Video footage from Amanda Palmer’s cover of Pink Floyd’s Mother.
“Mother” is a cover of a Pink Floyd song which appeared on their classic 1979 album, The Wall. Lyrics such as “Mother, should I build the wall?/Mother, should I run for president?”, takes on added weight with the Trump presidency.
The video for Palmer’s haunting rendition, depicts a dystopian world where child labour is used to build a wall, while a Trump like power figure looks on. The video also concludes with a potentially controversial NSFW scene of Palmer breast-feeding the Trump like character. Not only does this effectively portrays Trump as a man-child, but it is also one of the rare occasion where a Trump detractor tries to view Trump from an emphatic lens. People don’t become loathsome people with loathsome philosophy and politics overnight. In a Newsweek interview, Palmer made the following statement: “I’ve seen my fair share of presidents come and go. Never before have I seen myself looking at a president, thinking, “Oh my God, what happened to you? What must have hurt you so deeply to make you so insecure that you need this brand of power and wealth and reassurance.” It’s heartbreaking, really. Donald Trump seems to live in this world of such extreme scarcity—of love, of compassion, of everything. You can see in his eyes that he did not grow up feeling safe and nurtured. You don’t need a Ph.D. in psychology to see this man as totally wounded.”
Palmer presents a unique and thought-provoking take on the protest movement. You can resist hateful rhetoric without becoming hateful. It is a difficult balancing act, but it is possible to balance the anger with compassion and empathy.