CRITICAL THINKING CAN BECOME 

SLIPPERY WHEN WET.

People get so entrenched in their opinions and view on the world
it's crazy the way perceive the world and how set in stone people get about their opinions.
people will often become enamored by a person, idea, piece of art and through the process of identifying a piece of yourself in the art you appreciate it more than you otherwise would.
 - Given time your objectivity tends to skew because you've invested so much into it. -
Like an old shirt thats falling apart, but you cant throw it away no matter how many holes it has, because of the personal investment and associated memories.

Like Bon Jovi's: 'Slippery When Wet' album,...
when i hear that now, i can no longer view it objectively because its the soundtrack to my childhood,.. and because i love(d) my childhood, i appreciate that album beyond words.

In 1992 Jon Bon Jovi cut all his hair off and with it, went the hard rock edge to their music.
It was replaced with a more 'modern' sound, successfully ensuring that i would never again reach the same enthusiastic curiosity over any further albums.

Here's where i noticed i had a different take than most people.
When the new and 'improved' bon jovi hit the shelves people were praising it all over the place to the point where i thought id just heard a dud song and planned to hear more before forming an opinion.
- This short lived plan was quickly completed as i managed to skip through a friends copy,
before handing it back in dismay.
My hero's had fallen.

This is when i first noticed people had a tendency to keep liking things, they've previously decided they like. - Regardless of quality, flaws and sometimes even the law.
If they've made up their mind to like something,...
(depending on how young they are/were) they'll pretty much like it forever.

A great public example was the way people viewed the michael jackson case.
some people refused to believe that michael would do such things to children
but the refusal didn't come from an honest psychological assessment of michael's mental state,... it came from an inability to personally recategorize michael jackson from someone to be worshiped, into someone who should be chemically castrated.
The mental leap was too far to make.

It was no problem for people who didn't like him tho
in fact the less you like michael jackson, the MORE you WANT him to be dodgy because it proves that your opinion was superior and that everyone should like what you like.

Which makes you wonder,...
how much CAN someone who is loved by the public, ACTUALLY 'get away' with?
If Michael Jackson actually came out and said,.. "ok,.. its true,... i fancy little boys..."
there are fans... living on the world right now,.. that absolutely WOULD send their kids in.
Simply because they decided ages ago that they like Michael Jackson

The capacity to judge a situation on its own merits, and think critically is neutralized depending on the level of emotional attachment to whatever object or person

Its like that story, The Emperors New Clothes.
The Emperor comes traipsing down the road to a great fanfare in a glorious parade, with all of his subjects showering him with compliments on his fine new robes.
From the crowds of people, one boy points out that the King is in fact naked and has been the subject of a trick. - Because the people are unable to view the king with fault, the boy is punished.


Which brings me to my *****lica case.

It is no secret that i regard the band *****lica with a level of disgust equal to developing clumps of festering anal warts. - As you can imagine, harboring that opinion can end a conversation very quickly, ultimately leading me to forgo my explanation.

For starters, i should mention that *****lica used to be METALlica.
They literally AND philosophically put the Metal IN metallica.
They were a melting pot of ALL of the good bands before them, taking all the elements that worked, and forging them in a new way, with elements of class that seemed to belie their youthful shabby appearance. - These beer-swilling teenagers had successfully created something new, important and relevant that would actually change the world.
I could fill several rooms with my posters of them as a kid.
I saw their faces on a daily basis, knew them by name, and could recite full gate-sleeves without looking.
Within approximately 10 years, metallica put out 4 (and a half) solid albums
and then something happened

I knew something was up when i saw a picture where they had cut their hair.
I remember the entire album being streamed on the radio for the first time.
and panicking while on the 2nd song. - It was the 'opposite' of Metal.
My expectations weren't unreasonably high for the new album,..
i was willing to work with them as i had done with the black album,...
but 'this'?.....

Its like they had created something and then killed it on front of me.
Like they had just given birth to a mighty god sent here to improve humanity..
and while it was a vulnerable baby, ....strangled it,... just to watch the life drain from its face,... recorded it, packaged it up and marketed it as their new album.

What was more sick, was that people were actually lapping it up, saying it was amazing.

When Bon Jovi started sucking they did it in a way that was inoffensive, but *****lica did it with such a perverse pleasure in destroying something so precious that it seemed to be done with such purpose and delight.

I got home and looked at their faces on my wall,.. they were all liars.
Their transition from heroes to villains in my mind was completely involuntary.
At first i just tried to ignore it and hope it went away.
But it didn't.

The inconvenience of hating *****lica is not something i would have chosen for myself.
It excludes me from a lot of social groups and conversations.
I appear as an enemy to people unable to make the transition themselves.
Im sure some people think i hate *****lica simply because they love them.
This is not true,... i've tried many times to get back 'into' the old stuff
People always say the same thing.... "Yeah but what about the early stuff,.. it rules!"

This comment helps me to identify when people just cant let go of a pre-conceived notion because its too inconvenient for their mind to process.
My reply is always the same.
Imagine that you are a christian.
You believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ.
You have all of his book
One day he comes to earth,.. sets up churches and charity work.
Suddenly he is caught molesting an altar boy.
Could you still be a christian?

The fact is,... there would be an overwhelming amount of people that would.
Simply because the level of indoctrination surpasses their ability to think critically on the matter.

After some time i found that even listening to the 'good' stuff was stained with the memory of what they had done. - I just couldn't reconcile the old with the new.
The band was now an oxymoron.
Actually,...If they had changed their name, the boundless hate i have for them would dramatically subside - It offends me a SO much that they still bare the name of the baby god they strangled.

There is no hate without love.
I still notice my very first instinct when i see a picture of Metal-Lacker from the old days...
In a quick flash i'll feel like im seeing an old friends who i loved as if they were family, and then the flash is gone and i suddenly realize that they ruined the friendship by breaking into my house when i wasn't there, stole all of my stuff,.... broke things, and pissed on my bed.
So while there is hate there,... most of it is hurt feelings and a deep sense of betrayal.


While i DO have good memories, the bad memories not only outweigh them, but in fact directly contradict them. - I can even admit to having had the smallest measurable scale of hope. - Hope that they will suddenly be good again. - I have often wondered whether i am now a victim of my own pre-conceived notions and whether i even have the ability to judge a new album purely on its own merits.

 I found myself in a music shop one day idly flicking through cds, the shop radio was halfway through a song and something in the production and guitar tone made me stop what i was doing and focus,... the drums were mid paced to fast -  and the riff, while not special,...
 was,.. familiar?

There was a solo,...  and...
It was SO bad i actually started involuntarily laughing in the shop as i listened.
Once the vocals started again, i immediately realized i was listening to the new *****lica album.
They were actually TRYING to sound cool again.

Instead of taking pleasure in having my opinion conclusively validated.
It was something i was completely unprepared for.
I felt sorry for them. - In the same way you would view a hated maths teacher falling in a puddle, and laughing at them, only to discover they broke their ankle.

So as you can see when i say '*****lica' suck,...
its far more complex than just hating them for no reason.
I think i have earned the right to do so.
I understand that you may have greater difficulty in critically assessing the actions of someone you admire, but lets not forget: -  *****lica have sucked for TWICE as long, as they ever ruled.

- Thats just a fact.