The Significance of Dead People

Dead People

As my hubs are surely starting to indicate, I have an obsession with dead people. Not with just any dead people, but with significant dead people. My list is long and includes the likes of Kurt Cobain, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X, but at the top of the list are two names likely never uttered in the same sentence before: Robert F. Kennedy and Elliott Smith. These two men likely have little, if anything, to do with one another, but the fact that they are gone leaves a serious void in American life, place, music, and worthwhile pop culture.

I often wonder if my fixation on dead people is a good or bad thing. Maybe my dichotomy is too simplistic, but we often analyze our actions in this way: Is what we do good or is it bad? I wonder, but I am not sure I care. The issue I think is more relevant is what significance is there in remembering dead people, particularly incredibly talented dead people. What do I mean by this? Well, as I look around the world landscape today - be it in politics or music or elsewhere - I cannot find anybody who, in my little world, matches up to the five names listed so far in this hub. I have chosen to focus on RFK and Elliott Smith because they are my favorites. Is it that amazingly significant people do not exist? Are there no longer icons in America? Or is it easier to create icons, to immortalize, to romanticize, to wax nostalgic after someone dies?

Maybe it is simply the case that RFK never had a chance to become President, proceed to screw up, and then let us all down. Maybe it is just that, as someone else recently said somewhat crudely, that Elliott Smith's suicide (if it was a suicide) was a brilliant career move.

I don't think it's that easy. Take MLK and Malcolm X for example. Who are their modern day counterparts? Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson?? Please, give me a break.

Robert F. Kennedy

Robert F. Kennedy was murdered in 1968 after he won the California primary and was on his way to making a significant challenge for the American Presidency.  Attempts to compare Barrack Obama to RFK are feeble at best.  Bobby did not campaign on safe issues.  He did not craft positions to get votes; rather he ran on principle and what mattered to him.  The plight of Native Americans, poverty, and ending the Vietnam War.  And he is on record as stating that if he lost because people could not care about what he was fixated on, so be it.  I recently read a book entitled The Last Campaign, which is full of amazing examples of RFK's passion and integrity.  When Bobby died, America's hope died, in my political opinion.

Had RFK lived and became President of the United States, it is safe to say we would not have ever experienced Richard Nixon or Watergate.  And a great possibility exists that we would have never experienced the heartless Ronald Reagan, one of the most overrated Presidents of our time (talk about death creating an icon).  With eight years of RFK up to 1976, America could have been a social democracy, still prosperous and powerful, but with a side akin to Sweden, Denmark, and Norway.  Too often we cast something significant as the death of RFK off as little more than ongoing entertainment via the History Channel or PBS.  I like watching those shows, no doubt.  But although it might be pointless and painful, wondering what could have been is something I just cannot avoid. 

Elliott Smith

Whether Elliott Smith committed suicide or was murdered is a topic that probably deserves its own hub. The point is that Elliott Smith is gone and far too many people have never heard of him. Had it not been for his Oscar nomination for the song Miss Misery from the movie Good Will Hunting, that number would be even larger.

If Elliott did kill himself and that's truly what he wanted I have no problem with it. I feel the need to preface what I am about to say with that. But just as any purity that was left in American politics died with Robert F. Kennedy, I feel like Elliott Smith took with him the remaining purity from the music business. Elliott Smith is the equivalent, talent-wise, of Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. An amazing singer/song writer whose words resonate in the hearts and minds of so many. Bruce Springsteen plays the Super Bowl. Bruce Springsteen shills for Obama and displays a political naivete. Bruce Springsteen sells a record exclusively at WalMart. Bruce Springsteen is a sell-out. Bob Dylan, on that note, seemed to pop up in every commercial break a couple of years ago from Victoria's Secret to the Starbucks shelf.

There are some who have no problem with this brand of selling out. I guess I can see the point. How else is a sixty-year old going to generate an audience beyond the diehards? But with all the talent and all the fame money can buy, what's the point? Why diluted yourself? As Elliott said in response to the demands of the music business: I'll be pumping out the product/Just a total waste. There is something to be said about an artist who will not given in. Elliott was that person. And he was about to be that person to a larger audience. Would he have tread carefully and made all the 'right' moves? Or do I just think he would have because he is no longer here to let me down?

Interesting questions to ponder...