who calls whom a hypocrite in SNC? (a grammatical, NOT a political question).
Date: September 6, 2005 23:06
A few more words on Sweet neocon, if anybody can stand it :-)
It's not about politics, only about grammar, and my question is: who calls whom a hypocrite?
The general answer is: Jagger calls the neocon whom he later addresses in the refrain a hypocrite. It is not mine, and here is why.
If we say Jagger is speaking in the first verse, it means there is a change of point of view from verses 1 to verses 2 and 3, in which the neocon is speaking ("if you are against us...", "there's bombers in my bedroom".
But what if the neocon was the speaker in all three verses, and Jagger only the speaker on the chorus?
One reason to think so is that if Jagger is the speaker both in verse 1 and in the chorus, he makes no sense
He would call a man a hypocrite and a crock of shit and then wonder "How can you be so wrong?"
That is wierd. What comes to mind about a hypocrite is not that he is WRONG. The problem is, he's a liar etc., but what does it have to do with it whether is wrong or right?
Another reason is that verses 1 say "you crock of shit, you are not a Christian patriot like you pretend to be". But that doesn't seem to be a very harsh criticism of neocons, rather it seems to mean: "you should be a TRUE neocon".
So let us now consider that the speaker in the first verses IS the neocon. It makes absolute sense: he says
"You're not a Christian, you're not a patriot, you're a hypocrite"
That's a caricature of the belief that "whoever is a christian and a patriot must act like me - it is simply IMPOSSIBLE for a christian patriot not to think like me in earnest. So if he says the contrary, he's lying". Some kind of neoconish attack on whoever dare say they are Christians and patriots but disapprove of Haliburton and deny that there are bombers in their bedrooms.
I don't think I'm over interpreting.
Just the contrary: it makes the song's structure much simpler. In verses, the neocon attacks anybody who doesn't think like him. In the chorus, Jagger has a go at him, ironically: cool off sweet neocon, things are not the way you think they are. You don't have to call people hypocrites and crocks of shit only because they don't think like you. They may just as well be patriots as you.
I also think it fits much better with the music: so dry, bitter, minimalistic. And I love the ending ha-ha-ha, like a chorus of nasty little devils. And I love Jagger's naughty vocals throughout, snarling like Johnny Rotten. I think the music clearly says: "I'm not smart, I'm just nasty".
I think it's actually the accepted interpretation that is twisted and unnatural, and we only jumped to it because of the thrill: "wow! jagger calls JW Bush a crock of shit!"
By the way, in the Italian edition of Rolling Stone, Jagger says that Sweet neocon emerged from a conversation with a friend of his who voted for the republicans. I thought that was a cheap way of saying "i have republican friends too and I don't speak of JW Bush". But it now seems perfectly natural to me: verses are the friend who, exasperated to see that Jagger does not agree, looses his calm and say: "that's impossible! You're lying! You cannot be a christian!".
As an footnote, although I don't care too much for being a peace-maker, I also think that if I'm right, then neocons on this board can cool off. The song is a portrait of a PARANOIAC, an agressive and intolerant man who is a neocon. I wonder why all republican voters should take it personal.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2005-09-06 23:08 by otonneau.