Bob Marley documentary

I recently got around to seeing it... lots of people told me it was really good.
I did think it was a pretty good documentary, as far as clearly telling the chronological story of his life, and the development of his music.
However there was one thing that struck me particularly, and this was my surprise that he was so apolitical! He's considered such a political "revolutionary" songwriter/musician, but I didn't really see anything in his life that was political, it really seemed like from birth till death he wasn't any different from the average sex/drugs/rock-n-roll successful guy. Yes, he rose from very humble beginnings and wrote songs about righteousness that are inspirational for people all over the world who seek a greater sense of justice and freedom, but in his own life he didn't seem to ever stand for a particular political cause, or particular political perspective even.

I don't wanna talk trash about Bob Marley (or at least not talk too much trash, maybe just a little), but seriously - Jamaica is a very small and economically troubled country, and Bob became one of the richest, most influential people in the whole place, he might not have necessarily had the power to change the whole world but he certainly had the power to really make a change in Jamaica and it seemed like he did basically nothing. When there was a huge split in Jamaica regarding a coming election, with a right-wing candidate running for ruler of Jamaica, and a left-wing candidate, and both of them would have gotten a huge groundswell of public support if Marley had publicly supported either of them, Marley didn't get involved in the issues. Marley, at least as far as was mentioned in this documentary, never even mentioned any ideas for what might be done to improve conditions in Jamaica - his only "statement" ever seems to be "be a Rastafarian, worship the Emperor of Ethiopia as if he was a living god." What kind of helpful political suggestion is that? Marley could have opened schools for poor kids in Jamaica, or improved housing conditions, or hospitals, or tried to support political candidates who could have fought for better equality, but he really seemed staunchly AGAINST getting involved.
The only actual thing that Marley did, according to this documentary, is that he played a big free concert in Jamaica before the election happened, and at the concert he suddenly called out to both the right wing candidate and the left wing candidate (who were both in attendance) to get on stage and shake hands with each other. In the movie this on-stage handshake was treated as a tremendous symbolic victory, a sign of unity and peace for Jamaica. But really this seemed so pointless to me - if I got Mitt Romney and Barack Obama to get on stage and shake hands with each other onstage this week in a gesture of "peace and unity" in the middle of the election campaign, what does that really do? Still one of them is going to win, and then make actual decisions for the whole country about health care, about taxation, about education, about abortion, about drug laws.

Marley had a real opportunity to change things, and it seemed like he did even less than the average person would have done in his position despite singing about it more than the average person. He got a big mansion and smoked a lot of pot and had sex with a lot of women, which is fine if you're Mick Jagger because that's the sort of thing Mick Jagger stands for in culture, and maybe a hedonistic figure is even an important thing to have in culture, but I thought Bob Marley was supposed to personally stand for something more righteous and revolutionary than that.

Of course, on the other hand, the very fact of his existence made a political impact in the world - it showed that a minority figure from a very small poor country could become one of the most famous and influential cultural figures in the world, which is really an incredible story just in and of itself. And his very greatness-against-the-odds probably gives a lot of people more courage and pride and hope. And he did convincingly tell people, at least in his songs, to "Stand up for your rights, don't give up the fight." But the guy was no revolutionary, or even average-level activist, as far as I can tell. He's not in the Victor Jara category, more in the Robert Plant category. Not that there's SO much wrong with that, the music stands on its own if you're into it, but that was somewhat of a surprise to me.