If we pursue pleasure with all that we have and we end up in the ground because there is no heaven or hell, then even our pleasure was meaningless. When we are dead, we will no longer remember what we enjoyed in life and all of it will be meaningless. I guess in either case, all we can do is pretend, like MGMT suggests.
There is another option.
