“Yeah, Augustine’s okay. I mean, he IS an Aristotelian…”
- Aaron Russin, in conversation in a West End diner, December 22, 2011
ROBUST COMMUNITARIANISM
I'm a marxist theorist and i have the beard and big glasses to prove it.
Some nights, after too much scotch and red wine, I like to wrap my head up in a bath towel and parade around my apartment, imagining that I am Selim III, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Peg City Car Co-op, and Northern Ireland. BOW BEFORE ME, COMRADES.
“Get of my traffic lane, please, for we are the Ferrari Boys.”
In my attempts to understand hardcore music, I began to make friends with a number of people that are in that scene. Imagining that we would be organizing collectives to run rehearsal and performance spaces in economically marginalized neighbourhoods, publish fanzines featuring Xerox’d images of neoliberal politicians with devil horns, and participating in local Food Not Bombs events (is FNB even considered good anymore, or is it too much based on the capitalist charity model?).
What I was surprised to find out, was that the above activities are considered to be “gay” by hardcore scenesters, and that rather than go to hardcore shows, local hardcore enthusiasts prefer to get drunk and listen to music written and performed by black American rap artists, particularly ones that are from the Southern regions of the U.S. (but interestingly, given their near Tropical locales, sing about “ice” quite frequently).
Well, I do like to have a drink or two on occasion, and so if this is what my friends in the hardcore scene view as a good time, then it’s fine by me. Bottoms up, indeed, my urban American friends.
Walker Flocker Enflamed (left), with his associate, Gucci Man
I JUST THINK HE SHOULD HAVE READ MARX MORE CAREFULLY, THAT’S ALL.
I used to live in Japan.
Look, I just think we’ve given the market a fair shot at a benefitting society. Maybe it’s time that we let a few other economic systems have a turn.
Aaron Russin
Can someone please explain hardcore to me? I mean, like, its basic philosophical premises, particularly as they relate to concepts of legitimacy, violence and self-determination.
UTILITARIANISM = *FART SOUNDS*
GRRRRRR. I HATE THIS BALD-HEADED FUCK MORE THAN ANYTHING. I AM MAKING OBSCENE GESTURES AND SOUNDS AS I WRITE THIS, I HATE HIM SO MUCH
I DON’T THINK I WILL EVER WEAR ANY FOOTWEAR BUT BLUNDSTONES, NOT EVEN CHUCK TAYLORS, WHICH ARE NAMED AFTER ONE OF MY FAVOURITE LIVING PHILOSOPHERS. NOW, IF CONVERSE WERE TO MANUFACTURE SHOES CALLED SLAVOV ZIZEKS, ON THE OTHER HAND…
What Astilabor, Deity of Hoardes teaches us about communitarianism
My social philosophy is shaped by Hegel, Marx, and the British Idealism movement.
But mostly, it’s shaped by Dungeons & Dragons.
Aaron Russin contemplates a better world
