‘Californication’: An Ode to the Decay of Modern Society

 Kurt Mahlburg - Intellectual Takeout

"The Red Hot Chili Peppers had first-hand experience of this. Eleven years before they released this song, the band lost their founding guitarist Hillel Slovak to suicide. He was just 26 years of age."

"The Red Hot Chili Peppers are one of the top-selling bands of all time. Formed in the early 80s, the Los Angeles-based outfit has won six Grammy Awards, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, and is still producing records today.

"Perhaps their most recognizable song is the 1999 hit “Californication,” which showcases the band’s unique fusion of alternative rock, funk, and psychedelic rock. And while I can’t endorse all of what the band has done throughout their career, this song’s lyrics are more introspective than those of most of their music.

"As suggested by the neologism in the song title, “Californication” is an irreverent and disturbing ode to the decay of modern society. Doubtless, there are many who have heard the song but not listened to its lyrics. For anyone who tunes in, however, “Californication” makes a sobering decree:  It’s the edge of the world and all of Western Civilization

The sun may rise in the East, at least it settled in a final location

It’s understood that Hollywood sells Californication

…  And tidal waves couldn’t save the world from Californication

. . ."In both their music and their lived experience, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers remind us that when we forget that we are created in the image of God, our leaps for meaning will always reduce humans to something less than we they are. And this erodes civilization.

"How can we recover ourselves and our civilization?

"By returning to the simple truth that we have been created as both rational and spiritual beings." . . .