Sorry, ras.s - whyterabbyt seemed to be fielding your queries better than I would have been able to, so I kept out.ras.s wrote:Syntilla doesn't seem to want to actually discuss.
I've got my own set of opinions based on experiences I've gone through (prison and all) and well, would like to hear more from a person who is trying to make a moral stand here.
My personal stance?
I respect Meek for his contributions to music, his innovativeness, his dogged determination to take on the major labels, to fight for the artists he believed in, and his obsession with achieving the 'right' sound.
Can't say I ever listen to his work - though actually, the last time I did so was in the middle of this discussion 'last night' (here in the UK): Guy Barrow (is it?) from Portishead was standing in for Stuart Maconie on Freak Zone (BBC 6Music) - and opened the show with a Meek track!
Morally?
I've worked with a lot of people suffering mental health problems.
One person in four will experience a serious psychological illness at some point in their life. Among artists - including musicians - that rises to around 70%.
I know a lot of artists.
And I've worked with a lot of agencies related to mental health issues, education, disability, homelessness, addictions of various forms - and even ex-cons.
Serious respect for talking about that on a public forum.
I've been extremely fortunate (so far) not to have experienced problems of my own that needed professional intervention. But I've been low enough to know that 'depression' and 'being in a bad mood' are not the same thing.
And what creative artist has never experienced those periods of manic creativity or moments of almost 'mystical insight' that cause others to wonder about our grip on reality?
Talking with someone having a psychotic episode is not unlike trying to talk to someone high on a cocktail of class-A hallucinogens.
Meek was - it would appear - pretty manic at the best of times. In a different culture, he would have been treated very differently, and received some kind of help (today? - checked himself into rehab, probably).
I don't think he killed his landlady 'by accident'. But nor do I think it can be classed as 'intentional'.
I don't think he can be held 'responsible' for his actions. His mental condition was probably close to - and as much his responsibility as - someone whose drink has been spiked with acid.
I don't think 'forgiveness' really enters into it - and it's not a concept I could easily pin down even in my own head, anyway.
'Understanding' is maybe nearer what I'm advocating
And I think it's ludicrous to dismiss an artist's output in terms of their later actions - or other associations. Wagner is always easily dismissed as a proto-Nazi because of his associations with Nietzsche (whom he distanced himself from at a very early opportunity) and the fact that Hitler enjoyed his operas. There may well be some very good reasons for not enjoying Wagner (I can think of a few!) - but not those.
And in terms of retribution: child abuse is a very hot topic in the UK at the moment. But the prison terms being handed out reflect the laws that prevailed at the time most of the recently uncovered abuses took place. And there is public outrage that high profile offenders are getting sentences of one or two years for crimes that would now carry a tariff of five or ten times that.
Mores and morals change.
Attitudes to mental health issues are changing, too, but very slowly.
When the asylums in the UK were closed down in the 1980s and '90s, in favour of 'care in the community' (a community that really didn't care), women were being 'let out' after fifty years' incarceration for the dreadful crime of having had a baby out of wedlock.
And even today - more in some cultures than others - there is a huge stigma attached to mental illness.
The kind of bigotry (sorry, I can't think of a more precise word) expressed in some parts of this thread only perpetuate that stigma - and prevent a lot of people who are suffering genuine anguish and torment from ever admitting to it, and trying to get help.
Maybe if Meek, in his time, had been able to turn to someone - even friend, let alone a professional - for help, his psychosis would never have deteriorated to the deeply paranoid, delusional state that resulted in the tragic events of '67.
This is not the kind of intolerance that should go unchallenged.
[Edited for wrongly attributed quote - sorry whyterabbyt!]
