6) BIG | BRAVE - A Chaos of Flowers
As Donald signs executive orders demonizing and effectively outlawing the DEI movement, I've been reflecting on what DEI means to me and since the theme of this year is to talk less about music and more about my meaningless musings, here are my thoughts.
I've never chosen a metal band for my list simply because it was a female led project. Never consciously that is. I think music should be judged on merit alone and I simply don't give a shit about how societal movements see music or any artful expression for that matter. When Tipper Gore took on heavy metal, she thought it was evil and destructive, but what she was doing was evil and destructive. Any movement that attempts to artificially promote or obstruct art because of some subjective virtue is likely to end up harming society in some measurable way. The zeitgeist and time decides what is good and no arbitrary group has any right to tell the zeitgeist what it should favor.
This is easy to say about art in a vacuum, but the thing that makes it instantly complicated is money. If you see that some industry is dominated by white men and that industry is making boatloads of money, it seems obviously unfair that women or any other segment of society who isn't white and male don't get a piece of the pie. When it comes to heavy metal, no one cares about this because there simply is no money. Underground metal is only pursued because it is a personal passion and most of the involved musicians have day jobs. That's why it's so easy for me to say DEI is dogshit in respect to true art.
But, when men and women need to pay the same amount in rent, it becomes obviously unfair that men get jobs easier, get paid more, and have greater upward mobility.
And the whole, "companies must maximize merit" argument when applied to getting jobs is dogshit because of how the job market works. It just doesn't matter if the white male has an extra certification, or an extra 6 months, or happened to be slightly more charismatic in an interview. MOST jobs are completely arbitrary, can be learned in a short amount of time, and the people occupying those jobs are largely interchangeable. There's NO way to tell if a person is a good fit for a job until they succeed or fail, and any post hoc rationalization for a failure is going to be bullshit.
DEI was designed to confront this by making sure hiring practices are more fair. My employer at one time held quarterly reviews of how many women and people of color were hired over the past 3 months and celebrated when those numbers were high. Did that make me feel undesirable as an employee? Yes, but I'm paying for the sins of my brethren and didn't take it personally.
Many did take it personally, many who hold positions of power, and because of their insecurity, DEI is being systematically dismantled. This experiment failed.
So what's the next experiment going to look like? Or will it be back to the boys club? I'm honestly not sure. If I were in charge I would do something dumb like keep a registry of all parents who recently had a little girl and send them free copies of A Brief History of Time (for physics), How to Win Friends and Influence People (to understand how white men fuck other people into submission), and The Origin of Species (for biology). STEM and knowing how people fuck each other are essential for all children actually and a broader mandate including boys would probably just fix society generally speaking.
What I'm actually going to do is sit back and watch the zeitgeist swing its scythe. BIG | BRAVE might be spinning as failed progressive programs bleed out. They've created a remarkable record here, including truly original guitar arrangement and tone which builds an overall haunting and witchy atmosphere I hope they continue to develop.
