The Orphean and Kierkegaardian threads that hold Reflektor together suggest positive trajectories toward a particular way of being, or an ethics. The Orpheus myth’s exploration of a love that endures beyond the grave implies a calling to pursue such depth of love in the course of life. Kierkegaard’s insight about the “reflective age” stands as a warning and, therefore, a call to take up the courgeous commitment to live responsibly before God and others. The ethical trajectories apparent in the themes that drive Reflektor are reflected in several songs on the new album. The next few posts in the series will get into the ethics of Arcade Fire for reflective age through several songs on Reflektor.
First: Admit That There is a Problem
The first step of any self-help protocol is to admit that you have a problem. “You Already Know” invites its audience to do this and, in doing so, sets the stage for engaging the ethical quandaries of a reflective age. Many in our time have a general sense that something in the world is amiss. This feeling is more than run of the mill American discontent or a matter of living (for Christians) in light of the Fall, but a deep realization that something is awry in contemporary culture. Maybe it is something like the feeling Arcade Fire explored in their prior release, The Suburbs. The singer in “You Already Know” believes that we fail to give voice to this feeling because doing so might jeopardize the entire enterprise of contemporary living – its value and meaning.
So we wonder, “Why do I feel so bad?” Or “Why do I feel so sad?” Is it the pace of modern culture, a world that is moving so fast technologically and socially that it almost defies analysis? “How can you move so slow” in such a world? And when you do (or feel like you do) don’t you get the sense that you are missing out; that you are out of step, a bit behind? Is this feeling of inadequacy at issue in the song? Or, could the malaise be a result of what the singer calls “bad love?” A relationship changes from a form of “right” love characterized by comfort and rest to “bad” love that is restless and sad. Does the discontent we feel reflect the sort of change we experience in relationships? We remember a time when things were just fine and now we feel something out is just off.
Arcade Fire suggests that we “already know” the problem and can name it if we have the courage. “Please stop wondering why you feel so bad, You already know…it’s time to go.” The root of our social ills, it seems, cannot be found out there, but rather inside. Implicit in this existential turn is a call to personal responsibility and action to comprehend the problem, seek its resolution and enact it in the context of life. To echo Kiekegaard, this sort of living transcends the aesthetic and the ethical dimensions and moves from the highest ethical sensibility, the religious. In this dimension, one makes an “unconditional commitment” (or makes a leap of faith) that their assessment of the climate is true and lives in accord with that faith. Such a faith clarifies the way ahead, bringing a better self-understanding that answers the question, “Well, how do I know when I know?” As faith seeks deeper understanding, being able to know one’s self deep enough to “already know” personal, cultural and social ills becomes easier to identify and articulate. Where does the courage lie in our time to make this leap and begin to effect genuine personal and cultural change? Well, “you already know.”