Becoming the ArchetypeThe current, raging health care debate affects all Americans, but it is a particularly poignant issue for musicians, especially since many of them are 'self-employed' and don't have health care provided by having a full-time, company job. Becoming the Archetype guitarist Seth Hecox, a self-proclaimed Libertarian, spoke to Noisecreep about the Obama-sanctioned overhaul of our flawed health care system.

"I think if the health care bill had been put to a vote by the public, it would've lost," Hecox, whose band traffics in noisy, boot-to-the-groin metalcore, told Noisecreep. "Most of the polls say that somewhere between 60 percent and 70 percent of those polled were not supportive of the bill. Now there are pockets of people, mostly concentrated in the northeastern states, that are really into the sorts of things that the bill enacts."

Hecox suggested that the health care reform bill should be enacted at the state level, not at the national, federal one and his argument is reasoned enough to make us wonder if he should pursue elected office in the future. "I think this could've been decided on a state-by-state basis, thus making more of the population happy," he said. "If 85 percent of Georgia residents don't want the bill, but 70 percent of Massachusetts residents do, why not allow each state to do what pleases their constituents?

"I think at this point in the nation's history and with this many people in the U.S., there is no way to please the overwhelming majority. So there's always going to be at least 40 percent, if not more, that dislikes what is going on in the federal government. But in states, you have more like-minded people and each state can decide what it wants to do based on a more concentrated portion of the country."

Despite Hecox's suggestion to make such a massive decision about health care on the local level, he's still not convinced that while majority rules that minority still counts, based on sheer volume. "Here's the real lowdown: Our voices don't matter like people think they do. You can march on D.C. with over a hundred thousand other people and absolutely nothing will happen. We use the term 'one in a million' to describe something that has no chance. In a presidential election, your vote is more like one in 200 million. And people inevitably say, 'Well if everyone thought that, then no one would vote.' But that's not what's going to happen and you know it.

"There are tons of people that will always vote in national elections because they don't read Noisecreep to get the lowdown on the tiny value of their vote. When the country started, each vote had a much higher value, because there were less than a million voters in the U.S. As the country continues to grow, your vote will continue to devalue."

Hecox's views may be somewhat pessimistic, but they're also realistic, as they are based on numbers and the general public's confusion about what the health care bill actually entails. Everyone talks about the sweeping changes that Obama's bill enforces, but no one is quite cognizant of or sure what those changes are going to be!

"People, including me, don't really understand the bill and what the effects of federal policy will be," Hecox said. "We're not economists. We're not social scientists. So our opinions are the most uninformed, asinine opinions that can be had because we don't know what we're talking about. Yet people have such a strong opinion about politics. The thing they can control least in their lives, they have the strongest opinions and arguments about? Doesn't this seem silly to anyone else? Why can't people care this passionately about their mother, their neighbor or their bandmate?"

While Hecox also proclaimed that he does not hate our current president. "Every president does things I like and things I don't like," he reasoned. "Overall, I'm not too satisfied, but there are bills he's passed that I do like. It just seems that arguing over federal government is like arguing whether or not there's a hole in my sock while the cannibals close in. You know, aren't there more important with which to concern ourselves? That's my 200 cents."

Becoming the Archetype are currently working on a new album, with extensive touring planned in July.

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