Sentiment and Socialism

Tragedy and comedy are dead as popular art forms. (That comedy or tragedy are sometimes achieved inadvertently--that is, counter to the intention of the artist--does not count. These are parody.)

The once exalted labour of making sense of Man In The World seems to have been replaced entirely by expressions of the tin-eared, vulgarian cults of Individualism and Realism; where feeling achieves its apotheosis in sentiment, action (and interaction) in socialism.

To wit--from an album that I don't entirely regret buying, but which has put me off my ambition to replace my analogue collection with digital:

You told me I was the original guttersnipe
But really I'm the original Isrealite
I live in a ghetto forever after
So you manufacture the ghetto blaster.
But I'm out now, I'm older
Don't carry music on my shoulder
You think I'm a wild terrier
Now I never could afford to live in your area.*

Uggh.