July 20, 2005
Easy rider revisited
Wasn't there a Byrds song from around the time of Easy Rider, entitled 'Wasn't Born to Follow'?
I like the ugliness of the line. It reminds me of some well known US comics whose name I cannot remember.
The Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) Reportfor those interested in such things. Their report concluded that by riding pillion to the US in the invasion of Iraq, Britain (and the other members of the Coalition) had increased the risk of terrorist attacks on their own soil.
An Australian cartoon on a similar theme.
Easy Rider was a late 1960s "road film" (1969) made around the time of Woodstock. It was about the search for freedom (or the illusion of freedom) in an authoritarian, racist and corrupt America, in the midst of paranoia, bigotry and violence. The two buddies went looking for America but they couldn't find it.
They won't find it in Iraq either. What they will find though, is little by way of credible arguments to defend the occupation of Iraq.
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at July 20, 2005 05:43 PM | TrackBack