RAVES ARE ABOUT PEACE AND RESPECT

There is just something comic, maybe even tragic about grey haired
sociologists and editorial boards discussing the rave phenomena of today's
youth culture.

As a young person with a degree in history, I can provide insight into what
has become a confused public debate.

You want to know how to stop, or at least control raves? Then you need to
know why youths go, and why policing won't work.

Every youth will tell you they're drawn to the music. But really, the drug
ecstacy is what makes a rave a rave. The drug of choice is prevalent at
raves; ecstacy is as much a part of rave culture as LSD was to hippie
culture and cocaine to disco queens.

True, not every youth is dropping E (ecstacy). But even if a youth does not
intend to drop ecstacy (or crystal meth which is quickly becoming its
successor), the environment that E induces is part of the allure of the rave
scene.

More concerted policing would destroy the free atmosphere that ecstacy
induces. Regulating raves would destroy the freedom of choice integral to
the rave scene. If this happens, raves will move underground -- and that
would be a problem. At a legal rave, your child is far more unlikely to
purchase bad ecstacy, because of the presence of the authorities. At an
illegal rave the same quality can not be assured.

If an unscrupulous drug dealer sells your child bad E at an illegal rave, he
can be long gone before law enforcement arrives.

At a legal rave, if a dealer sells bad E and some kid hits the floor, he is
likely to be caught, given the presence of the authorities. Thus, dealers at
the legal raves make sure they are selling an 'Equality product'.

Yes, I am suggesting that authorities, or at least those responsible for the
legal raves, turn a blind eye to the drug dealing.

And yes, I am suggesting this is the best they can do -- that a crack down
would drive raves underground.

Why raves and why now? What were the causes that led to the rave scene?
Well, the public and especially parents were frightened of the reported
increase in youth violence. Shootings across America and in some Canadian
cities gave parents the message that their child was at risk when with other
children.

Metal detectors became as much a part of schools as the library. Swarmings
are as common to malls as the Gap. For this reason parents aren't willing to
risk letting their teens host any sort of house party.

Perhaps this is fair.

I can assure you that youth today have also been shaken by the apparent
increase in violence among their peers. Whether at a house party or at a
club there is now a nagging recognition of the potential for a fight
involving weapons.

In some sense raves are a response to this youth violence; they're about
peace, love, unity and respect. They're about the freedom to be yourself and
do what you want without any fear of consequence from your peers. Whereas
violence and machismo may be secretly awed in schools and clubs, at a rave
they are not.

There, a non-violent credo is as prevalent as the pacifiers (prevents teeth
grinding) and glow sticks.

There is another reason raves, and what the culture represents, is so
popular: Today's youth are acquiring an adults cognitive abilities years
before they're allowed to make adult decisions. Youth are staying in school,
going to college or university until age twenty-two or even longer. Where
as, in previous generations, the men already had a wife and a long career,
and many women had a first child on the way.

Today's youth are not trusted to make adult decisions until after they're
done school. They're kept under thumb long after they acquire the maturity
and judgment of an adult; raves are their response.

The scene is that of a self-governed youth community where individual choice
is highly valued. Drugs, sex, and all night dancing is the norm, not the
deviant. Raves are freedom. To say you are a raver is to declare your
participation in a counter-culture. Most are students with little
responsibilities, not single mothers or young professionals with a
forty-hour work week -- for obvious reasons.

How to regulate them? One, there must be an end to the youth violence that
has become systemic.

Two, re-examine their passage into adulthood. Parents and society need to
put an end to the extended dependency among today's young adults. Because
hopefully, adult decisions led to adult responsibilities.

Ontario writer Jason Tackaberry also had his article published in The Ottawa
Citizen.