Thursday 15 January 2009

Jello Biafra (PBUH) on fundamentalism

Massively off-topic, but I've been a big fan of Jello Biafra for years. I got my first exposure hearing California Uber Alles at a club as a teenager. I still think it's a great song, the aggression in it... but his voice and lyrics really stuck out too, and I've been a big fan ever since. I can still quote long chunks of DKs lyrics from memory (pretty boring experience I'm sure) and the Jello plus Ministry outfit Lard are still a regular feature on my iPod. Anyway, a few years ago I came across a great interview with him in a zine, which I've just managed to find online again. This bit stuck in my mind, and is a great swipe at zealotry of any stripe:
Biafra: I don't want to put it in black and white fundamentalist terms where it's like the more radical-then-thou are the only people who are doing right, and if you don't do as much as I do you're against everything, I mean, that's bullshit. It turns people off to good ideas as badly as fundamentalist Christians do. I mean, there's fundamentalist radicals, fundamentalist punks, fundamentalist vegans, I think we all know a few of that. Fundamentalism is poison. So, we do what we can and doing something is better then doing nothing. But it also means picking up actions and a life style you can live with and live up to, instead of something that makes you miserable to the point where you cross over to the other side 'cause you don't see any other way out 'cause you see stuff in too much of a black and white way because you're a radical fundamentalist. I try to encourage people to get away from that. I mean, there's a side of me that's a decadent rock-and-roller as hell, and some people don't like that, but that's me too.

Amen.

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