William Grim, Contributing Editor of the popular conservative Web Site The Iconoclast,
has penned the following article with regards to the recent murder of
DAMAGEPLAN/ex-PANTERA guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott. The Maximum metal
respose is directly following it:
You've undoubtedly heard by now that a demented fan last week killed heavy metal guitarist
Dimebag Abbott at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio . While I am extremely happy to hear
that the assassin was shot to death by a brave Columbus policeman and I in no way want to
engage in a blaming the victim scenario, I cannot deny that there much in Mr. Abbott's
demise of one being hoisted on one's petard. The squalor, inhumanity, filth (both in the
metaphorical and hygienic senses), depravity, ugliness and ignorance of everything that
heavy metal represents (Like rap, I cannot use the noble term music in a description of
heavy metal) creates a mindset among its devotees in which Mr. Abbott's assassination was
an event that was all but waiting to happen.
It was highly amusing, and also terribly sad, to watch on television fans conducting a
"vigil" for the slain Mr. Abbott outside of the Alrosa Villa. It was an
assemblage of ignorant, semi-human barbarians who were filthy in attire and manner,
intellectually incoherent and above all else, hideously ugly to the point of physical
deformity. Here is a definite case in which the outer appearance of these "fans"
accurately represented the hideousness of their souls. That the physical deformity of
their ugliness was self-inflicted makes the spiritual tragedy of their misspent lives all
the more tragic.
But one can see why the heavy metal fans so closely identified with Mr. Abbott. He was an
ignorant, barbaric, untalented possessor of a guitar and large amplifier system. Freakish
in appearance, more simian than human, he was the performer of a type of
"entertainment" that can be likened only to a gorilla on PCP. Lacking subtlety,
wit, style, emotional range and anything approaching even the smallest iota of
intellectual or musical interest, Mr. Abbott was part of a generation that has confused
sputum with art and involuntary reflex actions with emotion.
De gustibus non disputandem est. Matters of taste are not subject to argument. That has
been a general principle of aesthetics for some time, and when we are talking about the
visceral preference for Mozart or Haydn or Beethoven among civilized human beings we are
on pretty safe ground. I do not understand exactly why I prefer Haydn to my good friend
who prefers Beethoven. But we both agree (as do all civilized human beings) that both
Messrs. Haydn and Beethoven are numerous steps further along the evolutionary trail than
Dimebag Abbott.
Here is one area in which conservatives have failed and failed miserably. Whether it is
out of a lack of interest or despair, conservatives for too long have ceded the entire
field of aesthetics to the trust fund red babies of the blue states. And look at what this
has brought us. So-called heavy metal music, so-called rap music, operas and stage plays
in which modern "stagings" reduce Verdi and Shakespeare to the condition of a
schizophrenic's finger paintings. Leftist domination in the visual arts has made a mockery
of the aesthetic greatness of modernism and replaced it with the turd encased in Lucite.
And the grammatically-challenged racist rantings of Amiri Baraka now pass for poetry.
However, we conservatives should not confuse family values with aesthetics. In the realm
of art, our evangelical brethren have many crimes to answer for. When a church replaces
Bach with Bacharach it has engaged in the aesthetic rape of the liturgy. Just because one
has good intentions and approaches the numinous with "sincerity" and
"authenticity" (the latter term ironically being a buzzword among the Marxist
aestheticians of the Frankfurt School ), that does not absolve one from aesthetic
responsibility.
As far as I am concerned, those who advocate a dumbed-down liturgy and schlocky pop music
substitutes for Bach, Handel and the masses of the Renaissance, are as offensive as the
Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and his perverse sexual politics.
Part of the hard work of civilization is teaching young to be able to distinguish between
the good and the bad in all aspects of life. If we teach our young children to obey the 10
Commandments and to obey the laws of the land, but don't teach them to realize that Johann
Sebastian Bach is superior to Dimebag Abbott, we have failed as parents and mentors. If a
person has gone through 12 or 13 years of education and has not developed an appreciation
for the greatest artistic achievements of mankind, that education has been an utter
failure.
While laissez-faire is the correct approach to economics it has no place in the realm of
aesthetics or morality. A confidant civilization imposes its morality and aesthetics on it
young people. Yes, you heard it right. We impose. The Rousseauian noble savage is a myth.
Left unchecked and untutored the savage will never attain nobility.
There are those who will accuse me of elitism. And I admit it. I am a conservative
elitist. I want the very best. The very best form of government, the very best of
civilizations, the very best educational system, the very best literature and art, the
very best music, the very best way of life. If I need open heart surgery I want to go to
an elite heart surgeon.
Mediocrity is the goal of socialism. Americans should aspire to greatness.
In the past forty years, conservatives have won great victories in the political, economic
and moral realms, but we stand to throw all our gains away if we do not reclaim ascendancy
in the aesthetic realm as well.
And while the murder of even a semi-human barbarian like Mr. Abbott is tragic and to be
lamented, it would be wrong to ignore Mr. Abbott's complicity in contributing to the
soul-deadening culture of death, ugliness, depravity and inhumanity that spawned his
killer.
Hugo von Hofmannsthal once remarked that "all powerful imaginations are
conservative." It is time for conservatives to utilize their imaginations and reclaim
the field of aesthetics from the left-that is, while there is still something left in the
aesthetic realm worth reclaiming.
William E. Grim is a writer who lives in Germany and is a native of Columbus, Ohio.
You can read more by and about him at The Official William E. Grim Web Site.
MAXIMUM METAL RESPONSE
Headbangers, please don't upset yourself with his prattle. Mr. Grim for a man in his 40s
should be such a pretender. I can see very well that he mixes his cultivations with as
much junk food as the rest of us.
This highly exaggerated piece by William E. Grim is largely divided into two
criticisms--the appearance and skills of Dimebag Darrell and the state of High Art in
culture with the latter being the real filet of the article. Without trying to understand
it, Heavy Metal for him is simply a product of modern popular culture. He writes directly
what he is--a conservative elitist with a philosophical view who places it before
humanity. He would, at first, appear to want the world without a vibrant popular culture;
a world turned back 200 hundred years and suspended in perpetuity with only the greatest
of writers (Shakespeare) and composers (Bach, Haydn), to entertain us. It would be an
entirely different set of arguments to question whether those great men were products of
themselves or products of their age and whether they could be considered
"conservative" men considering the rules they broke and the changes they brought
forth during their ages. Should we even speak of Beethoven's appearence?
Metal is nothing more to him than a part of a general lacking of High Art in the world.
For him, there seems to be no ability in the human condition for a person to enjoy both
Beethoven and Dimebag Darrell's music. It's an either/or that only includes white,
European creators. This self-acknowledged, elitist view would put him in a snobbish
category way beyond even the most academic critics who are able to analyze a set or subset
of media and determine its merits in and of itself and by comparison. He implies that
metal grew from liberal ideology when it is in fact fairly conservative by nature and has
roots in the scales and compositions of classical music theory.
You don't fool me, Mr. Grim.
Oh, he will argue up and down that he's really for the betterment of society but how
serious should you take this considering that the best William can do for a website was a
poorly-coded, free listing on Tripod (http://williamegrim.tripod.com/) with pandering,
painfully insignificant, scripts written for Hollywood noted as 'teen comedy', 'romantic
comedy', 'adventure comedy' and the oh, so brilliant "ACADEMIA NUTS (college
comedy)--The drunken misadventures of two grad students avoiding adult life at a
politically correct college."
Way to shoot for the stars and aspire to greatness with that one, William! Way to be a
hypocrite wanting the best in literature, art and music for society, yet attempting to
take part in the trash you supposedly abhor.
William would seem to be a man of exquisite tastes and refinement, but he also writes of
seeing the Matrix movies and semi-penning such culture-expanding articles like "The
Dirty Dozen: People We'd Like to See as Human Shields in Iraq" and "J-Lo’s
Ass Granted Statehood".
Look out, Shakespeare!
Let us see which lasts longer throughout history--William's fake nobility or Dimebag
Darrell's musical legacy. I'm sure the former will be blown away like dust on a marble
floor where Darrell will be held in high esteem for decades. Sleep well, Mr. Grim, and consider what real
beauty is and to my metal brothers out there, never be afraid to raise your fist
and yell.
One of our readers sent in this possible info on Mr. Grim.
1. He is a co-editor of BrokenNewz.Com, a "satiric" website that
specializes in right-wing, anti-black humor.
2. Although he is obsessed with Nazis and often writes that Germany is
still swarming with them, two different Jewish web sites have written
articles denouncing Grim for his lies about modern Germany:
http://www.netanyahu.org/arbymrgrim.html
http://aufbauonline.com/2003/issue07/7.html
3. Those who have criticized Grim for his writings in the past have found
themselves named in his "satires" as being the editors of gay bondage
magazines, gay scoutmasters, etc.
4. Grim's reviews of jazz recordings are found on the site, "All
About Jazz" (http://www.allaboutjazz.com).
5. He wrote a couple of books about classical music a dozen years ago
(search on Amazon), and taught music at some colleges, but "dropped out" of
academia for reasons unknown.
Take it for what you will.