> oe ———s a October 19th, 1984 THE OTHER PRESS page 7 From fledgling fo gelding HEADLINE: STUDENT PAPER DIES FROM TERMINAL APATHY This colege paper is dying. Years ago we had an ability to Report news. The kinds of news that affected the students of this college. Forwarning by ROGER BOLEN the people that are affected by the policy makers, the bureaucrats, the students themselves. We find our- selves in the..midst of an apathetic jungle. This college does not teach journalism and there are no real journalists interested in coming here from the outside world. This college should be concerned with the students’ voice, but they’re not, because not enough students give a damn about their own rights. Not enough students care about the future of others. Last summer in the final addition of the Other Press, the masthead pro- claimed this newspaper was autistic in jest. How very horrifying to learn that it was true. This newspaper no longer deals with the needs of the student body because the students don’t know or don’t care what their rights are. This newspaper is dying of intro- spective behaviour. It’s eating itself up from within, burning itself out by writing one page of noteworthy news and composing volumes of filler. We - entertain the student body to thanatoid sleep with tripe when we should be. informing them, calling their fears on the carpet. We would like to tell you that everything in this college is just hunky-dory but it is certainly not. New budgets formulated by this college will raise the rates agian next year, new government policies are killing edu- cation; more insane behaviour is being exhibited by the lack of government support for colleges when education should be the key to the immediate future. Punk came out in response to the generally unexciting and _ overpro- duced North American music of the mid-seventies. Poor working-class by DAVE WATSON kids in England began to torture guitars to provide background for shrieking lyrics about how awful and unfair everything was and advocated apathetic disregard of the bulk of ~ society. My parents were shocked at these loud kids and their innovative fashion sense. This is only natural. If punk didn’t offend people’s parents then it wasn’t working. Rock was returning to its origins as loud music that the older generation hated. Those days of dropping out and ignoring the world have passed on. Punk has infiltrated the mainstream in a preppy form via artists like Billy Idol. DOA, Vancouver’s own world-class punk band and Public Image Limited (led by ex-Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten) played at U.B.C. October 14th. | went to see how they had adjusted to the | am terrified by the lack of interest exhibited by so many students. Is being a social air-head more important than taking a little time out of life to correct a problem? Perhaps it’s better not to be labeled radical after all; perhaps it’s better just to let things slide down to inevitable collapse. I’ve presented much of this without giving concrete facts because | want the people of this college to look around for themselves. | want the people that are supposed to be here learning how to think, to tell me I’m wrong. | want to hear it from the people that matter most and not my co-workers who are too damnably busy with the wars in some insignificant little country or the social politicos that are creating unrest. | want to hear a student say ‘‘Hey this isn’t right.’’ but most of all | want to be proven wrong. If I’m right then it’s already too late. The Other Editorial What is the matter with a society that emphasizes the destruction of the environment, the destruction of them- selves and the destruction of others for by IAN LYON fun and profit? Is it that we have reached such an intellectual state that we are bored and must return to barbarism to have any fun? Or is it that we still have not risen from the primordial ooze to achieve any level of discernable intelligence? Unfortunately it appears that the latter is the case. We allow govern- ments to build armaments and engage in immoral clandestine activities that endanger the very existance of the globe. This is not caused by an intellectual fear of obliteration, but by a quest for power in order to feed governmental ego, at the expense of innocent people. Although no aggressive military action can be totally justified or defended, wars between tribes over territorial indiscretions can be ration- alized - but only if both tribes are at the subsistance level of existence. In other words, if they can produce only enough food to keep themselves alive and are not able to store a stockpile of mid-80's. Since | was expecting a punk rock audience, | wore my Grateful Dead T-shirt, to be different, but | soon found.out that | was more instep with DOA’s new brand of music than most of the crowd. DOA are in transition to a post-punk form that I’m going to call Hippie Punk. DOA opened to a crowd that was well known to them. The usual old favourites were performed (including a great version of Singing in the Rain) before announcing some songs from the album they are about to record. Instead of advocating political apathy and dropping out of society, these songs have a more positive theme. They want us to ‘‘work together’’ and ““wreck the party’’ that North America has become while half the world starves. | was just thinking how this attitude mirrored sixties protest music when DOA began their cover of Edwin Starr’s War. ‘DOA sounds much more tight and polished than they used to. This is a food to feed themselves during a period of drought or other such catastrophes.If a tribe or society produces enough to feed themselves, store for emergencies and still have an excess, the only reason for not sharing with tribes or societies that are unable to sustain themselves is the lust for power and greed. But, of course, without this lust for power we would not have the great imperialist empires of the world that have given the colonized peoples of the globe so many richs - slavery, poverty and famine. When societies are able to sustain themselves, protect their borders and have a semblance of internal stability, their governments have nothing else to do, so they begin to make regressive laws. To ensure their own existance they put limits on what businesses can and cannot do, and stir up an illogical nationalistic fever, with the premise ‘that their way of life and economic ‘system are the only true system to follow. Sounds like an argument for a regressive religious belief, doesn’t it. After they have brainwashed the people into the belief that they are the best, and that anyone or any- country that doesn’t believe in their way is the band in transition from an extinct musical subculture to a new form, -certain to lose old fans and win a slightly different crowd. A highlight of their unfortunately short set was an old Leadbelly blues tune, Midnight Special. As Bob Dylan would say: ‘The times they are a changin’ .”’ Public Image Limited (PiL) showed an artist who. has changed in some ways, but not in others. Johnny Lyden changed his name back and renounced the Sex Pistol days. The set was very elaborate and well designed, resembl- ing a spider web of rigid reinforced lines that produced squares when they met - it was certainly not a bare, no-frills stage. A fog machine com- pleted the effect -of a show business rock concert. Lyden came out wearing what looked like a pair of pajamas | used to own. Orange hair and a skull-like grin complete the effect of an insane man. Lyden rants and raves in his own world (not unlike Ozzy Osbourne), while spasticly lurching around the stage. enemy, the next step is clear - the exportation of that belief by coersion and war. But wait a minute, this idea - this nationalism- was created by a government for the preservation of — itself. Why drag innocent people, who only by accident of birth, were born under that system, into their fight? Oh, sorry. | forgot that you were lucky to be born under that system. It’s your duty to protect it - or so the government tells us. Without the unwavering support of the populace, the governmental sys- tem disintegrates. See library under Revolution. Unfortunately, most of these revolutions occur in small coun- tries that are either economically or militarily supported by one of the Super Powers (U.S. and U.S.S.R), therefore no real change takes place. Are governments really necessary? ‘With our state of technological devel- opment and interdependance that all countries of the world presently share, maybe this is the point at which we should be looking at the dissolution of all governmental systems and encour- age the true fact that all peoples must band together for the survival of this planet as a sane, productive place to exist. PiL Hard To Swallow Other than Bodies, no Sex Pistols material was performed and Lyden made the break with his punk origins by telling the bobbing mass in front not to spit on him. ‘‘It’s all been done before and better.’’ He also commend- ed the security guards. PiL were very good in concert, but they didn’t play very long. Like a spoiled child, Lyden complained about the crowd response, and instead of trying to work them up he told them that he was going to the dressing room to drink beer until they wanted him back. At this, the crowd started chanting for DOA. When Pil came back, they did a few more: songs, including This is Not a Love Song, before leaving. PiL was good, but Lyden’s arro- gence and contempt for the audience ruined the show. He certainly hasn’t changed in this respect, and if he doesn’t, he’ll lose his following. It’s hard to cheer for an encore from a guy who tells you that you’re not being thankful enough for his presence.