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Editorial 09: Fire-Trucks and Midgets

The good people of earth have cashed their checks. Or so it would seem. Nothing is a given anymore and you can be sure that Armageddon or not, the world is in peril, as ever. There will be some consequences of this year 2000 computer dilemma of course. Most probably frequent utility loss will hurt those on the barest margins of society. The poor will be most effected from social assistance interruptions and a lowering of standards, and a changing definition of the welfare state.. But most of that has little

directly to do with the computers. The

computer is currently the catalyst for the pain heaped on those who depend on it in a way they cannot influence. The rich will be fine. They will hoard their cash and brandish loaded arms. The fallout will not be instantaneous, but instead a gradual lowering of expecta- tions witnessed by an increasingly marginalized lower class. No less an authority than Hunter S. Thompson said, “There will not be a year 2000, at least not like we have now.” And | am in no position to disagree with him. My own view of the future,

while no less apocalyp- tic, is not without hope. | think it won't get to the 12 Monkeys stage any time soon, but there will certainly be a lot more fire-trucks and midgets, and a dumbing down of all forms of entertainment. It is conceivable that the world can get no dumber. “Rock is dead,” Matt Good told me, and he was right. And so is pop and rap, and jazz. The art of the 90's is a kind of toxic mix of beat samples, and sad remixes. Television, which would seem to be in engaged in a perpetual race for banality, could not

possiblv aet any worse. The only thing that

makes me laugh is Stephan Macleod and he’s not on TV yet. Apart from a few channels in the 40’s the dial is full of cheap crap, and lame gags. Makes one want to go Travis Bickle on the old RCA. Sports, like an elaborate prostitution ring, has become admirable only for its

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financial possibilities. Loyalty, once thought ta be one of the principal reasons for sport, has become a laughable non-factor in a stock market like atmosphere where the rich always win. Sport is life; the rich always win in life too. Ken Dryden once called hockey our, “National Theater” and now that is true only in that tickets cost too much and the attraction usually stinks. Now, that stated, | can only offer this one ray of hope: Revolution. A revolution that happens maybe only once a century. Zack de la Rocha said, “what better time than now?”

and its an excellent question. The revolu-

tion is in involvement. Everyone can do something to effect change. Teach someone to read or publish your manifesto. The removal] of the blindfold only works if the denial is also interrupted. Best regards, and as my man Dave Allen used to say,

“may your God go with you.” co

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By Stephan MacLeod

UPEI stu- dents were deprived of the chance to see large men pummeling each other on campus. -

A locally

owned wrestling organization will be touring universities throughout the Maritimes around April.

Dalhousie, Acadia, UNB, and St FX have all agreed to bring Real Action Wrestling (RAW) to their campuses, but it will not be coming to UPEI.

When RAW

owner, Scott Gal- lant, contacted UPEI Student Union, he was told

that they did not want to host any type of wrestling and that they do not have the facilities

for it.

Gallant said every other student union he phoned was glad to bring this event in.

“It didn’t seem like they (the Student Union) wanted to do any work what- soever,” says Gallant.

Kyle Hann, UPEI Student Union Vice Presi- dent Operations, said there would have been difficul- ties bringing wres- tling to the campus.

“T’d have to book the Sports Center, and there’s too much adminis- trative tape to go through,” Hann says. “I’d have to

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