[PW] Re: Kumbaya

[Hadden, Robert L ERDC-TEC-VA]

Dear Ted:
	Having lived through the 1960s and 1970s with many youth hostel
stays, Christian camps, encounter groups and spiritual retreats, I can see
how the sarcasm about singing this song arose. Often it was sung by kind
people with good intentions to embrace the world in love and tolerance and
good vibrations. 
	But the song was also saccharine, shallow and was regretfully
ubiquitous, like the Coke commercial (See the American Memory site:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ccmphtml/colaadv.html).
	It is also similar to the sarcasm leveled against good people,
ostensively by people who want to seem more rakish and unpredictable. An
example if from the Star Trek movie where Captain Kirk's son said his father
was running around the galaxy like "an over-grown Boy Scout." His mother said
(more or less), "Whatever else you may think of him, James Kirk was never a
Boy Scout."
	Ditto is the modern use of the word, "Pollyanna." Although the book
is nowhere as naïve and supercilious as most people now assume, "Pollyanna"
has also come to mean someone or something that is foolishly bright and
simplistically optimistic.
	This is what happens when good words go bad. Worse examples are the
perfectly good words such as "gay", "pussy" and "weed" which have been
perverted into new meanings and modern curse words. Noah Webster would have
had a fit over this.
	"Kumbaya" is a wonderful song that is often sung by seriously
altruistic minded do-gooders who commit random acts of kindness, and has the
capability of driving other people up the wall. 
	BTW, this song can also be used to scatter loitering teenagers from a
convenience store parking lot or other public space when played over the loud
speakers. It is more effective than Frank Sinatra, but less effective than
Mel Torme.

Lee

R. Lee Hadden
Geospatial Information Library (GIL)
Topographic Engineering Center
ATTN: CEERD-TO-I (Hadden)
7701 Telegraph Road
Alexandria, VA 22315-3864
(703) 428-9206
Robert.L.Hadden at erdc.usace.army.mil

See some of my writings, both online and on paper, at my author page at:
http://www.librarything.com/author/haddenrobertlee

-----Original Message-----
...Does anyone have an explanation or a realistic theory, but not a guess
about the negative aspects of Kumbaya?

Thanks for any feedback you can provide.

Ted Nesbitt
Elbin Library
West Liberty State College
West Liberty, WV 26074