9th
Handlebars
Last month, Hong An sent me a link to the Flobot’s video for “Handlebars.” Then, last week Christian hit me up with a text about it—asking if I had checked it out. But it wasn’t until yesterday that I really spent some time with it (and what I mean by that is listening to it 41 times in a row while working—poor Annie).
First, the song is great.
But the video… Seriously sweet. Tight. Clean. Simple.
In an interview with MTV, MC Jonny 5 said,
The song is about the idea that we have so much incredible potential as human beings to be destructive or to be creative. And it’s tragic to me that the appetite for military innovation is endless, but when it comes to taking on a project like ending world hunger, it’s seen as outlandish. It’s not treated with the same seriousness… The lyrics came to me as I was riding a bike home from work with my hands in the air — I had just learned how to do it — and I felt triumphant, but at the same time, I knew there were people at that moment who were being bombed by our own country. And I thought that was incredibly powerful. We have these little moments of creativity, these bursts of innovation, and every time that happens, that innovation is used to oppress and destroy people. So it struck me as beautiful and tragic at the same time.
What I still can’t shake though is the storyline to the video. I know this sucks, but on the wikipedia page about the video, it states,
It starts out lighthearted, showing two young friends riding their bikes without their hands on the handlebars. They arrive at a sign that points in two directions, one labeled with a corporate-like symbol, and the other labeled by a dove. They hug and head their separate ways. The person who took the direction labeled with a dove arrives in a peaceful, serene neighborhood, while the other person arrives in a commercial district. The business person goes on to become the head of a successful company and a powerful politician, disenfranchising the poor inhabitants of the peaceful neighborhood. The citizens of the city then form a rebellion against the tyrannical political system headed by the businessman, lead by the person who chose the more peaceful neighborhood. As the riot is raging against their new leader, troops in riot gear are sent out to very brutally silence them. When the riot comes against a wall of troops, throwing molotov cocktails, the troops open fire and kill many of the citizens. The leader sees his former friend just before his friend is killed, and realizes what he has done was wrong, and the video ends as it shows a flashback sequence of the friends ridings their bikes.
Today, I can’t stop contemplating the power of our human potential. For the good and the bad.
