1059 Black- The Goths

There are who are the creators, the investigators and explorers of the universe. We are often at the extremes of the physical world climbing the highest peaks, delving the ocean depths, meditating across the desert or encountering all manner of things in the densest jungles. We tend to make our own rules, running excitedly around the edge of precipice shouting I can see you, I can see you. We are sometimes politicians or those who advise them. We are the inventors to make business buzz but more often than not we are artists, making work of God and the Devil, and sometimes believing that we are or have become. There are more of us in prison, mental institutions and the secret services than media will admit because there are lots of us in there too.

Yep, I do think the likes of us can come to believe we are the second coming or the devil's agent to populate the earth with Satan's little helpers, and of course, depending the dimension of your time of existence and perspective, some of us are.

For the rest of everyone there is the experience of the horror comic, book, and film although the latter is generally a means to scare the pants of your partner, as are the opportunities to dress up as tarts and vicars, the darkness and his concubine, and the mistress and her slave. We should approve of the increasing of such activities especially among men at sporting events as they generate increased employment and profit for the fancy dress manufacturers and outlets, and for the modelling, photographer and performance art experience although we are yet to progress from the novelty of students standing for hours motionless covered in glitter paint.

The Goths merit a different level of consideration because in reality both the originals and the sub cultures, which have lasted a quarter of a century, have been misrepresented both in terms of attitudes, dress and music, and in many ways they are the direct descendents of those of us who wanted to let our hair grow like the apostles, live in communes, handing out flowers and to make love.

The originals appear to me, from my limited reading, to have behaved no different from all the others who went about engaging in mass slaughter, rape and pillaging, and Jack Palance probably did Attila a disservice.

For this writing Icommend the Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goth_subculture

It would appear that I am not alone in confusing Heavy Metal fans with contemporary Goths and it wise to learn the different emphasis between Goths, neo Goths, Malligoth, Cycarachas, the Dark, the Hackians, Spooky kids, Moshers or Mini Moshers, Mini Goths and Baby Bats. Then there is the music of a post punk generation, with its separate development from Heavy Metal but also the overlaps in black attire, but which is also different

What warmed my aging heart is the non violent questioning nature of Goths towards state institutions which believe their spin and their toleration of other sub cultures and interest groups, but which the media has incorrectly presented as violent, minority hating and white supremacist. Where the media are perhaps right in their concern when representing the interests of the major religions, or in protection of the young, is that more often or not those attracted to Goth land are more likely to be Atheists, Agnostics, New Age, Wicca and Neopagan, and with an interest in the spiritual, supernatural and the use of religious imagery. This therefore is all a whiter shade of dark. Similarly it is heavy metal fans who while also dressing in black make up their faces to look like corpses, Finally the article goes through the various horrific disasters that have involved young age massacres centred in the US and Canada, and this is where what in many ways such cultural groups can be encouraged to become a vehicle for the dangerously disturbed, although from my experience this is true for all groups which gain public interest and been made more difficult to self monitor through modern communication systems. In the UK, we have experienced the phenomenon of the phone camera being used to video and transmit crimes, when use was originally seen as a means of checking up on who one is talking to. The web cam was also found to have a similar misuse, and the circulating of what people do knowing they are on street cams confirms that for every positive development several negatives ones will spring up unexpectedly.

This is not to disregard the many instances where dressing up for parties, for musical events, or to identify oneself as being part of a group posing the question, why is the king wearing no clothes, can have cross over portals into other worlds dangerous worlds of interests and experience.