The Social Critic: End of the 60s

Zappa was never supportive of society and took it upon himself to continuously point out its faults to the world. However, he did not do this just to do it, he did it with the hopes of influencing people to change for the better. He strove to persuade and encourage those he could to help fix society.

Zappa believed that the best and most efficient way to do this was through infiltration. He spoke against riots and one-time demonstrations which wouldn’t produce lasting results and encouraged everyone to infiltrate the system and change it from within. In his own words, taken from his lecture at the London School of Economics in ’69, he believed that: “The best way to achieve lasting results is to infiltrate where you can. People should go into communications and the military and change them from the inside. I’m afraid that everyone will have a revolution and make a mess of it. They will wave their banners on the streets and brandish sticks and go home and brag about their bruises ... you are not going to solve all the problems in fifteen minutes or ten years ... the only way to make changes that will last is to do it slowly. People are thrilled with the idea of revolution in the streets. It’s this year’s flower power. Wait for eighteen months and there will be another fad. I disagree with you tactics. You won’t do it wandering the streets; you have to use the media. The media is the key and you have to use it.” [Miles p. 191]

Zappa was also always a firm believer that sex played a key role in helping to mend society’s faults. He took it upon himself to speak up and preach the benefits of groupies and explained that seeing as groupies eventually find a partner and settle down, “It’s good for these guys to be getting girls like these ... it’s good for the whole country. These guys will be happier, they’ll do their jobs better, and the economy will reflect it. Everybody will be happier.” [Miles p.179]