Raves are as Hakim Bay calls them, Temporary Autonoous Zones. They are places that when every thing works out right the old cultural models and stereotypes break down and we get a glimpse of what it would be like to live in a culture in which people are high on ecstasy, and open to life and each other. They are temporary because they have a short duration in time. They are set up by entrapenurs to make cash basicly just like a grateful dead concert.
What we really want is a Permanent Autonomous Zone, in which we create not a counter-culture but a real new culture free from violence and fear. Island Group is dedicated to the creatiion of such a psychedelic culture.
By the way, the search for community, for utopia, for a break out of the adolence of our species is not new. Aldous Huxley wrote about it in Island and Plato tried to create a rational PAZ in The Republic. What we need to do is go somewhere away from the dominant culture and experiment. It will take responsiblity and work. But in the end, we can party without the hangover of a sick culture.
Bruce Eisner - exstasym@aol.com (Exstasy M) - 13 May 1994