On the eve of the Sochi Olympics, Amnesty International's "Bringing Human Rights Home" gala snuck under the radar of a concert to be seen. Instead, Barclays Center didn't bring any rights home, just a boorish crowd.
As of December 2013, Masha Alyokhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot were released from the Russian pen, arguably, as a PR stunt for Sochi.
The tales of their hardship and repression should not be overlooked, as they've made numerous comments about their time in the slammer and how their anti-nationalist views landed them in hot water.
Yes, it is the mission of Amnesty International to promote human rights. And that mission has been a success, time and time again.
However, Wednesday evening seemed to have diluted AI's message, saturating the cause with rushed performances and corporate talent that usurped the issue at hand.
At least Colbert got it right.
Of course, having Grammy-winning schlock like Imagine Dragons will put people in the seats, but it didn't get them to listen. And when Pussy Riot took the stage (with Madonna, natch) with heavy words of their experiences, the Barclays masses were left unperturbed--responding better to some cadre of imaginary dragons rather than human rights, themselves.
Herein lies the problem with concerts stuffed to the rafters with talent within a small window of time. Performances were rushed, the set began to fall apart, sing-alongs were unenthused and the conviction of the artists reflected little of what it should have.
In an open letter, the remaining members of Pussy Riot confessed their dismay: "Unfortunately for us, [Masha and Nadia] are being so carried away with the problems in Russian prisons, that they completely forgot about the aspirations and ideals of our group--feminism, separatist resistance, fight against authoritarianism and personality cult, all of which, as a matter of fact, was the cause for their unjust punishment."
Consumerist attempts at increasing awareness really only promote music as a commodity, rejecting ideals dealing with human rights and dictatorial subjugation.
So, like the Super Bowl half-time debacle and the Super Bowl prostitution ring that was brought down, a failed concert by Amnesty International and the wide-spread deficit between the 1% and the rest of us, human rights falls even lower on the totem poll.
And like the poet Marina Tsvetaeva, another Russian anti-nationalist, wrote in "I Know the Truth"...
"And soon all of us will sleep beneath the earth, we / who never let each other sleep above it." (trans. Elaine Feinstein).
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