The Michael Knowles Show - She Has A Point! Michael Knowles REACTS To "Flowers" by Miley Cyrus
Aired: 2023-02-04
Duration: 06:59


=== Still Bitter About the Breakup (06:45) ===

[00:00:00]  Hey there, it's Wonder Mike.
[00:00:01]  I've come to say hello.
[00:00:02]  You know I am your hip-hop pop music maven.
[00:00:05]  Choose your character.
[00:00:07]  I'm going to channel...
[00:00:13]  I don't really know anything about this song.
[00:00:15]  They've just told me, they said, Michael, you're probably not going to like this song.
[00:00:18]  But it is really popular right now, so you have to listen to it.
[00:00:21]  The song is Miley Cyrus.
[00:00:22]  This is a breakup anthem called Flowers, which she apparently released on her ex-husband Liam Hemsworth's birthday.
[00:00:31]  Miley, take it away.
[00:00:36]  We were good.
[00:00:38]  We were gone.
[00:00:40]  Kind of dream that can't be sold We were right till we weren't Built a home and watched it burn I didn't want to leave you, I didn't want to lie Started to cry but then remembered I I can buy myself flowers Devastating.
[00:01:32]  I kind of like Miley.
[00:01:33]  I'm going to put my cards on the table.
[00:01:35]  I'm learning a lot about myself through this music series.
[00:01:37]  I didn't realize I was a Swifty or a Belieber.
[00:01:39]  And I'm a Miley...
[00:01:42]  I don't know what Miley's fans are called.
[00:01:43]  Because I love that song, Party in the USA. I really got a kick out of it when it came out.
[00:01:47]  I remember Miley Cyrus was married.
[00:01:49]  I didn't realize she got divorced.
[00:01:50]  But I just remember, for all of her crazy, eccentric, show-busy stuff, she seemed to have a kind of conservatism to her.
[00:01:59]  In that she got married, in that she, I think she's southern, right?
[00:02:04]  I think she talked about partying in the USA, vaguely patriotic.
[00:02:09]  And in this song, she's saying, we had this great house, we had this great home, I didn't want to leave it, you basically, you screwed it all up, I didn't want to mess up our marriage.
[00:02:17]  And now what?
[00:02:19]  Now what does she say?
[00:02:20]  I can take myself dancing.
[00:02:21]  I can hold my own hand.
[00:02:22]  I can write my name in the sand.
[00:02:24]  I can tell me I love me.
[00:02:26]  I can do all the stuff that a husband is supposed to do better than you can, and I can do it all alone.
[00:02:31]  And I assume this is the point of the song, is that it certainly seems like the lady doth protest too much, me thinks.
[00:02:38]  You can't really do that.
[00:02:40]  You can be very hurt if someone leaves you.
[00:02:42]  And you can say, well, screw you.
[00:02:44]  I don't need you.
[00:02:45]  I'll just be my own spouse.
[00:02:47]  I'll buy myself the presents.
[00:02:49]  I'll take myself out on dates.
[00:02:51]  I'll write my own name in the sand.
[00:02:52]  But I don't need you.
[00:02:53]  But that comes from a place of hurt.
[00:02:55]  She's walking through the song wearing this kind of embittered-looking outfit, lamenting her ex-husband.
[00:03:02]  Yeah, she's telling you there.
[00:03:03]  She goes, yeah, fine, I'll do all this stuff, but I'm not going to be happy about it.
[00:03:06]  and I'm going to resent it as well she should.
[00:03:08]  *music*
[00:03:38]  *music* to myself It might be true.
[00:04:07]  It might be true that she can love her better than he can, but that's a real knock on him.
[00:04:11]  Showbiz people get divorced all the time.
[00:04:13]  And Miley Cyrus, she's got a ton of money and she's been famous since she was very little.
[00:04:18]  And she's got everything in the world, right?
[00:04:20]  Why would she be upset?
[00:04:22]  Well, because life is about more than money, and because life is about more than fame.
[00:04:26]  And you can have all the personal servants in the world, and you can go to all the workout classes.
[00:04:29]  You can even see her moving around, and she obviously still works out, she still looks good.
[00:04:34]  But we still feel sad for this character.
[00:04:37]  We still feel sad for this person who's there and saying, yeah, I don't need a husband, I don't need someone to love me, I don't need, no, it's okay, I'm going to work out and do it myself, and I can love me better than you can.
[00:04:46]  Maybe that's true, but it's not supposed to be that way.
[00:04:49]  We're supposed to love our spouses and stick by our spouses.
[00:04:53]  I didn't want to fight.
[00:04:54]  I didn't want to leave.
[00:04:55]  You did this, basically.
[00:04:57]  That's fine.
[00:04:57]  I'll move on.
[00:04:58]  but I'm still embittered by it, as she should be.
[00:05:01]  Modern art is so ugly.
[00:05:19]  I can't believe it.
[00:05:21]  It's kind of a side piece, but there's statues and that cold, clinical-looking house.
[00:05:32]  I'm sure the house costs millions and millions of dollars, but look how cold it is.
[00:05:35]  Look how clinical.
[00:05:36]  It has no ornamentation.
[00:05:38]  Much like the life that she's describing.
[00:05:42]  It's just all totally clean with any attachments.
[00:05:48]  And so she dances around like she's 23 years old.
[00:05:52]  But she's recognizing that she's not 23 years old, that life has progressed since then.
[00:05:56]  She's been married and she's trying to go back, but one cannot do that.
[00:06:05]  Life is supposed to progress.
[00:06:08]  And we're supposed to gain more attachments and more ornamentation and allow that to augment our lives.
[00:06:13]  And what happens in modernity is we don't get married and stay married.
[00:06:16]  We have a relationship for a period and then we have a sort of mutual decoupling and then we just go back to square one.
[00:06:24]  We just forget that we're living in time and space.
[00:06:26]  We try to deny that we're living in time and space.
[00:06:28]  We have everything be totally clean and clinical and Okay, and now that marriage and phase is over.

=== Less Joyful Cycle (00:28) ===

[00:06:35]  That's okay.
[00:06:35]  I'll love me better than you can.
[00:06:37]  And I'm just going to go back to dancing like I did when I was a kid.
[00:06:39]  And I'll have another relationship and another cold, clinical, kind of sterile, neutral playing around.
[00:06:45]  And then we'll just allow that cycle to repeat.
[00:06:47]  All the while, one seems to get a little less joyful and a little more resentful about the whole thing.
[00:06:53]  All right.
[00:06:54]  That's Miley Monday.
[00:06:54]  Miley Monday for you.
[00:06:56]  Here's Michael from Miley Monday saying, see you tomorrow.