The Heart's Apocalypse

A big part of the punk mindset is nihilism -- everything sucks, everyone is stupid and corrupt and selfish, everyone lies, the world is a pit, and life is meaningless.

Or as Sweeney Todd might put it:

There's a whole in the world
Like a great black pit,
And it's filled with people
Who are filled with shit,
And the vermin of the world
Inhabit it...

American Idiot expresses that nihilism with the anti-anthem "I Don't Care."

It's easy to see how that mindset became a comfortable trap after the 9/11 attacks -- and after the pandemic. And by that logic, if everything and everyone is fucked up, there's no point in trying to fix any of it, or forge meaningful relationships -- or do anything. All three of our heroes in American Idiot set off to chase their dreams, but none of them has a dream, and despite their efforts, they cannot connect with anyone -- well, not anyone real, anyway. 

They're not running to anything, only away from something. They have no dreams to chase, only a banal nightmare to escape.

This is a coming-of-age story, a hero myth story, and the lesson these young men learn by the end of our story is that you never find what you're looking for by chasing it out in the world -- well, not out in this world, anyway. You always find what you're looking for within. That's the message of so many hero myth stories. But American Idiot goes a little deeper than that.

These three guys, Johnny, Tunny, and Will, desperately seek meaningful human connection, although I'm not sure any of them actually knows that consciously. And the only real connection they've ever known is among the three of them. And so their meandering quests eventually lead them back to each other, back home. Yes, home in a physical sense -- they're back in Jingletown -- but also home in an emotional sense.

At the end of American Idiot, we don't know if these three will be okay. All we know if that they've grown up a little. They're a little better equipped now to navigate life than they were at the beginning. But also, they've learned the most basic of human lessons -- they need each other. They need connection. And in this story, they've all learned different lessons, so now they can learn from each other.

It takes a village. Or at least three punks.

This show is really dark, really harrowing, but people come out of it feeling really good. Part of that is ending the show with "Good Riddance" -- such an amazing song. But also, I realize now, they feel good because they've been reminded of that simple basic human truth -- we need each other.

And especially in these ugly, combative, insane times, that reminder is incredibly comforting. The Great Plague of 2020 was a national trauma not unlike that of the 9/11 attacks. And in both situations, many of us emerged with PTSD. And many of us worked through those emotions and fears through making art. That's what Billie Joe Armstrong did. That's what Michael Mayer did. That's what we're doing right now. We're trying to make sense of our trauma, and at the same time, to reassure us all that none of us is alone in this suffering, in this blind groping toward something better. And we will find our way through it. But we need our art to help guide us.

That's what American Idiot is about -- grappling with the unthinkable, grappling with who we are when the whole world changes around us, grappling with the ability to see a different reality from the people around us. It feels a lot like that sci-fi-horror movie They Live. (If you haven't seen it, do!)

That's the great tragedy, the great curse of Johnny, Tunny, and Will -- and their entire generation, according to American Idiot. They can see the bullshit. They can see the grift, the corruption, the lies, but nobody around them can see it. The rest of the country is screaming, "USA! USA!" in a great, toxic stew of rage and revenge, stirred up by a mindless, mad love of country.

So, as Billie Joe wrote, our hero is "the son of rage and love." The insane cultural and political stew of 2001-2003 has made Johnny into this nihilistic punk. But if you watch the news today, you might sense that we're right in the thick of a very similar great toxic stew again. And it has made many of us into nihilists.

So what does American Idiot teach us? Probably each of us takes away from it different lessons and messages, depending on what we need right now, exactly like all the classic fairy tales. This is a fable for the 21st century, a story about the personal toll it takes on each of us when our institutions are sabotaged, disassembled, and smeared with well-coordinated lies, when the people who are running the country don't care about us...

But who's fault is all this? The grifters who play the epic con, or the millions of marks who accept the lies? Is it Trump's fault? Or is it the fault of Trump voters? Or is it the fault of all of us?

The first step is realizing you have a problem. By the end of our story, our heroes have taken that step, and they are beginning to find healing. But what will happen to them when they get to 2020?

American Idiot is a powerful, wildly entertaining show, and you might just leave the show feeling a tiny bit better about the state of our world, or at least, about yourself.

Long Live the Musical!
Scott

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