Go Johnny Go!
The good word from Johnny Rotten, once of the Sex Pistols, and now touring in Britain with Public Image, Ltd. Rotten is being interviewed by a reporter for The Independent, a London newspaper. He quotes Rotten directly in the second paragraph :
“What I do know, having hung out with him for an afternoon, is that he’s still always spoiling for a fight. As we’re about to say our goodbyes, he pulls a sheaf of faxes out of his pocket. They are’complaints, e-mailed to his manager, John ‘Rambo’ Stevens, who lives in Arkansas, complaining that PiL will shortly be performing in Israel. One, from a fan called Lawrence Casin, declares: ‘I will destroy all my albums and paraphernalia that I have collected over the years if you bastards play that hell hole.’”
“Most musicians, particularly those who have been around for 30 years, wouldn’t let hate mail upset them. They probably wouldn’t even read it. But John’s anger is genuine. He wants me to record it, for posterity. ‘I really resent the presumption that I’m going there to play to right-wing Nazi Jews,’ he tells me. ‘If Elvis-fucking-Costello wants to pull out of a gig in Israel because he’s suddenly got this compassion for Palestinians, then good on him. But I have absolutely one rule, right? Until I see an Arab country, a Muslim country, with a democracy, I won’t understand how anyone can have a problem with how they’re treated.’”
I’m a fan now !
Punk music in its heyday was about non-conformity with the standard rock of the day. The left today is all about conformity and a lack of independent thought That is why Rotten remains true to the punk ethic. It’s hard to be punk when you’re pushing the ideas of the artistic, academic, media, and governmental establishment (i.e Green Day).
I doubt Rotten himself is much of a conservative, but he’s at least intellectually consistent, and that’s refreshing these days.
“Until I see an Arab country, a Muslim country, with a democracy, I won’t understand how anyone can have a problem with how they’re treated.”
How Muslims are treated?
It’s all well and good to protest boycotts of Israel and to applaud those who boycott those boycotts. but JR’s statement is one that no supporter of American and Israeli values can endorse.
I guess that the name, “Rotten” says it all. Free Palestine