#i felt sooo vindicated when he said kendrick sets out to save the world with his art in his hubris and spirals when it fails

[bbqhooligan]

What's ur thoughts on Kendrick wearing crown of thorns while not claiming to be savior? I always was curious about this because I'm not familiar with Christianity and discourse around it isn't helpful

ohhhh boy. i love this topic. adore it. let me throw off the disclaimer that i 1-am not religious or an authority on it, 2-reject religion as it lives on thru the institutes everywhere and 3-am queer so the religion rejects me too so im not interested in being preached at. with that said,

kendrick has both survivors guilt and survivors bias. and both show up in his art. while his own words show him to be a humane, vaguely left leaning artist, i think his survivors bias makes him preach What-Did-It-For-Him, so he speaks to the people in ways that are individualistic and arent nearly as focused on anti-capitalism and anti-imperialism as his inspirations do. his survivors guilt mixes in with the desire to help his people and becomes a huge weight on his shoulders. how to do right by them? haunting.

and while a marxist or commie would look at someone with this kind of shame and tell them to dump it as holding that anguish isnt a political action, helps no one, at worst it makes YOUR life harder so you cant work to help your community, a Christian says the exact opposite. in christianity you carry that burden, you bear the cross, you accept that you come out of your mothers womb a guilty soul, condemned to hell, unless youre baptized and unless you do this, unless that, unless, unless. its both a show of devotion and a tool of control. and kendrick is closer to the christian than the commie.

so kendrick has the desire, NEED, impulse to be a savior, he believes hes the blueprint and if he can JUST get the people to LISTEN it will help. but also the reality that 1-no one can claim to be a savior without being evil lmao its like the socrates quote, a self contained imposibility, 2-HE personally isnt even that, he must have both the shame and the self awareness that makes him instinctually reject it.

dont get me wrong btw, i think hes kinda self aware about all of this. the only reason we can analyze all this is because its in the text very clearly. so i think kendrick explores both his interpersonal external responsibilities and hopes and dreams and failures and disappointments with christianity in the mix and engaging in a little blasphemy is the sign of a DEVOTED motherfucker. his tone has been the pessimistic, guilty, DAMNed one for a long time. i dont know if he will start analyzing the Material ConditionsTM any time soon or if the weight will get lighter by the power of Jesus, but all the same, kendrick writes with so much purpose and conviction, it will be to further some mission he FEELS he has.

tldr: hes too responsible to NOT try be a savior but too self aware and feeling like a failure to ever Claim to be a savior but its ok cuz Christianity loves shame and a "to know is to know you know nothing" kinda contradiction and humilty and so he tries to reconcile the both sides artistically but idiots take issue with it cuz you cant dress like jesus if youre a black man, i guess