Yes! I am a product of the 80\u2019s. Psychedelic colors, big hair, parachute pants, Members Only jacket, MC Hammer \u2013 \u201cYou can\u2019t touch this,\u201d break dancing (still got some moves), and of course rock \u2019n\u2019 roll! We were cool, we were hip, we were the bomb. Parents didn\u2019t get us. They were lame, out of touch. Dude! So was all of society, that is, except for us teenagers. That is the way we saw it. Us against them. We wanted, no, we needed separation from the identity of our parents, the system, the Man. I cannot think of another 80\u2019s band that personified the disestablishment attitude with more animus then Twisted Sister. Their song \u201cWe\u2019re Not Gonna Take It\u201d epitomized the passion of rebellion that so characterized my generation of the 80\u2019s.<\/p>\n
OH WE\u2019RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT
\nNO, WE AIN\u2019T GONNA TAKE IT
\nOH WE\u2019RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE<\/p>\n
WE\u2019VE GOT THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE AND
\nTHERE AIN\u2019T NO WAY WE\u2019LL LOSE IT
\nTHIS IS OUR LIFE, THIS IS OUR SONG
\nWE\u2019LL FIGHT THE POWERS THAT BE JUST
\nDON\u2019T PICK OUR DESTINY \u2018CAUSE
\nYOU DON\u2019T KNOW US, YOU DON\u2019T BELONG<\/p>\n
It was a chant that reverberated out against the system, that in our eyes, wanted to enclose us, control us, and put us in our place. And so, we did, what every young person longs to do against such repressive restraints, rebel! Now some twenty-plus years removed from those days I, and the rest of my rebelling cohorts realize that the system which we desired to rebel against was in fact the very system that allowed our counterculture rebellion to have a voice and yet remained the same ready to entertain the next generation of rebels.\u00a0 And so the cycle continues.<\/p>\n
Our 80\u2019s psychedelic expressionisms was simply the \u201cpsychic liberation of the oppressed\u201d[1]<\/a> expressed in the codifying desire for entertainment. Heath and Potter pointed out the true issue of the rebellion and most of western counterculture is in fact summed up in the Beastie Boys 1986 release, \u201cYou Gotta Fight For Your Right to Party.\u201d[2]<\/a> Yeah, that about sums up my walk on the countercultural revolutionary side of things. We were not a threat to any system just a minor social deviation[3]<\/a> that the system, whatever that was or is in our eyes, has the ability to, not only endure, but neutralize through co-optation and thereby profit from the very forms that were identified within the countercultural attempt![4]<\/a> Back in the eighties I wore the Billy Idol t-shirt and wanted to be significant in my attempt to bring about social change by being genuinely radical, but radical against what?\u00a0 It seems now that I wanted the feeling of making a profound difference without the cost or sacrifice that comes with a true revolution.\u00a0 An so the cycle continues.<\/p>\n The authors make the statement that the \u201cidea of a counterculture is ultimately based on a mistake. At best, countercultural rebellion is a pseudo-rebellion: a set of dramatic gestures that are devoid of any progressive political or economic consequences and that detract from the urgent task of building a more just society.\u201d[5]<\/a> Consequently, rebellion is nothing more than a form of entertainment for both the rebels and, to some extent, the masses who simply are spectators continuing to go about \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d in the system that the rebels are trying to jam. I so agree with this pseudo-rebellion definition for I, and those involved in most western rebellions, know not the true cost of a real rebellion. I ponder upon the cost of true revolution such as the American founding fathers, and those like Dietric Bonhoffer and William Wilberforce, who, at the potential loss of life and all that they held dear counted it all but rubbish in the unrelenting pursuit of revolution: true change to the social justice in their current society.<\/p>\n The entire subject of this Rebel Sell begs the question, Is there anything that we are willing to enter into, defy the status quo, and engage in true counterculture subversive activity to see a change in the current situation?\u00a0 I have to believe that the true disciple of Christ is a rebel at heart against the very spirit of this age that now works in the children of disobedience.\u00a0 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath. Were it not for the True Rebel who went counter cultural and laid down His life for us, we would still be dead in our trespasses and sins.\u00a0 Let us follow His example and set the captives free from the Matrix of sin and deception. This is now my rallying cry, though the song is the same the audience has changed: Spirit of Lies, Demonic world \u2013 We\u2019re not going to take it anymore!<\/p>\n