You say you want a revolution...well, you know.....
Mapplethorpe's "Piss Christ". "The Rite of Spring" ballet premiere in Paris. Art for provocation's sake. There's a rich worldwide history of the stuff, and Pussy Riot is the latest in the crosshairs of art vs. censorship. Any time the forces of church and state mobilize to suppress the artist who brandishes nothing but a guitar, a paintbrush, a camera or a pen, it's a bad day for free thought...and it can, and does, happen all over the world, (including right here in the US of A...we ain't immune).
Orwell called it "thoughtcrime"...and that's pretty much what Pussy Riot's been convicted of. When you lose the ability to think for yourself or laugh at yourself, you're setting yourself up for big trouble at the very least, or a totalitarian state at the very worst.
These women are proudly waving their middle finger at what they see as wrong with their society. Nothing wrong with that. They're not waving AK-47's. They're not issuing fatwas. They're not threatening lives or property. They're just playing guitar and singing. Pretty badly, too, but that's the point. And they're willing to suffer for their art, even to the extent of a prison sentence. That takes some righteous balls. Good for them. They've already affected their milieu, and that's exactly what they were looking to do. As our ol' pal Chuck Sheen would say, "WINNING!!"
Thanks to HBO for airing this documentary