jackson@curium.DEC (Seth Jackson) (04/03/85)
>> Very few groups formed back in the early '60's are still >> playing and touring extensively as the Dead are today. >> There are probably three generations of Deadheads alive today. >> With the conservative backlash trying to eliminate all forms >> of non-conformity from society, and confine our federal >> government to nothing but a huge metallic WAR MACHINE, the >> indestructible Deadhead subculture is one of our strongest >> defenses against the fascists. Compare it to the solidarity >> underground in Poland for a moment.... >I just did. I can't stop laughing. A bunch of wasted hippies on drugs >seeing themselves as analogous to the resistance of the Solidarity >movement, fighting for "freedom" in a way similar to what Poles have had >to go through. It's just hysterical. And truly degrading to what those >people have had to go through. The "deadhead subculture" is perhaps >one of THE single strongest elements within the new yuppie subculture, >neo-conservative non-youths in business suits get to dress up like they >did back in college and smoke dope and take drugs and drive home in their >BMW's. This comparison makes me really sick. Well, once again, we speak from ignorance. On the way up to Portland, I was amazed and appalled at the number of cops along the highway searching carloads of Deadheads, presumably for no other reason than the fact that they look like hippies. At the toll plazas, there was a state trooper standing guard in front of each toll booth, eyeballing cars for "suspicious looking characters", i.e. Deadheads. Granted, it's not Poland, but this is the kind of resistance and intimidation we face when we want to do what we enjoy, which is clearly an attempt by the conservative right wing to restrict our freedom. The original posting was certainly an exaggeration, but it has elements of truth that are clearly worth thinking about. --- "Let's see with our hearts those things our eyes have seen And know the truth must still lie somewhere in between" Seth Jackson