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Are women the only Stepford Wives? | 4 comments
[new] America's War on Fun (Avg. Score: 2.00 / Raters: 1) (#4)
by PeterHuetmannsberger (huetmann <at> violine.at) on Sat Jul 5th, 2003 at 02:45:05 PM EURODISCORDIA TIME
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As an outsider, one who was born and currently lives in Old Europe, I daresay Amy is right. This is neither new, nor is it a merely political issue.

2 weeks ago in Boston, at the very prestigious Boston Early Music Festival and Exhibition, not excactly a place where hippies hang out, there was a party after a performance of a Baroque opera. The orchestra made up partly by a bunch of Slovakian musicians joined a few of the organizers of the festival and some of the audience in a bar near the theatre. It did not take long before their fiddles were taken out of their cases and a soon Slovakian Folk songs accompanied by wild fiddle playing and excellent singing filled the bar.

There was beer, plenty of it, and what appeared to be fun, and then there was quiet, and a rush to the door. Beer glasses abandoned on their tables and the rest of Boston found a crowd of people standing just outside the bar smoking cigarettes, having animated discussions about the "land of the free" (yes, most of them were Europeans).

You can have beer inside the bar without cigarettes, and cigarettes outside the bar without beer. Needless to say, it took a while before the music and the "fun" restarted inside, only to be interrupted again after a while.

People who had grown up behind the Iron Curtain, found themselves comparing this situation with the times under Communist Rules (the very thing so hated by many US politicians). Insisted that the level of control over ordinary day to day life seems to be way higher in the States than in their own country.

What's worrying about this situation is not, that there are places where you can't smoke, if you are so inclined, or places where you can't drink. It is the unquestioned compliance with these laws, the fact that there seems to be no leeway whatsoever, in which to move around freely.

A few years ago, when Austria thought it had to join the band wagon of anti-smoking legislation, a law was passed that forbid smoking in public places such as airports, train stations and so forth. The result of this was, that someone stuck no-smoking-sign stickers on the ashtrays in the local airport. People continued to smoke of course, but it never became an issue.

People don't need to smoke, but people need to have fun. There must be places both in their minds, and their reality, where they can move around in an uncontrolled, unlegislated manner.

But I guess that is the main problem, fun is hard to control, and thus evil.

[ Parent ]


 

Are women the only Stepford Wives? | 4 comments
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