Hypocrisy

Hypocrisy sucks. And I don’t mean the band.

Hypocrisy is a feint, a deception. It is to present oneself as having some sort of quality that one does not actually possess. It means that one is publicly promoting some sort of standard of behavior but behaving differently in private.

If you’ve you’ve ever heard, “Do as I say, not as I do” from a parent, you probably chafed at the obvious hypocrisy in the statement. Of course, what we say is not so important. It’s what we do that matters.

Hypocrisy is the norm in society and as the metal community is a subset of society, it stands to reason that we have our own share of dysfunction.

We make fun of people because of the t-shirt they wear or the music they listen to. Why? In the name of metal.

We say we are into metal because of the anti-conformity, yet we all wear black t’s.

We say we want variety, yet complain when something doesn’t fit the template we’re used to.

We say we want to support independent musicians and labels yet download tracks from torrent sites rather than buying music directly from the band, even if it costs only a few dollars more.

We say we love metal, yet reserve that definition for anything that is or is not power metal, prog metal, epic metal, symphonic metal, classic metal, black metal, death metal. . .

We say the important thing is that we are united by the music, yet we lord our age, our experience, our knowledge over others.

We don’t write or play music ourselves, yet are intensely critical of people who choose those expressions.

Most of us chose metal, yet we think others have to earn it.

We say that metal is a community for the misfit, the outcast. We’re all different, but we’re all of one tribe. Then, when someone has an opinion that we disagree with, why do we pick them apart?

Since metal is born of agitation and unease, perhaps it is not surprising that our basic behaviors are misleading. But what is the purpose? Why do we do what we do? If we can’t articulate a why, then why continue the behavior?

. . .