Did Plato Inspire America's War on Electronic Music-

DEA efforts to brand electronic music events as crack houses reflect similar anti music policies first practised in ancient Greece, an article in the Guardian revealed this week.

"Censorship of music has existed ever since the time of ancient Greece," said Marie Korpe, executive director of anti-censorship organisation Freemuse.

"Plato (a famous Greek philosopher from 300BC) distinguished between 'good music' and 'bad music'- suggesting that 'bad' music had to be controlled or banned, as it had the potential to divert people away from the 'good' life."

Miss Korpe's comments appeared in an article explaining why the Taliban banned music in Afghanistan, though could easily apply to the States, judging by the views of ACLU director Graham Boyd.


Speaking to Skrufff's Jonty Adderley just after the DEA launched their first crack house case against the State Palace Theatre this May, he was concerned about the consequences if the DEA succeed.

"If the government is successful in shutting down raves, what's to stop them from applying this tactic to other music genres, such as hip-hop, heavy metal and jazz, where drug use is known to exist-" he pointed out.

"Holding club owners and promoters of raves criminally liable for what some people may do at these events is no different from arresting the stadium owners and promoters of a Rolling Stones concert or a rap show because some concert-goers may be smoking or selling marijuana."

http://www.emdef.org/cases.html (more information on the Club La Vela case)

http://www.aclu.org/forfeiture (US Civil Liberties Union on cops and asset seizure)

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