{"id":43751,"date":"2023-06-24T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-24T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/?p=43751"},"modified":"2023-06-24T05:47:31","modified_gmt":"2023-06-24T12:47:31","slug":"roll-of-the-dice-livin-in-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estreetshuffle.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/24\/roll-of-the-dice-livin-in-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Roll of the Dice: Livin’ in the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Who would have ever thought we\u2019d live in a country with no right to habeas corpus? That\u2019s Orwellian… You get frightened for your family, for your home. And you realize how countries can move way off course, very far from democratic ideals. Add another terrorist attack or two, and the country can turn into a pretty scary place… It happens in a very American way \u2013 the flag is flying over civil liberties as they crumble.”\u00a0<\/span>— Bruce Springsteen, Rolling Stone<\/em>, November 1, 2007<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Twenty years ago, most Americans believed their country was headed in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n

Still reeling from horrific terror attacks, the United States was in the early days of a pair of wars that would kill over a half million people across two decades.<\/p>\n

To make matters worse, it had become clear that one of those two wars was predicated on falsehoods. Convinced of a connection unsupported by evidence, the Bush administration lied their way into an eight-year war in Iraq that exacted a toll not just overseas but at home as well.<\/p>\n

In the name of safety and security, the administration spearheaded a rollback of rights and freedoms that chilled the blood of citizens and ignited a tug-of-war over civil liberties that continues to this day.<\/p>\n

By October 2003, polls began to reflect the new majority opinion: America had lost its way, and it was straying ever further from its ideals.<\/p>\n

Bruce Springsteen was a member of that emerging majority, and he had something to say about it. He’d already been doing so from the stage. At the closing stand of the Rising Tour that month, he admonished:<\/p>\n

There’s been a lot of questions lately raised about the forthrightness of the government. I just want to say that playing with the truth during wartime has been a part of both Democratic and Republican administrations in the past, and it’s always wrong when the lives of our sons and daughters are on the line. The question of whether we were misled to the war in Iraq is not really a liberal or a conservative question. It’s an American question that goes to the heart of protecting the democracy we ask our sons and our daughters to die for. It’s our sacred trust as citizens to demand accountability and the truth from our leaders. That’s the meaning of patriotism.<\/em><\/p>\n

When the tour ended the next day, so did Springsteen’s bully pulpit. Still seething, he turned to his notebook and began writing what would eventually become his fifteenth studio album. (He’d take a four-year, two-album detour before getting around to recording it.)<\/p>\n

“I wrote some of [Magic<\/em>] the minute I came off The Rising,” <\/em> Springsteen told Joe Levy in Rolling Stone<\/em> in 2007. \u00a0“My idea was to pick up with the political and social results of what came out of the tragedy of 9\/11. ‘Livin\u2019 in the Future’ I\u2019ve had since then. It\u2019s about how terribly fucked up things have gotten. It\u2019s a song about apathy, and how what you never thought could happen has happened already.”<\/p>\n