When listening to “Democracy” by Killing Joke, I always get a very new-agey feeling. Part of this comes from the music. The acoustic guitar, next to the electric, is used in most of the tracks. The music is no longer “the sound of the earth vomiting”. Which was a very apt description, by the band, of their earlier music. But music is only part of the story.
In the same year as Killing Joke released this album a study by Wouter Hanegraaff on the New Age Movement was published, titled “New Age Religion and Western Culture”. Hanegraaff concludes that “the New Age movement is characterized by a popular western culture criticism expressed in terms of a secularized esotericism.” This is a mouthful, but it boils down to the fact that the new age movement criticises western culture. It does so by using what Hanegraaff calls “secularized esotericism”. It takes him over 100 pages to describe what he means by that term. For now it is enough to know that the Theosophical Society and other nineteenth-century occult movements and their offspring, for instance Wicca, fall within this category.
Now back to Democracy, or better, back to the first song on the album “This Savage Freedom”. In this song Jaz Coleman celebrates “savage freedom” as an alternative for the Western lifestyle. This lifestyle is sketched by Coleman as being a stressful job, however he sees a way out. As this song opens the album, it can be deducted that not only the song but the entire album deals with this alternative. So, what is this alternative lifestyle, this way out of western society? Coleman shows us glimpses in this song. He looks towards old ways, to shape the future, and towards Nature. The new lifestyle seems to be dominantly found in Nature: hills, tundra and forests.
If we look at Western society, its economic and political system sets it apart from the rest of the world. The second song is about its political system: democracy. In this song, Coleman puts forward his observation that although democracy seems to offer choice, in reality it doesn’t. The democratic system offers more of the same. The powers that be are all against Nature. The only option a “green party” is swept away. But there is more to it. Democracy failed because, in Coleman’s words: “You do not represent my deepest thoughts and wishes.” How can a representative democracy represent its citizens when the citizens themselves do not feel represented? If that would be the view of the majority, it would be the moral bankruptcy of such a system.
After the (false) pharmaceutical state of elation in the “Prozac People”, the next song offers a solution and thus hope. And again, Nature comes to the rescue. Not only is it possible to grow your own greens (whether they be veggies or weed), even your consciousness is green there. Coleman also refers to the “luminous folk”, but I’m not quite sure who he means. Are they fairies, nature spirits or some other beings? If he means one of the former, together with Coleman’s respect for Nature, this song hints at neo-paganism.
Next time – another Crowley connection?
Tags: albums, Killing Joke, New Age
