Date: Mon, 9 Oct 1995 05:43:54 -0400
Subject: Re: P.L.U.R.
To: Multiple recipients of list NE-RAVES <NE-RAVES@UMDD.UMD.EDU>

just recently on mw-raves [mailing list], someone asked what PLUR meant. i tried describing it to them as best as i could. here is what i sed. tell me what y'all think...

the origin of PLUR

alot of mw-ravers think PLUR is some philosophy dating back to Woodstock. true, hippys were big on peace & love. but that's not where plur came from. all true old skoolers know about PLUR & its significance to the entire rave culture, read on...

frankie bones introduced raves (in the underground party sense) to the east coast by throwing a series of big underground partys. they were known as the Storm Raves. many promotors give mr.bones credit as the founding father of raves in america. it was at one of these Storm Raves that mr. bones gave a very important speech after one of his very powerful sets. he explained what the scene was about and why he had brought it to NY: peace, love, unity, and respect. when he finished everybody in the ware house waved their hands in the air in complete unity. for many it was the most beautiful speech anyone has ever heard.

when ne-raves wuz started up @ the university of maryland. all the old skoolers still talked about frankie's speech. they talked about it so much that PLUR became the acronym for peace, love, unity, and respect. but it wuz dan freelove, the list administrator of ne-raves, to first use PLUR in his sig. as a result PLUR became an ne-raves 'thing'.

however more recently the meaning of PLUR started to fade. but one netter (from montreal canada actually) tried redefining it the best he could. it is his definition that really brought about the PLUR revival on ne-raves and it is his definition which i chose to print in a past issue of PLRM.

this is ecto's (brad finley's) definition of PLUR as printed in the July issue of PLRM:

we are all connected. and do you know what connects us all? on the net it's called PLUR. no it's not a dishwater detergent, its an acronym that stands for Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect. these are big words and may be difficult to define but here are some ideas:

Peace:
the calmness you find with those around you, and also inside of yourself. it's tough, we often have to work at it but when you're at peace with others, with ourselves and with our planet only good can come of it.
Love:
the caring you feel for friends, for strangers, for those in need and also for caring you show for yourself. it's symbiotic, it's about sharing whatever energy you put into something will be returned to you!
Unity:
this means we all share alot of common things, regardless of our age, gender, race, orientation, whatevah! we are all human beings, we all need other people, & we're all in this for the happiness experienced being around others. though we may have differences, we all arise from the same source.
Respect:
this may mean respect for others, their ideas, their music, & their lives. it's also respect for one's self: one's body and the needs that it has (food, sleep). educating yourself on the substances you ingest shows love and respect for your body; passing on the knowledge to others shows respect and love for your fellow person.

that is PLUR as defined by ecto. however how one chooses to practice PLUR in their everday life may be different. here is how Spike (Rafael C Gonzalez) from ne-raves chose to practice it:

One more thing, as the hippie that i am I believe in PLUR for myself, in that I will practice it, and I know that it is an IDEAL, not everyone follows it and not everyone believes in it...it is a personal choice I make in an attempt to continue to develop new morals and values as I continue on through life. That persoanl choice affects others and they react to my choice in a way which they personally choose also, this will not make me change my values for them, but it will cause me to react to their reactions of my actions. Thus, i will be forever changing my ideas based on the actions of others based on my initial actions...what does this mean? Well, it is just a way of saying that my views of PLUR are because I do feel it is possible for me to love until i am acting on someones belief that I am not to love. basically, I give peace when given peace; i give love when given love; I am united with one when they seek union with me; and I respect when i am respected.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. There is evil and ther is good, and without one there can not be the other. It is a philosophy of balance and wholeness that I believe PLUR is. And no i dont always see it, no i dont think it exist everywhere, but I have it, and in a way that is all that matters, since if it is within me, it is possible to be everywhere. one is all. we are all connected.

spikE

that is how Spike chose to practive it. how u choose to practice it or whether or not u choose to practice it is up to u.

for me i chose to practice it, when i started PLRM (Peace Love Rave Magazine) a year ago.

PLUR,

stevie t

From: Laura LaGassa <laura@infoseek.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 11:29:33 -0800

I saw that article when it was posted a year ago, and posted a reply explaining a lot more about where PLUR really originated, but I can't seem to find anything but this. Anyways, my point is that the "Frankie Bones" story is wrong.

Here's what happened:

Lots of people in the New York area, Frankie Bones included, were saying "peace/love/unity" all the time in 1992-1993.

In about May of 1993, Brian Behlendorf came out to visit the East Coast from San Francisco. He brought along a bunch of literature, including Geoff White's booklet, "Cybertribe Rising." In it was an essay -- by Geoff I believe -- about the "4 Pillars of the House Community." One of those pillars was "respect," which I had never heard uttered in combination with "peace/love/unity" on the East Coast. Sure, I'd seen "respect" on it's own, especially on flyers where people would give "shout outs" to people who helped put on a party, but it was not really prominent.

So in very early June, 1993, Brian and I were at a renegade party held at RFK stadium's parking lot in Washington DC, and we started talking about the spirits and feelings behind raving. I said something about "peace/love /unity" and Brian immediately added "and don't forget Respect." From there it hit me that a lot of people would say "peace/love/unity" and not mention respect. So, I went and wrote the essay you have at

http://www.hyperreal.com/raves/spirit/plur/PLUR.html

When I wrote it, though, I didn't have the acronym "PLUR" attached to it. I wrote the essay and posted it to ne-raves, in early June of 1993. Very shortly thereafter, one ne-raver, Rishad Quazi (who now lives in SF), signed an e-mail to the list with "PLUR." It caught on like wildfire, and Rishad's encapsulation is now in extremely common use.

Now, getting back to Frankie Bones.

In late June of 1993, I spun at a party that the old Storm Rave crew (Frankie Bones, Adam X, Heather Heart) were putting on in conjuction with the New Music Seminar in New York City. During that party, a scuffle broke out between rival gang members. Frankie jumped up on the turntables and started shouting "If you guys don't show some peace, love and unity right now I'm going to break your faces." He didn't mention "respect" explictly.

I've been to all the Storm Raves except for those in early 1992, and Frankie made a lot of speaches. In April of 1993 he made one in a warehouse after an extremely good night (it was the STOP party held the night before Easter). He did say why he brought raves to NY, and talked about the first party he spun at outside of London, and said "we're about bringing music and dancing to places where there's no music and dancing." And when he finished, people did roar and wave their hands in the air, but he didn't articulate PLUR as such.

And it wasn't Dan Freelove who was the first ne-raver to use PLUR as an acronym. I'm about 99% sure it was Rishad Quazi. And if it wasn't Rishad, then it probably was Dan, but I'm still mostly sure it was Rishad.

So there you have it, the story from someone who was actually there. I think a lot more of the credit goes to Geoff White and Rishad Quazi than to Frankie Bones is all I'm getting at. And some goes to me and Brian :-)

Laura