Pearl Jam and Greta Thunberg Force Us To Face Reality

American rock band, Pearl Jam, have roped in Swedish activist, Greta Thunberg, for the official music video for their track “Retrograde“. 

In a swerve away from the common theme of songs of hope and optimism, Pearl Jam paint a bleak picture of the world’s possible future in their new animated, stop motion music video for their latest release “Retrograde”. The song explores the trials we all face today, the consequences of our choices and the current state of affairs we all lament. The band sings: “Stars align/ they say when things are better than right now// Feel the retrograde spin us /round, round.”

The video proposes the idea of what the world will look like, lest we change our ways. Greta Thunberg, the world-famous 17-year old environmentalist, unironically plays the fortune teller revealing these images of dystopia to the audience in the Pearl Jam video.

While Pearl Jam has prophetically laid out the dangerous possibility of our near future, we’re not entirely sure it’s what the world needed at this point in time. We are in the thick of a global pandemic, so a little hope would do everyone good. 

Meanwhile, Greta Thunberg has spent the better half of her day dealing with the wrath of the Twittersphere. In light of her appearance on a COVID-19 panel discussion on broadcasting channel CNN, the 17 year old has been dragged to internet-troll hell and back for even being considered a valuable member of a panel regarding health issues.

But, for anyone who thought they’d shown Thunberg the door, self-reflection is due. The Swedish native took to Twitter to express her view on the matter, shutting down any criticism with pure fact. 

And while Great Thunberg continues to be dragged by people all over the world, there are those validating her legitimacy on the panel, too.