Stop Snitchin': The Message Of Our Times

According to the Associated Press, a woman had the word "snitch" burned into her face with a branding iron in apparent retaliation for helping police in a domestic violence case. Those who think today's hip-hop has no social conscience obviously aren't familiar with the Stop Snitchin' campaign, which is to today's rappers what stopping the Ethiopian famine was to the rock stars of the 80s. While activists waste time focussing on issues like the genocide in Darfur and global warming, today's hip-hop stars know that the bigger issue is giving back to the community by making sure it stays crime-ridden and riven by tit-for-tat violence. Bully for you, assholes! I have to drop my sarcastic tone here because this legitimately pisses me off. I know all hip-hop isn't so stridently pro-ignorance as its mainstream proponents (though some lesser known rappers like Immortal Technique and Dead Prez are also outspoken in their self-righteous stupidity), but those underground rappers aren't the ones making a cultural impact. The kids in size XXXXXXL white shirts I see at bars and clubs don't know who Grandmaster Flash or Boogie Down Productions are. Their knowledge of hip-hop history extends nor further back in time than Tupac. And in a marvelous example of a self-fulfilling prophecy, by embracing the ghetto values of their idols they make sure the ghetto remains drug and crime-ridden enough for new idols to emerge and keep rapping about the same tired material. There are smart, educated people that love hip-hop. I know some. But it is sublimely ignorant to pretend there is no link between, to give an example close to my neighbourhood, the spate of gang-related gun violence in Toronto last summer and the kind of value system that promotes Stop Snitchin' as a community cause. Then voices emerge complaining that the police isn't doing enough to solve these crimes! A human being has a limited supply of sympathy to go around, and I don't waste mine on those who live and die by the gun. But it is not even the violence that offends me so much as the stupidity. The prideful stupidity at that. I don't know why so many people in my generation have been suckered into this world of crass materialism and terrible fashion sense. Or why seemingly attractive girls are into these assholes. Oh wait, I do remember now: because people are idiots! I know it's not exclusively hip-hop's fault. A decade ago the same idiots with ridiculously long shirts would've had some other ridiculous look. I think the net volume of human stupidity (about 70 percent of all young people at the very least) remains constant through time even if it takes different forms. Lower-class people (which is not exclusively defined by wealth) are going to embrace whatever lower-class values are fashionable. But the current form I witness when I go downtown is this one, so that is where I direct my wrath. I blame the death of God. Seriously. Religion used to be enough to placate the mass of idiots, but in a post-religious world cults of materialism like mainstream hip-hop have simply taken its place. I defy any believer in a utopian or pro-masses ideology to explain the popularity of 50 Cent. This is why I could never be a socialist and why even democracy is a deeply flawed political system in my eyes. I believe the Stop Snitchin' campaign has officially destroyed any remaining faith I may have had in my generation, mainstream culture and the future. I invite any remaining people with souls to join me in my underground bunker as I wait out the apocalypse. May a better world emerge from the ruins!