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Ian Curtiss song Transmission written in 1978 not only explains the singers personal reaction towards modern life and technology but also, to an extent, accounts for the lack of scientific understanding by the general public in the US, today. The song has been written keeping in mind those specific people who blindly follow whatever they are told, especially by the media (Curtis, p. 115). In this song, the medium is radio, since in his time almost everybody listened to the radio. Even today people follow the radio, TV, and Internet, and simply listen to them. Although we live in modern society, many people in the US turn a blind eye towards the numerous technological and scientific advances and sometimes even dismiss the importance of basic scientific understanding. Since most of them do not question the things, happening around them the world also makes very little progress, at times, causing failure and weakness (Curtis, p. 117).
By the words Listen to the silence, let it ring on (Curtis, 1, 3). Ian Curtis wants to tell us that in modern society the people have become completely ignorant and silent to the real world and prefer to stay within their comfort zone. This is continuing even now since people are only concerned about themselves, their work, and their job and thus, they do not realize that the best way of understanding the nature and universe is by having a general conception of science. The singer also says that people are turning a blind eye toward the world, evident by the words Eyes, dark grey lenses frightened of the sun (Curtis, 1, 4). Scientific and technological ignorance had been asserted through dark grey lenses and the sun denotes the outside real world. Since most people think that scientific knowledge is, only about equations and formulae they become afraid of it. They fail to realize that majority of the modern infrastructures and comforts that they are completely accustomed to and cannot live without, would not have existed without science and thus, scientific awareness is nothing to fear.
Through the lines, We would have a fine time living in the night, Left to blind destruction (Curtis, 1, 5), Ian Curtis tries to emphasize are the fact that ignorance and lack of understanding are actually blissful. However, what they do not understand is that without any technological and scientific understanding in our modern and highly advanced world there will be no progress and we will have to face more problems. By Waiting for our sight (Curtis, 1, 7). Ian highlights that most of the le is not able to develop their own views and simply follow what they are told. They do not take any initiatives to understand the world around them but simply enjoy the life made comfortable by critical thinking and scientific knowledge of others.
Ian says that people keep on ignoring the scientific advances of the real world and keep on living their normal lives, which are completely commercialized, And we would go on as though nothing was wrong. And hide from these days we remained all alone (Curtis, 1, 8-9). They use all of the modern things made possible by science but do not ponder over how they work. People do not think that by staying away from scientific understanding, they are in turn hampering societys development and they themselves are becoming more and more egoistic and uninterested in the various scientific events of the real world. They just listen to the media but do not put their thoughts into it.
The singer tries to tell the people that by ignoring and dismissing even basic scientific understanding they are simply heading towards technological stagnation. Until and unless people show some interest they will not advance further and are merely Staying in the same place, just staying out the time (Curtis, 1, 10). Ian tries to warn the people that if this persists then people will go on making the same errors repeatedly and things will become even worse. Touching from a distance, Further all the time (Curtis, 1, 11), signifies that we are viewing the technological advances in the world only from our TV or computer screens or may maybetening to it from the radio but not actually trying to understand how they take place.
Without any scientific understanding, the general people of the USA have created a possibility of regression and are every day becoming more and more afraid of science. Unable to see people turn a deaf year to scientific understanding, Ian himself says that someone needs to speak up against this. He says that we, the people, ourselves need to take the initiative before it is too long and nothing can be done. He says that through, Well I could call out when the going gets tough. The things that weve learned are no longer enough . (Curtis, 1, 17) He urges people not to leave everything in the hand of others and not to rely on others to solve their problems. People should themselves understand the necessity and importance of science in our life and realize that basic scientific understanding, which most of the people in the US lack, is not at all difficult and can be made interesting if people show little concern towards its learning.
The most significant lines of the song which make the whole topic apparent is, No language, just sound, thats all we need to know (Curtis, 1, 18). Ian says that probably all the technological advances we hear about are only what the various mediums of media tell us. However, sometimes they are simply like sound, i.e. only noise. If we do not understand how things around us work and have no knowledge about science and critical thinking, then everything that we hear has very little literal meaning to it. Today, most people blindly live in the world built around them, without questioning anything or understanding it. It has come to a point that this lack of scientific understanding has been so embedded in the minds of the people that they no longer require any reasonable, personal opinion from others and scientific thoughts and beliefs telling us how to live our life. Ian sings this line out of sarcasm as he realizes the damage lack of scientific understanding will do to the future of the people (Curtis, p. 125).
Through the lines to synchronize, Love to the beat of the show (Curtis, 1, 19), Ian wants to tell us that when most of the people do not believe in love anymore and has made it an artificial thing, then we should not expect them to take any interest in the world around them or in scientific understanding. Love, which is a unique and personal thing, has often been influenced by the media and thus, we should not expect that our critical thinking will not be influenced by them. Most of the people around us have very little control over their thoughts, which are formed by the influence of others and not by themselves. We do not try and think ourselves in order to solve our problems, but we rather listen to others, follow others, And we could dance (Curtis, 1, 20).
With the words Dance, to the radio (Curtis, 1, 21) Ian ends his song, absolutely certain that people will make no efforts to understand science so that they can relate to and connect it to their daily lives. To emphasize the problems that are caused by the lack of scientific understanding Ian repeats the lines, Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, to the radio repeatedly, twice in the entire song. People go on living in the private bubble of anxiety and even though some of them pay attention to the current scientific events, most of them show no interest in them and have no any opinion about them. They are happy to believe that whatever they are told. They keep on dancing and listening to the media.
Nowadays people often complain that a lot of money is being spent on scientific innovations when there are many problems in society to solve. However, they fail to understand that without these scientific inventions most of society would seize to exist. Also without appreciating science and thinking, critically most out of modern problems will not be solved. Thus, through this song people need to understand the important role scientific understanding plays in our modern life so that they are able to understand the language of science and it does not remain as just sound for them.
References
Curtis, Deborah. Touching from a Distance: Ian Curtis and Joy Division. New York: Faber, 1996.
Curtis, Ian. Joy division: Transmission. SongMeaning. 2006. Non-lyrical content. 2009.
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