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I don't go to shows as much as I used to anymore. When I first started going to see some local punk or hardcore shows back in the early 90's, I remember there being a lot more activism within the scene. I would look around at all the merch tables and I would notice zines on top of zines being sold. Some of these zines would have political messages and I was always attracted to them for some reason. I guess this would coincide with some of the political bands I would listen to as well like Born Against, Dead Kennedys, Bad Religion and the like. These days I don't see too many bands or zines dealing with that sort of topic anymore. (I don’t see many zines at all). I'm sure there are some out there and, if they are, nobody is paying attention. I guess the whole internet has taken zine-making out of its heyday. And if any bands are doing political music these days it's beyond me, except for the mainstays of the business.
 
Nowadays I find myself browsing various online zines and non-music websites and for the most part these are news websites. Since 9-11, it seems the media has gotten more sinister in it motives and i'll start with this: the terror threat levels of the Bush administration. I would kind of laugh it off as a gimmick at the time - you know there is a better chance of getting in a car accident than being blown up by a suicide bomber in the U.S. To me it was just a fear tactic. I hate to sound un-American but when that day happened, I was kind of skeptical. Not in a way of "whoever did this must pay", it was more like whoever did this probably had a good reason to. Don't get me wrong, 3000 people dead is a fucked up thing and I would never wish that on anyone ever. But something seemed weird about it, and maybe it's just all those books I read about conspiracy theories, you know, like JFK and how there were multiple gunmen. Or the Gulf of Tonkin, a false flag operation to invade Vietnam, or Operation Northwoods that would have set a war with Cuba that never panned out. I can go on and on but the point is I was skeptical from Day 1. You have to wonder if the government is really telling the truth or not about the events of this day. How did they knew it was Bin Laden behind the madness, that same day? How did Building 7 free-fall like it did many hours after the towers did without a plane ever hitting it? Nobody ever brings that part up. It's really a complex issue to write about here so I'll just leave it at that.
 
Since that day, America has been going through a series of changes in the way we think and perceive things. Put it this way, the average American is happy watching TV, drinking beer, watching football, and talking about the weather on a daily basis, while we watch our liberties being stripped away without noticing. The Patriot Act, for instance, has really trampled on the Bill Of Rights for the sake of the "War On Terror" and Homeland Security. Remember the whole wiretapping of Americans - they probably still do it, just in a different way. And where is this Bin Laden guy anyway? I came across a Fox news article from maybe a year or two after the war started, stating he was dead, or reports he fled to Iran or Afghanistan. Did we really go looking for him or is there an alternative motive? I read a story about two months ago that there are millions of dollars worth of lithium deposits over there. Not to mention, iron, copper, and gold have been found in large quantities by American geologists. Geraldo Rivera was also on a newscast with an army officer who was admitting to helping farmers grow poppy plants. Afghanistan is the world’s largest supplier of opium in the world and production has skyrocketed since the fall of the Taliban. We've been in there for 9 years and what exactly has been accomplished?

And what about Iraq? WMD's? What a farce that was. The U.S. put Saddam into power and cradled his little country into a military power and the Bush family then cut him down like a corn stalk. I am not praising Saddam by any means, he was a tyrant. Now the war is over according to Obama but 50,000 contractors are still established within? What are they really doing in there? Something doesn't add up for me, and neither does this Obama guy. When he was elected there was a record number of voters that turned out for the coming of this new messiah. He promised "change" and his slogan, "Yes we can". Yeah, we sure did get change, he tripled the U.S. national debt with these banker bailouts and the Federal Reserve chairman cannot tell you where the money went. In fact, the Federal Reserve is a pretty much a private company that loans money to the government with interest. Fed chairman Ben Bernake was Time Magazine’s Man Of The Year but can't tell Congress where billions of dollars went? Hitler was Time’s Man Of The Year as well, as a side note. Anyway, Obama rammed through a healthcare bill that nobody in the Congress could read - a 2,000 page bill - while his Speaker of the House was quoted saying "Let's get this thing passed so we can see what's in it". Yeah, let's wait and see what happens when everybody who can't afford healthcare will be forced to buy it or they'll be fined by law. Obama is a pretty good actor reading off a teleprompter. Anything that comes out of his mouth sounds pretty convincing. It's good to have an actor on the podium. There is so much more we say say here - it can go on for days.
 
These are just some questions and some facts to raise a little thinking, whether they sound legit or just pure quackery. What does this have to do with music? Maybe the underground needs another dangerous band like Born Against or the Dead Kennedys to get out a message. Those bands had a lasting impact within the culture. They made you think. I wouldn't mind seeing another band riddled with controversy coming around again.

Pristina's new album, The Drought (ov Salt and Sorrow), is out now on Trendkill Recordings.

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