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And they want you to know they’re in charge. Even though concomitantly they’ve broken the system.

We used to live in an era of authority. Oh, I don’t mean “authoritarian,” I mean we respected those who paid their dues, via education and experience, to tell us what was going on, instruct us and lead us.

But today everybody is a leader. And what followers there are are so deep into their beliefs that they hate you and what you do, whatever it is, if it impacts them at all, sometimes even if it doesn’t!

People used to know their place. There was a ladder, and if you chose not to climb it, cool, but don’t tell us what is going on, what to believe.

If you lived through the sixties…we didn’t get everything we sought, but society did change, the youth had power, and then these same youth became narcissistic greedmongers in the eighties, and the nineties were an economic triumph, and then the internet blew it all apart.

You could understand the world prior to the internet, now you’re not sure what is going on. And every time you look, you’re insulted, you’re late to the game, you’ve got it wrong, to the point where you push back and say no, I do know, or lick your wounds and stray from the fray. Yes, the most important thing in the twenty first century isn’t money, although that is very important, but personality. Are you willing to get in someone’s face? Are you willing to stand up to criticism? Are you willing to bark back? Are you willing to do and say what’s expedient? Then you’ve got a chance.

We didn’t expect it to be this way, especially after the fall of the wall, the end of Communism, we expected harmony to reign worldwide.

But this didn’t suit the purpose of the most narcissistic. And the funny thing is once people got their freedom, they surrendered it, it was just too scary to go your own way on a big scale, better to leave your adventures to the small screen, on a computer or smartphone.

So we were always waiting to get to the show, but now baseball is not only not America’s pastime, the only people who pay attention are fans, the number of which is dwindling. The World Series used to be everything now it’s barely a thing. And playing baseball in November is like skiing in July. The timing is wrong for all but diehards, and the conditions are not optimal for skilled geniuses to prevail.

But then action sports died. As well as ESPN. The X-Games was a thing, but now the Olympics have surfing and skateboarding and once you kowtow to public opinion, you’ve lost it. Kinda like STEM studies. The liberal arts are history and college is a bona fide finishing school for business students. It’s a rat race, and if you drop you, you can’t even survive, you can’t pay the bills.

And of course there is overarching change, like the on demand culture, that the oldsters still can’t quite get a grip on, for decades they were told acquisition was key, that he or she who died with the most toys wins, and now kids don’t even get driver’s licenses, never mind cars, and we’re supposed to care about your expensive iron? We rent what we need when we want it. And the badges of honor are where you’ve been, what experiences you’ve had, and the number of followers you’ve got.

That’s even more important than money, your horde. Which is paraded on your Instagram or Twitter account. This is where you prove your worth. And maybe you can turn it into cash, but for those who grew up in an era where you had to have skill to make big bucks, it’s hard to fathom a world where you can game the system and become rich on nothing. Credit the Kardashians, they were there first.

And they represent the “beauty” tribe. You know, remake yourself with plastic surgery until you fit present norms of beauty. But what happens when hair comes back after you’ve eradicated it, when thin lips are in, when thin eyebrows are in… You’re lost in the past, but this represents how we’re all living for today. The Earth is gonna burn up, and supposedly Social Security is gonna dry up, and if Jesus doesn’t come back to save us we’re screwed anyway, so we might as well party like it’s…

Not 1999. But Prince O.D.’ed, Tom Petty too. Used to be that was seen as tragic, now all it gets is a shrug of the shoulders and endless Twitter tributes. Yup, the stars are just like us, addicted to opioids.

And we’ve got a President who lies at will, oftentimes multiple times a day, but he wants to keep his Twitter count up, he too is playing the game, and those inured to the old game are flummoxed and left out, losers.

And Trump has illustrated those left behind, and racist, want their say too. It’s not only rich people in the Republican party… They want government off their backs while they invade your life and tell you when and where you can get an abortion, if you can. Which is head-spinning if you’re a Democrat, but you can scream all you want, you can’t get your message out.

No one can get their message out. Even Taylor Swift. She nailed the marketing game two years ago, but two years is a long time, especially in an era where everything is forgotten almost instantly. They shoot up the school at Columbine, kill kids in Newtown, and it’s part of the social fabric, even though there are people denying it ever happened. But I dare you to name the mass shootings since. There are too many. It’s like following baseball to know, that’s right, everything is its own vertical, and it doesn’t translate to the mainstream. The media keeps on telling us we live in one homogenous country but this is patently untrue. The coastal elites used to call the vast middle “flyover country,” but today they’ve got a zillion channels and high speed internet and they’re just as sophisticated as the coasts and they can’t stop telling the coasts they’re wrong. California is a disaster, even though the truth is it’s on an economic run. We live in the land of perception, where you need a campaign to get your message across, being right is not enough, you’ve got to sell it!

And all the destinations are a shadow of themselves. Number one on the “Billboard” chart? Only relevant to the record companies and those who might appear there, which is a fraction of musicians. Opinion piece in the “New York Times”? Only read by dedicated “Times” readers. A larger tribe than ever because of digital distribution, but with smaller influence than ever, because the news does not spread. Only rumors, gossip and disasters spread. The whole nation is the 10 o’clock news.

So everything you used to want to be is devalued. If you’re into it for more than money, i.e. fame and recognition, it’s now impossible to reach everybody, you cannot get acknowledgement, the game has not only been disrupted, someone pulled away the board and all we’re left with is our game pieces.

The center does not hold. Even though Democrats keep telling us it’s still there. Give the Republicans credit, they line up behind Trump, because they realize there is no center, only charismatic leaders with tribes. You don’t infect people with facts, but personality. Facts are fungible, personality is forever, which is why you can’t admit you’ve made mistakes.

And mainstream culture is whipsawed. We go from male abuse of women to women controlling the dialogue with men not allowed to stand up and debate the issue. Kaepernick stands up for his community and then Jay Z gets in bed with the overlords. A$AP Rocky is guilty and our President says to let him go, to forgo another country’s laws. And this Greenland nonsense… Why don’t we make it easy and just buy China. It’s a good media story, and it’s everywhere so more people believe it, but it will never ever happen. Ain’t that today, it’s all about a good story.

So no wonder we’re looking for strongmen. We want someone to lead us out of this mess. And these rulers tell us if we give them all the power, they will literally fix everything, health care, welfare, business…everybody will have their own home and plentiful food and a job…meanwhile, this is a trifecta that’s hard to get these days, but despite all their naysaying, putting down of other tribes, deep down inside people are optimistic, they believe in change, no matter how delusional.

Everybody can’t have everything, but they believe they can, and if they can’t it’s got to be somebody’s fault…the immigrants, the rich, the corporations, the government. It’s never your fault in America, and if per chance it is, you just apologize and go to rehab and your followers forgive you.

And the old guard still plays by the old rules in the old game, even though it’s got no resemblance to today. “Billboard” Top 100? DNC centrism? Hell, there aren’t even any ratings on Netflix, which is a good thing, because it all comes down to what is good and what you want to watch. But if they eliminate likes from Instagram… How are you gonna make it? It’s like likes are part of your brain, your DNA, you probably put them on your college application. But why go to college at all when you can make bank as an influencer, like Olivia Jade, whose parents wanted to buy prestige with a USC degree. Meanwhile, Olivia Jade is living a jet set life and the rest of us are in the back of planes that crash because Boeing had to make money and the government provided no oversight. But we keep hearing the government is bad and regulations need to be eviscerated.

Confused yet?

This is now. When you’re not sure of your motivation. But chances are you don’t have a regular job, you’re a contractor or a gig worker so you’ve got to constantly be working. Ever found an Uber/Lyft driver without a dream? Ask them, they’re all gonna be rich, they’re working on it.

So there’s no center, everybody’s deluded and they keep trying to shout you down. They don’t want reasoned debate, they just want it their way. But they’re running on emotion not knowledge, and when confronted with knowledge they reject it, excoriate it, because it makes them feel small. It’s not only the underclass, can you explain to me why the wealthy are such anti-vaxxers, despite all the documentation saying otherwise? And they think just like they live behind gates, their kids won’t get measles, they’ve got too much money, and even though they’re atheists they believe God will protect them.

No one can save us, not immediately. For now, it’s getting worse. We’ve got to agree on the facts, agree that everybody can’t be rich and famous and that we’re in it together. But now the whole world is positively tribal. We’ve got smartphones but we’re living in the Middle Ages. It’s gonna take a long time to get out of this mess. Once you give everybody a voice, which is what the internet did, you end up with chaos. And the only people saying to secede from the scrum are those addicted to their smartphones anyway. False prophets.

But we’re lacking any real prophets today. And your history is easily searchable, so if you were a bully in kindergarten your entire future is in the dumper.

Forget grades, you’re being rated on personality, emotion, soft skills in an era where they keep telling us it’s about hard skills, i.e. the aforementioned STEM.

Being nice and altruistic might make you feel good, but don’t expect any kudos for it. If you want to win today, fire up your social network and promote yourself. You’re the best ever! Even though we can no longer quantify “best.” But we should buy what you’re selling even though you’ve got no portfolio, YOU DESERVE IT!

Everybody was on the bill.

Back then there were two lanes, AM & FM, hits and album tracks.

Woodstock was a festival for the album tracks. An era that began with either “Sgt. Pepper” or “Rubber Soul,” depending on your viewpoint. Was your hair long or short? Were you for or against the war? These were lines of demarcation. And those who went to Woodstock were on the FM, long hair, against the war, peace side.

But no one knew the contingent was so big, NO ONE!

That was the essence of Woodstock, THAT EVERYBODY WENT!

I’m sick and tired of writers opining on Woodstock and getting it wrong.

No, I did not go to Woodstock, I was at a summer program in Chicago. But to tell you the truth, we never thought it would happen, it was too good to be true.

So everybody drives upstate and the straight press is overwhelmed.

Now, by this point there was an alternative press. “Rolling Stone” being the music bible. But even “Rolling Stone” didn’t gain mainstream credibility until its scoops on Patty Hearst, and that was five years later!

I’m trying to paint the picture for you. The counterculture was hiding in plain sight, but the establishment didn’t see it. And Woodstock was evidence of its humongous size, even its members were overwhelmed. It was a tribe. And from thereon forward, the younger generation ruled.

Oh, it’d been percolating since the early sixties. It was not like today, your mom didn’t have to work, there was extra money, there were no homeless people. Money did not drive the culture, MUSIC DID! And the music was not mindless, not made for money, but a direct transcription from the players’ hearts to vinyl, which you purchased and ate up like manna from heaven.

And you didn’t only listen to hard rock, soft stuff resonated too. As evidenced by the inclusion of such disparate acts on the bill as the Incredible String Band and Jimi Hendrix. We were addicted to FM radio, we were addicted to the music.

And now we’ve got all these naysayers saying there were not enough black performers. You can’t look at the past through modern eyes. The truth was there was very little black music on FM radio. It was kinda like Bob Pittman saying that MTV was an AOR station. Sure, it switched, as did FM radio, but at the time, every act that was credible other than Bob Dylan was there, and the rumor was that he was gonna show up too.

Now we keep hearing from the musicians what a dump it was. About the delays. And the lack of infrastructure.

If you expect musicians to get it right, you expect them to be able to pick the single and understand the business, and these are very rare qualities. It was another gig.

But really it was about the audience, the fact that everybody showed up and there was peace.

There are school shootings today, but back then they shot the Kennedys, and Martin Luther King, Jr., and there were riots and Nixon ran on restoring law and order and then 400,000 kids show up and no one gets hurt? IMPOSSIBLE!

It’d be like having no security at the airport and no planes getting hijacked.

And speaking of killing the Kennedys, don’t compare Altamont to Woodstock. You can only do it once, you can only surprise people once, you can only make your point once, after that it’s a variation on a theme.

And that’s what the Stones did, in an ersatz fashion. Pushing their faux danger, hiring the Hells Angels for security. The band had no pulse on how America worked. And they were English. And although English bands appeared at Woodstock, it was quite definitely an American production.

Now you’ve got to know that Woodstock didn’t really blow up until the following April. With the three disc set and the movie. News doesn’t stick to your ribs like music.

You dropped the needle and you were there, but you weren’t. You reveled in the tunes, knew all the stage announcements.

And then the movie!

Oh, I’ve seen “Monterey Pop,” I’ve seen them all, and “Woodstock” is the best. Because first and foremost it’s a MOVIE! With interviews and special effects and you felt like you lived through the weekend, you didn’t want it to end, which is why it played through the summer and I saw it three times, some people even more.

That’s another thing that bugs me, the naysayers who say the music sucked. Come on, you ever been to a gig? The only time it’s perfect is when it’s on hard drive. Rock music is a feeling, an emotion, and when it resonates…

Kinda like when you listen to Creedence Clearwater Revival.

They were seen as a singles band, because their tracks were so good they crossed over to AM, and they were on a crappy label, Fantasy. Most people had never seen them. And then the trio hits the stage and…

Listen to the studio recordings, they’re slick, smooth, but rock music live is not like that, it’s rough, it’s got edges. Kinda like Creedence’s performance of “Born On The Bayou” at Woodstock.

John Fogerty is screaming. In tune, because he needs no help, this was back when you had to have a great voice to front a band.

And as you listen, your head starts to nod, because the music has penetrated your soul and turned you into a follower.

This is how it was back then, that’s how powerful the music was. It was not background, but positively FOREGROUND!

And when I heard Creedence’s performance of “Proud Mary” on Deep Tracks yesterday, I didn’t wince, I got into it. This is the concert experience, first and foremost it’s about the energy, delivering the music, production was unseen and irrelevant back then.

And sure, you can talk about tracks on the original three disc set not even being recorded at the festival, but that was irrelevant, here was this SOUND!

And the bands that said no to being included. Like the Band, and Mountain and Creedence. Thereafter everybody said yes. Because Woodstock turned Ten Years After into an arena act overnight. Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez and John Sebastian got a second wind. Sly & the Family Stone crossed over to white people, now it was not only about the singles. Bottom line, if you played Woodstock you were a SUPERSTAR!

Do you know what it was like if you weren’t there?

Now you had to go to every rock festival thereafter, because of the fear of missing out. And none was ever as good. But boy, the music scene flipped, now it was all about FM and the album acts. Credit that to Woodstock.

So don’t talk about the business. Today’s festivals are nothing like Woodstock. They’re corrals to sell stuff and shoot selfies. It’s about the money. Woodstock was an experiment. What would happen if you got all the greatest bands together? Now we know what happened, fans came out of the woodwork to see them.

So yes, it was a moment in time. Never to be repeated. In the spring of ’70, students were shot at Kent State.

But the war eventually ended. And the youth and their protests helped make this happen. The youth are why Johnson didn’t run for another term and why Nixon kept trying to wind down the war. And even Nixon went out and talked to the protesters at the Jefferson Memorial. He may have been evil, he may have been tricky, but he had more of a heart and more of a sense of reality than Donald Trump.

That’s another point… Back then the youth were Democrats. There were no Republicans in the music scene. Sure, money mattered, but not as much as the music itself. Which spoke to the culture. The acts insisted on using the studios of their choice with their own engineers. Albums couldn’t be rejected. The covers were a big deal. It was not a product, but a STATEMENT!

And the story of the seventies was about ever bigger acts dominating. Hell, every show sold out, you couldn’t get a ticket. And when corporate rock got traction, it was all over, the audience tuned out and disco reigned and then the whole thing cratered.

And then we went to the monoculture known as MTV.

So what did we learn?

Woodstock was the cultural monolith it was considered to be and described as back then. Lack of shelter, lack of food, the inability to hear…that’s what boomers used to VIP say today. But back then there was no VIP. We were all equal. And then Reagan legitimized greed and we got income inequality and we can never recapture that spirit again.

We’ve gotten so far from the garden it’s nearly impossible to see it.

But the truth was music was the highest art form. Its profits built the Warner Cable system. Music made more money than movies. It was a juggernaut. Driven by the best and the brightest.

We didn’t want to work in government, never mind the bank. Our lives were experiments, we wanted to be the best we could be, the Army ended up ripping off our slogan. We wanted to follow our heroes, look to the Grateful Dead for example.

But in ’69 it was a choice. Not everybody was on the same page.

But by the following spring, when the youth were exposed to what really happened at Woodstock, they just could not get enough.

It was a giant victory lap, a consummation of the sixties, the straight and narrow disappeared and it was all about personal liberation. Funny how income inequality has enslaved today’s youth to play it safe, talk about going backwards.

And that’s why you see the Woodstock blowback. Most of the writers are pissed they missed it. They weren’t there or they weren’t old enough or they weren’t even born yet.

The sixties were something special.

And so was the music.

It was a can-do era. Against all odds, Woodstock happened. Credit those in charge, irrelevant of how disorganized and unprepared they were.

Today it’s all about finding scapegoats, the problem can’t be with yourself. And you play it straight for fear of falling behind. And we measure everything with money.

But back then we were all in it together.

You can get by with a little help from your friends.

This is what we called co-option in the sixties. It was the worst sin possible, to get into bed with the opposition when they offered a carrot stick, but not the whole meal.

This is about money and fame folks. That’s one thing the NFL’s got, at least for now, cash. Did you see what Roger Goodell makes? More than almost any musical performer. And other than taxes, it’s all net. There are no touring costs, they’re picked up by the league.

So Jay Z refuses to do the Super Bowl in solidarity with Kaepernick, but now he’s throwing in with the NFL?

God, of all the professional sports, football is the most like a plantation. The players, to a great degree African-Americans, are told what to do and if they break rank, they’re out. All the while exposing themselves to bodily harm and possibly dementia and early death while the fat cat white owners sit in safety. Maybe you have to play in a game to become an owner, see how the other half lives.

So now the NFL struggle is over. No one can stand up to the man because Jay caved.

Of course this is good for exposure, i.e. hip-hop at the Super Bowl, the NFL has ignored the sound the league runs on forever.

But that’s like allowing you to sleep indoors but not eat at the dining table.

But that’s how far we’ve come, everybody wants to be a mogul. Meanwhile, all these entertainment wannabes aren’t even in the league of the billionaires who own these teams. They’re minstrels, puppets on a string. This is all about money, and you ain’t got enough of it, so they don’t respect you. Why don’t you ask them to let you become a member of Augusta National, or the Bohemian Grove. No they don’t want you in their house, and Jay Z is single-handedly holding back the future of African-Americans in society.

As for saying Kaepernick’s suit has been settled and we have to move on…how about Kaepernick himself? Jay had leverage. He could have insisted that Colin get a tryout, and that he couldn’t be cut unless a panel of independent coaches said he was worse than the guy who took his job.

This is America, as Donald Glover would say. Where it’s all for me.

Jay Z’s leverage is his fame and influence amongst his followers. The NFL knows that if they get Jay on their team, they put a hole in dissension. Who’s gonna side with a player protesting when Jay’s in with the owners?

Now theoretically, Jay’s fans, the community, could protest his action, he could pull out, like Chappelle did with Comedy Central. Contracts are only a sketch, they’re not law and they’re made to be broken and redone. So Jay Z’s got room here. But he’s so busy being a business, man, that he can no longer do the right thing.

We revere those who do the right thing. Who’ve got credibility. Who don’t defend someone like Kap and then sell him out.

What kind of bizarre world do we live in where a corporation, Nike, stands up to the NFL, defends and invests in Kaepernick, and Jay Z says there’s no choice but to play by the white man’s rules?

No wonder music doesn’t drive the culture, no wonder it’s a second class citizen.

Music is about truth, and when you undermine that you’ve got nothing, you’re a pop artist, only as good as your last hit.

We revere those who speak from their hearts and walk the walk and talk the talk. Who don’t do what’s expedient, who follow their heart as opposed to the cash.

How much money did Martin Luther King, Jr. have? Gandhi?

Those are the people who are remembered.

And John Lennon, because he spoke truth to power.

That’s the power of a musician.

Once you’ve been co-opted you’re meaningless. Money doesn’t keep you warm at night.

We all make mistakes. Jay Z made one here. He’s got to pull out.