Maynard James Keenan has shared his thoughts about the state of the world, revealing online hostility, AI, chatbots and smartphones inspired the most recent theatrical and manic Puscifer record, Normal Isn’t.
Maynard James Keenan has once again opened up to talk about his disillusionment with the state of the world.
In a new interview with azcentral.com promoting Puscifer‘s new record, Normal Isn’t, the conversation turned to explore Keenan’s feelings about how we’re all in “pretty insane times”.
Keenan and the interviewer would start the conversation discussing regimes and smartphones, leading the renowned Tool frontman to be asked how society ended up where it is.
“Having been the son of an educator and his whole family are teachers as well, I watched in the ’80s, ’90s where the education system was undermined, and, you know, you weren’t allowed to fail kids.
“And so I feel like that just kind of lowers the education bar. That’s definitely historically where regimes start, is to make sure that the people are kind of dumb and then they can just kind of tell them whatever they want and they don’t have the frame of reference or the tools to debunk what they’re being told, to critically think, to reason out puzzles, and then you end up here.”
Keenan doesn’t seem too optimistic that things will get better any time soon, either. When asked if there’ll ever be a “return to normal”, the singer would go on a tangent about his feelings towards AI and religious fundamentalism.
“I think it will just have to come to a head. Right now, artistically, you have a lot of people kind of flipping out about AI. There’s a million arguments from many angles, but one of the ones is that it’s going to somehow replace actors, artists and all that. And of course, we heard that when drum machines were invented, and we heard that when the cameras were invented.”
“I think there’s other considerations of why AI is a bad idea. But as far as being replaced, I don’t feel like that’s legitimate. I guess my point is that it’s somehow. … This has to find a balance. It has to be a breaking point when you have religious fundamentalists calling all the shots. True believers are scary. It doesn’t sustain, right?”
“Historically, when you have people [who] are choosing violent oppressions, it doesn’t last. It lasts long enough to hurt and do damage, like generational damage, but it doesn’t last. So I don’t know. I don’t know where that breaking point is in this crashing wave. I’m hoping it’s soon, but I don’t know, man. It’s gonna get darker before it gets better.”
Keenan has been a vocal critic in recent months voicing his opposition towards fundamental extremism on either side of the political spectrum. During an episode of Kyle Meredith With… last month, Keenan would bluntly say, “fundamentalist extremists can go [f*king] suck a bag of dicks. And you can quote me on that.”
The singer would expand on his thoughts on social media, fuelling tribalism and extremism, acknowledging bots and algorithms place in sparking online controversy:
“There are entire bots and chat rooms that all their job was is to drive wedges between us online, just start fights that were not fights and then get people to join the fight, and then they just step back and let you guys fight over everything. Over anything. Litter boxes in classrooms. F*ck off.”
This infighting and extreme hostility towards one another was one of the main inspirations for Puscifer’s latest record, Keenan would reveal.
“It just grabbed me. You know, you go in a certain direction with a song and then something comes up and it just changes the direction, especially nowadays. It’s an endless barrage of madness and inhumane behavior toward each other.”
Puscifer’s Normal Isn’t is now available to stream on your music streamer of choice.
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