faust said:
why? because i am sick of all these pseudo-revolutionaries in their Che Guevarra t-shirts, safe under their mommy-daddy wings, who can yell all they want because it's fashionable. because i'm tired of all these williamsburg "bohemians" trying to look oh-so-poor in their $200 Rogan jeans. because i'm tired of all this fake BS of these little kids that are just utterly bored and want to play rebels. they know it's just a game on the way to prosperity. they have perverted the last bit of purity that rebellion has ever stood for and made a cut thing to do, along with a big industry to cater to them.
Faust
I can see where you're coming from , and in my own somewhat pathetic way , I feel the same .
Please DON'T think that I am being patronising when I say that your background has formed you and given you a healthy respect for a totally honest approach to your life . You live in a country that you have chosen , and I feel that despite its shortcomings , you value the freedom that being a citizen of the USA gives you .
What I think you detect in others as being bogus or a covenient ' political pose ' is actually , in many cases , a young person reaching for an ethical way of life , but is far too attracted to the trappings of rebellion and protest , to the extent that they cannot see the wood for the trees .
In my rather cynical post this afternoon I voiced my own disgust at the political spin on debt relief that European politicians have seized upon to divert attention from the European Constitution ballsup that's been waiting to fall onto us for some time .
I am utterly sick of the great unwashed ' Sir Bob Geldof ' jumping on the bandwagon , along with all the other has-beens , like Midge Ure , who glimpse the chance of another 10 minutes of fame . Where are the African artists in this age-defining event ? ( i suppose we could even venture the phrase , which I have patented by the way , as ' this zeitgeist defining event ' . Some are now included in subsequent concerts as an afterthought , while ebay sells tickets for the concerts at grossly inflated prices to line the pockets of the wideboys , to whom Africans are barely civilised ' natives ' to be exploited for as much profit as can be squeezed out of the cynically acquired ' premium ' tickets .
Bliar and Geldof deserve each other , but the poor in Africa deserve so much more , which will not be forthcoming when all is added up and the political spinmerchants have moved on to the next big thing , such as another high-level project to wipe out AIDS in Asia , which is now becoming the workshop of the world . Or Bush and the neocons will decide that a war in Iran/ North Vietnam / or any other chosen member of the axis of evil will be a suitable diversion to direct attention away from the disappearance of people's savings and pensions into the vast maw that is Wall Street , The City in London , or the bourse in Frankfurt .
I am actually very surprised that this thread has yielded so much serious thought , when I expected a rather superficial catalogue of breastbeating that merely allows the contributors to define their own defination of their ' conscience ' and then move on to the latest news from WWD with their guilt salved and the next trip to that luxury boutique amply justified by their crocodile tears .
From my ' vast ' experience of the young , it's the process that youth goes through in order to form their own true opinions , a rite of passage , so to speak , and although most will fall by the wayside and adopt the ' conservative ' life of the middle-class ' burbs ' , more than just a few will keep the fire of a realistic truth burning , and will even meet up with like-minded people when they venture out of the consumer cacoon that is SO easy to accept as the only way to eat , bring up a family and derive SOMETHING to justify their existance in this vale of sorrow .
I began as a left-wing socialist , visited Russia , Latvia , Estonia and East Germany in the days of the 70s , after perastroika . I was appalled by the blatent privilege enjoyed by the chosen party members , my phone was tapped for 6 months after my return to the UK to establish whether I was a danger to the capitalist system of the West , and I consequently emerged as a rather less idealistic left-winger , but a much more canny socialist than I had been before the political scales fell from my eyes after my second visit to Russia and the Baltic states at the end of the 70s .
Incidentally the love of designer clothes is common to all - as I was followed everywhere in Moscow , Riga , Tallinn , and St. Petersburg by young gentlemen offering to buy my YSL Safari suit and my up-to-the-minute New-Man French sportswear . I felt so guilty to the extent that I could take such items for granted , whereas those youngsters had probably poured over Western magazines , wanting against hope that one day such sartorial richesse would come their way .
You're very intense at the moment , and I myself am so , though I think for much different reasons .
Let's lighten up and live and let live . Elitny Muscovites are draped in Versace , YSL , Armani and all the labels they could wish for . Let's hope that Reagon's economic trickle-down effect will happen ( I can hear your hollow laugh from here and it's the absolute still of the night ) and that the comforting effects of some luxury in everyones' lives will allow a legitimate and honest reaching out from the the second world to the third world that will actually happen .
It's actually ' cut the crap time ' for us ALL if we did but know it .
Please excuse my presumption , Faust , if I've taken liberties , I'm just reaching out to a fellow believer who hopes to reach the final goal by a slightly different route .
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and i don't know what that means i'm sorry. i probably am not doing very much like most of us. i am still learning about things, that is positive. it was an honest question i posed to you, and you also evaded it. but yes, i was ticked off by your attitude. both paulw and i, for instance, are obviously learning and the most constructive thing to do is not to jump down people's throats if you feel you are more informed than them, no?
