Sir Paul in the imperial arena

Was this performance really necessary? Paul McCartney at the Super Bowl, to live and let die. A fitting song to get the gladiators and their crowd into the back-slapping mood. To be clear: musically Paul stands far above the best: he has co-defined a continuing musical era. Certainly he did not need the money, even though the sum was undoubtedly a handsome one. So why on earth did you, Paul, dethrone yourself in the homeland of global domination and exploitation? It can’t be that you are “just an artist an entertainer” playing where ever the road takes you. To perform at the major national sports event of a war-mongering imperial power is not a noble thing to do, Sir Paul. Couldn’t at least Ringo have talked some sense into you before you jumped on the band-wagon of show-biz in ‘God’s country’? To stop and think of how your performance served to lull half the imperial nation into feel-good mode about themselves, apparently, it don’t come easy. Are we, non-imperialist music-fans of yours to conclude that you in fact agree with the US invasion of Iraq and the global state of war the rulers of the ‘land of the free’ have unleashed and are perpetuating? Band on the run, just having fun? Yeah, animal rights are cool, but smart bombs on Falluja, that’s not your fight, of course you are free pick and choose and go to any Venus and Mars rock show you like.

No answer should be expected to such questions, yet still any genuinely democratic mind will have to wonder about your choices. Had only the President himself been in the stadium – Paul’s inter-mezzo would have surpassed the spectacles in ancient Rome’s collosseum. By accepting to perform, Paul did noting less than sanction the imperial regime, by helping it to keep the spoiled masses docile and in good spirit. To his shame, Paul M. let the occasion slip away without subverting it to any form of political protest. Just as star movie actors needn’t accept any role, a living musical legend is at liberty to choose venues and songs to perform there. He or she can always find a way to make a political point, to express a critical thought. It has been done many times, U2’s Bono well known for his campaigning against third world debt and exploitation under the globalised capitalist system; US rock stars forming a coalition and touring through the US of A in an attempt to bring out the vote against Bush. But Paul, nowhere to be found, perhaps feeling above, beyond or simply not touched by the daily crimes against humanity inflicted upon thousands around the world by the imperial US and its cohorts.

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