Even the year 2023 has in no way brought a breath of fresh air, a new impetus into the cultural industries of the imperialists. More than ever, the old rotten ideas of the ruling class are repeated in a different form, more and more indistinguishable from each other, because the bourgeoisie is unable to generate anything new. Two years of pandemic, one and a half years of war and the omnipresent crisis of imperialism have left their traces in the minds of the bourgeois cultural actors, and for example in the case of many musicians this is expressed in distinct pessimism. And consequently they sing of surrender.

 
Peter Fox's new single from March is called "Weiße Fahnen" (White flags). The name speaks for itself; in front of the old NSA spy towers on West Berlin's Teufelsberg, the aged reggae rapper, backed by a tired indie band, sings about the wonderful feeling of being a loser:

"I wash off the war paint".

"This fight I lost, doesn't hurt at all"

"We're saving our energy for a fight worth having"

"It's easy to live when you know you're an idiot"

And then he also speaks his thoughts in a very conscious and structured way:

"There's no victory here, only a toast to capitulation"

What is expressed is the insistent desire to go back to where it was comfortable over the years, a desire - especially of a part of the petty bourgeoisie - for a time before the crisis of imperialism and also the crisis of democracy. Looking to the future full of pessimism, the ego buckles and wishes for a way out before the times ahead, accepting that this "defeat" can be noted by all the world. While one part of the petty bourgeoisie is radicalizing itself in the current crisis, which is expressed culturally, for example, in Danger Dan's "Alles von der Kunstfreiheit gedeckt" (Everything covered by the freedom of art) or some contributions by Jan Böhmermann; others are going in the opposite direction, the song "Weiße Fahnen" is an example of this. Similarly, last year's summer hit by hipster band Kraftklub and the flagship losers from Tokio Hotel, "Fahr mit mir (4x4)," (Ride with me) criticizes German stuffiness but proposes escape by car rather than fighting as a solution. Musically, too, the song, as well as most of the album it contains, "Kargo," expresses an increasing degree of resignation.

The Irish band U2 released their new album "Songs of Surrender" also in March. Again, the agenda is on par with the name; U2 rewrite 40 old hits and re-record them more acoustically and with a very melancholic and bland touch. In the process, the 2000 number "Walk On" is rewritten as a song for Ukraine. But instead of support for the Ukrainian nation in the fight against the invader, a fighting song for the heroically fighting Ukrainian people, there is a depressive lullaby. Although the slogan is "Walk On", the lyrics and melody correspond to the thoughts of a naive dreamer; Bono starts from the feelings of an individual and not those of the people, he sings about escape, heartbreak and "standing up for peace". These are his feelings, his resignation in the face of the crisis and the decomposition of imperialism. Songs of Surrender" is also a declaration of capitulation by a musical group that is fainting in the face of the great storms in the world.

All in all, this contributes to the fact that the culturalists of the bourgeoisie are less and less able to poison the consciousness of the masses with bourgeois ideology, because in its process of degeneration it is increasingly no longer able to appeal to the masses with its contents. The lumpen, who appeal to the combative spirit of the masses with their hip hop and who oppose the bourgeois state in parts of their words, are the ones who are most likely to do this. The gaps left by the philanthropists who are now composing songs of surrender and raising white flags will inevitably be filled in the first place by the ruling class itself, with those who more aggressively advocate the enforcement of the interests of imperialist finance capital. Nevertheless: fundamentally, the conditions are optimal - the masses are crying out for the new, the culture of the ruling class is becoming increasingly intolerable. The proletarian front of the creators of art and literature must and will make considerable leaps in the coming years on the world level to advance proletarian culture as a weapon for the revolution.