A performer was mean at Glastonbury? Well, cry me a river and the sea

The Herald Scotland

2 days ago

The backlash has been swift and predictable. The duo has had their US visas revoked, been dropped by their agents, lost festival bookings, and now prosecution is on the table.
But forgive me, and anyone else, if I don't care a jot what Bob Vylan happened to say on a festival stage.
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On Monday, the IDF killed 74 people. With 30 left dead from a bomb dropped on a seaside café, and 23 Palestinians shot down while seeking food. The number of children killed by the IDF is over the 50,000 mark, not counting those children who have been maimed, displaced, lost family, or experienced life-ruining trauma.
Just try to imagine 50,000 dead children for a second, it is not some abstract number untied to our reality.
Words said on the Glastonbury stage, regardless of how inflammatory they are, become hilariously insignificant in the face of those facts. Israel's siege on Gaza is a situation so morbid, so catastrophic, so filled with horrors beyond our comprehension that grasping onto distraction after distraction is the only way for them to save face on any of it.
Whatever happens on the Glastonbury stage simply cannot measure up to the immeasurable cruelty and devastation suffered by the Palestinians. Believe it or not, a crowd chanting at a British music festival does not actually result in the death of an IDF soldier. Sticks and stones.
A café that was damaged in an Israeli airstrike, killing more than 30 people near the port in Gaza City (Image: PA) Glastonbury, the BBC, and any other organisation caught in the crossfire of platforming the performance, must be naïve or stupid if they were hoping to avoid such an incident. Their assumptions seem to rest on other performers witnessing the axe fall on Kneecap (whose set at the festival was banned from BBC broadcast and is also being sought for possible prosecution), and in turn becoming scared to rock any boats.
But given the amount of attention and publicity that came Kneecap's way as a result, is it any wonder that those performing felt compelled to up their ante even more and speak out against a genocide we are all observing in real time?
It scarcely matters how many festival bookings are cancelled or what industry ties vanish into the night. Bob Vylan, a niche act with a strong anti-establishment ethos, can forego the luxuries of the mainstream music industry, where there is space to survive and grow, and complete their artistic goals. If they don't find themselves in jail for speaking their minds, then they really have nothing to lose.
Modern-day artists sink or swim in an attention economy. By speaking out and causing a rupture, it has generated more popularity for themselves than their music and festival appearances could ever do on their own. It's clear that the duo knows all this and are not just merchants of provocation.
'We are not for the death of Jews, Arabs or any other race or group of people. We are for the dismantling of a violent military machine,' they said.
They added that 'we, like those in the spotlight before us, are not the story. We are a distraction from the story, and whatever sanctions we receive will be a distraction'.
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Anyone who genuinely feels up in arms over a festival crowd chanting death towards a military carrying out the actions of a genocidal government should really take a step back and consider what transgressions are truly being breached.
Because it is a mindset stuffed with meaningless decorum, where words are always taken at face value, and considered with great seriousness, while actions are obfuscated and swept under the rug. It is too easy a game to shift the conversation towards words and their efficacy rather than to consider the horrible reality unfolding on the ground and in front of our eyes.
And it is a wonderful opportunity for the condemnation class. Politicians, the police, and the media love to fan the flames of these distractions in cheap, cynical ploys to be seen as proactive and righteous. If these types truly cared about the death toll of war, then their silence wouldn't be so deafening on the part of dead Palestinians.
Maybe, just maybe, the reports of the IDF meeting its end following Bob Vylan's incitement were missed in the headlines. Or perhaps it is currently quite busy increasing the shelling of Gaza before a possible Trump-enforced ceasefire. Go figures.