This post was originally copied and pasted from iloveraving.com's forum. To whoever wrote this: props. I was digging through some of my old files and this came up. and I thought it was an incredibly good read. Anyone who has any real interest in the scene and how it progressed, this is a must read.

A lot of posts on this board have made it blatantly obvious that there are some who don't understand what we ravers are all about. And when I use the term “ravers“, I am using it in the way one would use the term hip-hoppers, punks, skaters, surfers, or any number of other labels. I really want to talk about the cultural and political aspects of the terms that we are throwing around.

Before I begin, I am not trying to say that I am better or more special than anyone else. If you have been on this board for over a year, then you have heard my "foundation" theory about newbies. You know what's funny, the first time I even heard the term “newbie” was two February's ago when Baer was talking to me at For The Love SD, and I had been partying for 5 or 6 years already at that point. The first time I went to a party, I wasn't a raver. I was 14, scared, bewildered, mesmerized, and in love, all at the same time. Of course, it was really different then. Way more freaky stuff going down, and the music was nowhere near as good. Anyway, I'm sure all of us can think back to how we felt at our first party, and it's a feeling you never get back, so enjoy the memory. At that party, I was sober, and remained that way for about the first year that I partied. I didn't try ecstasy until early '97 (believe that?). I was afraid of it, and I know a lot of the desert heads who still are. They'd rather trip about 10 hits of L than take a single hit of X. I just want to give the "newer" ravers some background so they know where I'm coming from.

RAVE is a culture. Maybe the best parallel I can draw is between us and Hip-Hop culture. You can go to Tower and buy a Q-Tip CD and then go to Ticketmaster and buy a ticket to see him at the Palladium, and that's listening to Hip-hop. But there are deeper sociopolitical ideals that actually started the hip hop movement, back in the days of Afrika Bambaata and the Zulu Nation philosophy that he began. It's those ideals that are still alive in what we call the underground hip-hop scene, social consciousness and "f the system" positive living. That is a culture. You don't buy tickets to those events at Ticketmaster, and MC's are groomed and protected in that culture for 5 and 10 years (many) before you'll ever hear their tracks on the radio or see them on MTV. Think about what the media thinks hip-hop is, they think it is rap, violence, shooting, and all that stuff, when in reality, hip-hop heads are the most peaceful, down to earth heads out there. And it isn’t a black thing, that's the media. The first kids to break dance were Hispanic, and a great many of the first DJs were White. Do you see where I'm going?

In the same way, now that raves have become trendy, the culture behind it has been all but lost, except by those of us in the underground who try to keep it alive. You could probably say that raves started in England, with the one-off hardcore parties that they would throw right around 1989 in warehouses or wide open fields. This was such a far cry from the pop clubs of the time, that it attracted an eclectic mix of heads. The lines separated at about 1991 or 1992, with the more hippie type attitude hitting the people partying in the outdoors, and a different, new culture being embraced by the urban warehouse partiers. I want to switch over to the U.S. at this point. The undisputed catalyst for rave culture in the US was the MoonTribe Gatherings here in the desert. Everywhere you go, ravers know about MoonTribe. The full moon parties have been duplicated so many times, in so many different places, it's crazy. The vast majority of us old-schoolers cut our teeth on these parties. And in my opinion, these events are where the rave culture has sprung from.

In a nutshell, the philosophical background is this:

We live in a technological world, where so much information and technology (redundant) are available, it drowns out a lot of who we are. We are bombarded with so much, everyday, that it gets overwhelming. But essentially, we are a family, although different. The music we love transcends all racial, sociopolitical, ethnic, language, and age boundaries. We gather as a tribe, to enjoy each other, in a world of our own creation, in an environment of Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect. It isn't about the drugs, but think about it, in an environment that is loving, non-judgmental, and free from the crap of everyday society, you are free to experiment as you please. The whole world is ours and there is beauty everywhere: in a barren desert, or an abandoned building. Technology is to be used in tandem with nature, to enhance its potential, not to subdue it. When we start seeking to subdue nature and the world around us, we start also using technology to subdue our fellow (wo)man, which is wrong, because he/she is our brother/sister.

If you don't live every day with those principles in mind, you are not a raver. You may go to parties, you may even think you've been to a rave, but you aren't a raver. When you start living this way, you'll find a lot of things in your life will change, your priorities rearrange. Let me tell you from personal experience, while it may be scary at first, it's the right way to live. Why are "authorities" cracking down on raves? They see the commercial parties for what they are... drug parties. Why are they "drug parties"? Because no one has stopped to try to educate newbies on what it is that they are experiencing, or should be experiencing. No one has stopped to inform them that they are witnessing something new. No one has stopped to think that right now, if the culture of the scene can be instilled in this many people, then think of what a bright future we will have when our grandchildren are our age.

Here's the big thing, for you new heads... if you don't know, ask. Please. There are so many people that would love to talk to you, so many real ravers who are out there looking out for you, and are the reason why your scene has stayed as safe as it has, even with a lack of discipline on the part of 90% of the new partiers.

I know this is a long post, but I had to get some things out. I hope some of you listen, and you know who I'm talking to.

Unity

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KEEPIN' IT REAL

AMENO