Banned by People Who Believe in Fairy Tales

There’s a certain irony in being banned by people who believe in fairy tales because you refuse to believe in the same ones.

Apparently, believing whatever you want is called freedom of thought. But questioning what somebody else believes can get you thrown out of the room.

Now that’s interesting.

I’ve spent most of my life looking at the world a little differently. I question things. Religion, relationships, politics, music, human behavior, and just about everything else people have decided we’re supposed to accept without thinking.

I don’t automatically believe something because it’s been repeated for 2,000 years. I don’t believe something because a million people agree with it, either.

A million people can believe something and still be wrong.

History has demonstrated that plenty of times.

The Difference Between Believing and Thinking

Here’s something I’ve noticed about human beings.

People love independent thinkers right up until somebody starts thinking independently.

Then suddenly you’re a troublemaker.

They’ll tell you to be yourself, express your opinions, question authority, and stand up for what you believe.

Wonderful advice.

Until your beliefs don’t match theirs.

Then you’re offensive, disruptive, negative, or whatever fashionable psychological label happens to be available that afternoon.

And eventually somebody finds the ban button.

Problem solved.

The independent thinker has been removed. Everybody can go back to agreeing with each other.

Everybody Has a Fairy Tale

Religion has its fairy tales. Politics has its fairy tales. The music business certainly has its share.

Songwriters have them, too.

Write three chords, tell the truth, and somebody in Nashville will discover you.

That’s a lovely story.

You might have better odds of discovering a dinosaur living in your backyard.

We all tell ourselves stories to make life easier to understand. Some are comforting. Some are profitable. Some have been handed down through generations.

But there’s a difference between enjoying a story and demanding everybody else believe it.

I have no problem with somebody believing in heaven, angels, miracles, or a man walking on water.

Believe whatever makes you happy.

Just don’t expect me to believe it because you do.

And don’t confuse my disagreement with an attack on your existence.

The Strange Business of Being Offended

We’ve developed an interesting culture where disagreement is sometimes treated like an injury.

Somebody says something you don’t like, and suddenly you’re a victim.

What happened to simply saying, “I disagree”?

That’s what I do.

I disagree with people all the time. Sometimes they’re right. Sometimes I’m right. Sometimes we’re both full of bullshit.

That’s called being human.

I don’t need everybody to approve of my opinions. I don’t need a committee to decide whether my thoughts are acceptable.

And I certainly don’t need somebody who believes in supernatural miracles explaining why my view of reality is unreasonable.

There’s enough comedy in that contradiction to keep me entertained for another 74 years.

The Songwriter’s Problem

This is where it gets interesting for somebody who writes songs.

Original songwriting requires looking at ordinary things from unusual angles.

You take something everybody has seen a thousand times and find something nobody thought to say about it.

That’s the job.

But originality comes with a price.

People are comfortable with familiar ideas. Familiar words. Familiar melodies. Familiar beliefs.

Give them something unexpected, and some will love it.

Others will immediately try to explain why you shouldn’t have said it.

That’s probably why so many songs sound alike.

It’s safer to repeat what everybody already accepts than risk saying something original.

I’ve never been particularly interested in playing it safe.

I’m an outlaw country artist. The word outlaw ought to mean something beyond wearing a black hat and singing about whiskey.

It ought to include the freedom to think for yourself.

Being Banned Isn’t the Same as Being Wrong

Getting banned from a discussion doesn’t prove you’re right.

But it certainly doesn’t prove you’re wrong, either.

Sometimes you’re banned because you’ve broken the rules. Sometimes because you’ve aggravated the wrong people. And sometimes because the people running the place simply don’t want to hear another perspective.

I’ve probably aggravated enough people to qualify for all three.

That’s fine.

I’m not running for mayor. I’m writing country songs.

And I’m not interested in spending the rest of my life nodding politely while somebody explains how the universe works based on a story they heard from somebody who heard it from somebody else a few thousand years ago.

I’d rather ask questions.

I’d rather laugh at the absurdity of human behavior.

I’d rather write a song that makes somebody uncomfortable enough to think.

The Final Irony

Here’s what I find funniest about the whole business.

People will defend their freedom to believe in something they cannot prove, then get upset when somebody else exercises the freedom not to believe it.

Both freedoms come from the same place.

You can’t demand freedom of belief and then expect freedom from disagreement.

That’s not how independent thinking works.

So ban me if you want.

The world is a pretty big place. There are billions of people out there, millions of ideas, and enough human foolishness to keep a songwriter employed for several lifetimes.

I’ve still got songs to write, studios to aggravate, and robots to insult.

Besides, I don’t need permission to look at life differently.

And if your fairy tale can’t survive a question from an old country songwriter, maybe the problem isn’t the songwriter.

— Elvis Nash

 

 

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You can always fix the grammar . But a idea that has been done to death you can’t .