The Path of Rebellion

When was the last time that you saw a good old fashioned rally/riot/display of public outcry (by old fashioned I mean not populated by a bunch of anarchistic skinheads hell bent on throwing something through a window.)? Was it the eighties? Maybe there is nothing left to fight for....

As far as social movements go, well, they've gone! They've gone digital.... or so I imagine, for people have been protesting since time began (all the way back to when Ugg was pissed that Blurg didn't respect his cave enough to not take a dump in it) and I don't see us all of a sudden burying our heads in the sand like some crazy ostrich family reunion. So there has to be a social movement taking place somewhere (but like a bowel movement I am not quite sure where the smell is emanating from)...

So how does one find out... it is not as if Google will list the top ten social movement web pages just like that... because invariably if they were to do so that would probably invalidate the movement itself.... or something like that...

Like all good paths, this one is poorly lit, bumpy, steep and winding, with no sign posts and not a map in sight. And who says that the internet is just for porn....

The Shiny Side

Has anyone seen the dark side of the moon? Of course not, because we only have one view point with which to admire it from. Even if scientists were to provide me with pictures of the dark side I would remain unconvinced, as I suffer from that oh-so-typical "seeing is believing" mentality.

Of late I started to realise that we will never know the truth, merely believe points of view. For instance when I was growing up I listened to a lot of Heavy Metal, without knowing much about its roots, but was convinced that it was the most hardcore hetero-male thing that anyone could be involved in. Having grown up in a country in which it was (and still is) illegal to be gay definitely makes me cringe to my core about the way that things were (and are). There was this perceived mental connection between leather and hardcore, bloodlust inducing, hair growing manliness! I knew some people that didn't wash.... ever.... not even dishes.... And I recently discovered that the connection between leather and heavy metal was down to one man, Rob Halford - the lead singer of Judas Priest.

Now the really interesting thing to note is that his penchant for leather relates to his ties to the gay scene in the 60s, as he is gay. This little revelation shocked me to the core, as these two scenes are extremely far apart in my mind, my how I chuckle to think how in a homophobic little country like mine there are groups of hairy, leather-clad sweat-barons, walking around in the belief that they are affirming their "straight guy" personas when they are in fact flying the rainbow flag for gay rights!

So I guess that it doesn't really matter whether or not I see the dark side of the moon... because the moon is a sphere without any sides. Except for that shiny one that keeps me awake a night...