"Everyone has to find their own way, it's just that I don't want to go that way myself. If a band likes being on a major and feels happy there, good luck to them"
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There’s a politician’s instinct for coalition-building here, paired with the stubborn ethics of someone who knows exactly where he won’t compromise. Wilson couches dissent in the language of tolerance: “Everyone has to find their own way” is the civics-class principle, the pluralist baseline. Then he swivels - not to condemn, but to opt out: “I don’t want to go that way myself.” The move is deft. He protects himself from the charge of purism while still drawing a hard boundary around his own choices.
The “major” line is the tell. It’s a borrowed idiom from music and cultural production, where “being on a major” means access, scale, and money - and, just as often, the suspicion of selling out. For a politician, that’s more than a metaphor; it’s an oblique map of power. Majors are institutions: parties, media platforms, donor networks, bureaucratic machines. Wilson’s phrasing suggests someone who understands the benefits of institutional shelter but resists the terms of membership. He’s saying: I’m not here to police your ambitions, but don’t ask me to sign the contract.
“Good luck to them” lands with a polite chill. It’s not solidarity; it’s distance. The subtext is that happiness inside the system is possible, even legitimate, but not his project. The intent is to claim moral autonomy without turning it into a sermon - a public-facing refusal that still sounds like civility.
The “major” line is the tell. It’s a borrowed idiom from music and cultural production, where “being on a major” means access, scale, and money - and, just as often, the suspicion of selling out. For a politician, that’s more than a metaphor; it’s an oblique map of power. Majors are institutions: parties, media platforms, donor networks, bureaucratic machines. Wilson’s phrasing suggests someone who understands the benefits of institutional shelter but resists the terms of membership. He’s saying: I’m not here to police your ambitions, but don’t ask me to sign the contract.
“Good luck to them” lands with a polite chill. It’s not solidarity; it’s distance. The subtext is that happiness inside the system is possible, even legitimate, but not his project. The intent is to claim moral autonomy without turning it into a sermon - a public-facing refusal that still sounds like civility.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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