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Mini-THREAD on Rave Culture!
Rave culture felt, & arguably was, revolutionary!
It seemed to come from out of nowhere, took almost everyone by surprise, & at it& #39;s height in the early 1990s around 1 million young people were taking ecstasy most weekends. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgjog28R9_0">https://www.youtube.com/watch...
Rave culture felt, & arguably was, revolutionary!
It seemed to come from out of nowhere, took almost everyone by surprise, & at it& #39;s height in the early 1990s around 1 million young people were taking ecstasy most weekends. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rgjog28R9_0">https://www.youtube.com/watch...
The Sun initially embraced it as & #39;the latest dance craze& #39; (tee hee) & even marketed their own smiley & #39;Acid House T-shirts!& #39;
Inevitably, journalists soon reframed it as just another drug panic, with innocent young people - YOUNG GIRLS! - being led-astray by evil drug dealers
Inevitably, journalists soon reframed it as just another drug panic, with innocent young people - YOUNG GIRLS! - being led-astray by evil drug dealers
But raves kept happening. A LOT! Mainly because disaffected young people were sick to death of the atomised, individualistic shithole Britain had become after a decade of Thatcherite free-market greed, the destruction of communities. & welfare "reforms". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nToOdpXYATs">https://www.youtube.com/watch...
Massive free parties were happening all over the place - during summertime often in some pretty nice places - much to the horror of the local Tory voters.
The authorities struggled to cope - how DO you arrest 1 million otherwise law-abiding young people? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4iwvrb_2Qs">https://www.youtube.com/watch...
The authorities struggled to cope - how DO you arrest 1 million otherwise law-abiding young people? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4iwvrb_2Qs">https://www.youtube.com/watch...
This didn& #39;t take place in an economic & political vacuum. The increasingly sadistic Tories introduced a draconian poll tax (a flat tax paid regardless of whether you lived in a Mayfair town house or a one bedroom flat) & for many, it was the final straw. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFM8dSQCd-Y">https://www.youtube.com/watch...
The poll tax followed the Miners& #39; strike - during which the Tories got the Police to smash the fuck out of Unions & proud working-class communities - & the "massive threat" of a few hundred "New Age Travellers" - who they also smashed the fuck out of. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3YtmBD_thM">https://www.youtube.com/watch...
By the end of the 80s there was mass unemployment, mass contempt for the sadistic Tories & along came ecstasy. Young people especially had had enough of the neglectful ideologically obsessed authoritarian shitshow Tories, so they organised their own joy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnash9aBjW0">https://www.youtube.com/watch...
The Tories introduced increasingly draconian legislation to prevent raves (£20K fine & 6 months in prison for organising a rave) & started to liberalise the licensing laws in order to contain, commodify, exploit & reduce the appeal of alternatives to selfish free-market shittery.
