1987-01-14 The Police Have Been Wonderful

I have always felt a little uncomfortable with the police. One of the reasons is that they remind me of soldiers, what with the guns and the uniforms. The Brazil clip that begins this program sets the stage for how I feel, and I think the movie is one of the most powerful depictions of an oppressive state I have ever seen. And the music available mirrors this sort of feeling. From Maggie Thatcher's praise of the police conduct during the miner's strike to the discussion of a police state by Marshall McLuhan to the clips from the 1984 movie to the napalm scene in Apocalypse Now to Taxi Driver to the diving buzz bombs and back. This is an excellent and very powerful program that goes far beyond the theme of the police, to explore the uses of power, domination and human weakness. I say this as I sit here and listen to it 24 years later.


Music included: 
Sickness of Snakes, Nadjma, Poisongirls, Minimal Compact, Bauhaus, Chrome, Cult ov the Womb, 1984 movie, Mark Stewart & and Maffia, Fifth Column, Cabaret Voltaire, Test Department, Masked Men, Chumbawamba, Brazil movie and a lot more. 


Download or listen right away:
http://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/listen/cmk870114the_police_have_been_wonderful.mp3