Young white men like myself have often sought some way to piss our parents/suburban communities off, to escape our boredom, our seemingly false, safe life by identifying with something on the fringe until we grow old enough to realize we really do like listening to NPR’s Saturday lineup in a VW Jetta . We find drugs, punk music, a passing activist fad, and more often than not the lifestyle and art of some “Other” (read African-American) culture. But these days, is it getting too darn easy and formulaic to play this out on our facebook/myspace/youtube accounts? You only have to look at the never ending comment lists on youtube posts to know that the people posting and replying take this as a serious part of who they are.
On the topic, read Gary Dauphin’s interesting interpretive essay on John Walker Lindh, the “American Taliban”. Also check his great blog ebogjonson.com
