The Politics of Celebration

6Jul2003 Filed under: Glowsticks

If you ignore the subhead and the photo captions, this is a well-written, fair-minded article about Moontribe and Gathering of the Tribes and the groups’ political activism.

I don’t envy the writer, however. Given my experiences last year after writing this crap article, there’s nothing worse than writing about a sacred cow. If a writer dares to mention even a couple flaws of a beloved underground culture, s/he will undoubtably receive hate mail for weeks from betrayed community members. That said, East Bay Express article is much better written than the piece I cranked out last year…well, except the subhead and the photo captions. The fingerprints of an editor desperate for a little tittilation and humor are evident ALL over that subhead and those photo captions.

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3 Responses to “The Politics of Celebration”

esther
July 7th, 2003 at 10:43 am

i would have liked to see something in the article of actual things that have come out of the moontribes and GOTT, i.e. individual or group political action that have (or more conspicuously, have not) taken place. have they had group donations to progressive causes/groups, or trips to serve food at the homeless shelters, or road clean ups, or other action? talking about the parties themselves and the GOTT is as fruitless is talking about the company picnics and staff meetings of a non-profit rather than the work the non-profit actually does.

ultimately, though, i think it’s kind of silly to pose a thesis such as “But if a powerful positive vibe is created when hundreds of people gather around a sound system…, is it possible for the power of these temporarily autonomous leisure zones to be channeled back into real life?” i understand the community attempting to align themselves with certain political and progressive causes because (i would think) most people who attend those kind of parties do or believe in those things in their other life AND it sheds a positive light on that misunderstood community for the mainstream, but it *is* a community that has come together through partying and it will draw people who are not as driven as the organizers to find positive change in the world through whatever means (dance, political action, etc.) i.e. “In spite of the tightly guarded directions, word about this party clearly got out, because … there are loads of primarily male ravers stumbling about tweaked out of their gourds.”
Ariel
July 7th, 2003 at 11:04 am

It’s actually the most valid criticism I’ve heard of this article: apparently, the outcome of GoTT was the formation of a non-profit foundation to fundraise and then distribute grants to groups working to take action on the causes GoTT supports, such as community sustainability, harm reduction, political activism, etc. For whatever reason, the Foundation concept did not make it into the article.
esther
July 7th, 2003 at 1:39 pm

speaking of parties. . . . we had Chickenfest this weekend (chicken hed’s response to phoenix fest) and our friend brought her hard of hearing roommate . . . it was awesome! i told them about your friend Echo . . . and we all learned a bunch of good ASL words: beer, beers, drunk, drugs, high, music (evidently all music related words, such as ‘techno’, you use the same word for as well), bitch, molester, REAL ULTIMATE POWER, sunset, and sunrise.

whoever said parties couldn’t change the world?!

Hey there. I'm Ariel Meadow Stallings, a native Seattleite who's written my way up and down the Left Coast. Electrolicious is where I post daily randomata, but I also write for a living. My first book, Offbeat Bride, was published last year.

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