Daft Punk: Face to Face
Daft Punk is one of those obscure iconic global acts that never hit the top in the States but manages to sell out stadiums 13 years after the release of their debut album ... kind of like Radiohead, I guess.
Rather than stretch too far to find meaning from a duo that seems intent on sabotaging efforts to do just that, I'm going to take some lines from their song Face to Face and cram it into the context I'll construct for it.
There's not much I know about you
Fear will always make you blindBut the answer is in clear view
It's amazing what you'll find face to face
Meeting someone you fear face to face will, depending on the circumstances, result in (a) physical assault and a bitter lawsuit or (b) the seeds of dialogue and reconciliation.
Unfortunately, face to face meetings are rare online and the dynamics of online interaction are not conducive to producing constructive dialogue between people on different sides of controversial issues. Figuring how to advance a cause in an environment that seems almost designed to invite vitriol and recrimination is a constant struggle for online activists.
(A puzzle for another day: is there such a thing as an "online activist?")
I turned away because I thought you were the problem
Tried to forget until I hit the bottomBut when I faced you in my blank confusion
I realized you weren't wrong, it was a mere illusion
Let me shoehorn this lyric into another tortured moral. Those who aggravate us the most are those we have the most in common with. Until we look in the mirror and see who we truly are, we will continue to rail against our enemies, ourselves.
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1 Comments
i think there is such a thing as an online activist. but the action is taking place in the mind. don't grow weary in your work!
i like that last lyric, the way it spoke to me was this: meeting face to face has a tendency to put a human face on the issues i face. it's one thing to stand against illegal immigration, it's a very different thing to look into the eyes of an exploited immigrant and tell them to go home. if you're human at all, compassion takes over and you realize that in their shoes...
you might be standing there looking back at yourself, hoping for grace and understanding.
keep preachin' not all of us are against you
peace