A very good friend of mine has recently equated the rave scene that we are expanding and creating, to that of the hippie scene of his day. I was intrigued and inspired to understanding that we as the youth (or the young at heart) are pioneers for a new way of exploring old ideals. I use “ideals” specifically because what we humans naturally strive for is idyllic life, what ever that may be for the individual.

Humankind has been trying to understand itself from the beginning but has failed to voice and define “meaning of life”. This is because every one’s meaning of life is different to everyone else’s. Trying to understand the rave scene is no different. It becomes a venue of personal preference rallied around a certain pivot. If we cannot be conscious of this epicenter we cannot be a continue to be a community.

What holds us together?

The music?: Not if we all hate each other’s preferences.

Style?: Not if we are all elitist snobs who have nothing better than to criticize other people’s creativity, or even their lack of creativity.

Personalities and friendship?: Not if friendships are based solely on the segregation of music and styles.

Is it the drugs? I hope like crazy it isn’t. Because although they exist and are prevalent in the scene they cannot possibly be the anchor we are looking for, or else everything everyone says about us would be true. Besides there are so many ravers who are “straight-edge”.

What do we rally around? Why and how can we call ourselves if there is no such thing? Does this make everyone who is different a raver? Does this make everyone who is the same a raver?

I don’t believe so. I think we all do care very much about the scene and each other, enough to express ourselves and to find out what we are truly looking for in life; Understanding of self. Raving, as either an escape or a refuge from the daily grind or as a way of life or what ever it means to the individual should be reflected by some unifying aspect. I personally would *like* it to be some type of philosophy such as PLUR, but apparently many believe it is dead, or never existed.

PLUR must exist; maybe not in its purest most idyllic sense, but the philosophy must be in our minds somewhere, even out side of raverland, or else life and the world would be pure evil. Think of each on its own:

What is wrong with Peace?
What is wrong with Love?
What is wrong with Respect?

I think that it may be the Unity that we have to evaluate. I think that this is where we have a problem. Each of us wants to be an individual, to be recognized for one’s self, but paradoxically this is impossible within a group, trying to band together and forge an identity.

Individuals are rarely recognized, but groups tend to fragment and become divided, or rally and lose dimension. Where is this happy medium? I don’t know. If I did, I would most likely be God or whatever one chooses to call that unexplainable force in my/our universe.

That’s just it, it is unexplainable, but I am sick of hiding what I want: (which in my case is happiness). I am sick of bickering and in-fighting and I am sick of trying to be myself and being blocked at every beat.

On occasion, I mock those who are fanatical about “PLUR” because I don’t think many of these people understand its dimensions as wholly unreachable. PLUR is a fabulously idyllic acronym, but it is just words, unless it is applied universally and in its entirety. “It's really very much of a complicated thing to have Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect, there has always been one or two missing to complete the package.”( Jimena Gonzalez, August 23, 2000: personal correspondence)

Too often do I see PLURists who judge others based on music or style, and I have become sick. Isn’t this precisely what we have been fighting against and our whole lives? Once people begin to realize that people don’t HAVE to subscribe to PLUR but rather, that it is the attempt to achieve it that is important. With that, we might have our anchor.

We are the different ones, we are for the most part intelligent ones, but yet we argue out of pettiness and defensiveness and ignorance and we dispute over semantics, because each one of us wants to understand first and best. Which can only be equated with selfishness ambition, which ultimately leads to... well, you tell me...............

Why we cannot thrive and embrace and be educated by these differences we have amongst ourselves is totally beyond me.

Being part of this “rave scene” has become a part of me. I finally feel accepted as an individual within a group and am beginning to understand myself and others more and more. I have found some beauty to attach to my life, in the music, the people, the atmosphere. I go to a party and say to my self; “Here I am at home.!” Human patterns have morphed over decades, centuries and millennia but yet no one has found that perfect recipe for idyllic life, but it doesn’t mean we should give up trying either. Or we will all “crack-out” and die.

Why are you here? Why do you think you belong?
What makes you a raver? What makes us acommunity? (All rhetorical BTW)

Prove yourself to yourself, and others will do the same for themselves. Stand for something and know what it is, and why it makes a difference to you. I still don’t know who I am and cannot fully answer my own questions. But I am trying. And yet somehow, I am defined by myself and others, as a raver.

Like the hippies before us, we are misunderstood, under-represented, somewhat passive and plagued by propaganda and negativity. Let us attempt to beat the paradox and achieve unity, based upon our differences, and tolerance for each other’s idiosyncracies. Why betray our selves to those who do not want to understand? And let us accept those who are willing to learn; no matter what style of music, or clothing, or drugs they may or may not enjoy.

I am no better than you, but I am trying to be better than me."