I don’t know what to say about Bob Dylan’s submitting to the fearful Chinese government’s censorship of his play list at his concert, but I know what I feel: It doesn’t bother me.
I don’t like Warren Buffet lecturing people about derivatives. I don’t like Swiss banks taking investment money from the Mubarak family office. I don’t like the Chinese government kidnapping Wei Wei for ‘economic crimes.’ I don’t like Beyonce performing for Middle Eastern potentates. I admire Bjork shouting ‘Tibet’ at her concert. Nevertheless, anything Dylan does is more or less OK by me!
I suppose I’m inconsistent, and I try to think of reasons to justify my feelings rather than changing them. Here are a few so far:
1. Dylan is a force of nature: you don’t question Him.
2. You could argue that on the scale of contributions to the world since the 1940s, Hibbing MN outweighs the Beijing government: more positive stuff and so much less negative. Therefore, when an inferior asks someone superior to kindly oblige them their insecurities, he does. Noblesse oblige