The Good Ship Lifestyle

This is the text for this song that was ommitted from the North American version of the "Tubthumper" CD:

"Lifestylism" is the practise of wrapping yourself in a blinkered, self-perfecting, idealogically-sound cocoon. The captain of The Good Ship Lifestyle rarely leaves his bedroom. He makes pronouncements on how other people should live but doesn't keep his own rules. His idea of politics is not to Fight The Power but to fight the imagined enemies on his own side...

"Nothing like the cocoon of unreality when your life's fucked." --Answer Me! Magazine

"If someone gives me a forum to express myself, I will use it. If that means using 'mainstream' channels to do it, then that's all for the better. If you really believe in what you're doing, then why not? By being too cool to publicly talk about these things, we only perpetuate the silence that already exists." --Outpunk (taken from Zines, RE SEARCH)

Stalin, Kruschev and Brezhnev are travelling on a train. The train breaks down. 'Fix it!', orders Stalin. They repair it but still the train doesn't move. 'Shoot everyone!' orders Stalin. They shoot everyone but still the train doesn't budge. Stalin dies. 'Rehabilitate everyone!' orders Kruschev. They are rehabilitated, but still the train won't go. Kruschev is removed. 'Close the curtains,' orders Brezhnev, 'and pretend we're moving!' Anon

"Most plans for creating a more just society focus on ameliorating human misery. They address unemployment, hunger, illiteracy, class-based inequity, unequal access to medical care, pollution, overpopulation and discrimination based on sex, race, age, or membership in other devalued groups. While I care about all of those problems, I also wonder why so many of the proposed solutions make me shudder with dread. Perhaps it's because people who take on such enormous political chores are usually suffering from burnout. There's no room in their brave new worlds for fun, creativity, ornamentation, play and desire. I am sceptical of utopian schemes that don't take into account the human need for adventure, risk, competition, self-display, pleasurable stimulation, and novelty. In fact, many theoretical utopias are dreamed up by people who are afraid of diversity and deeply conservative about sex. ... The first duty of a revolutionary may be, as Abbie Hoffman said, to survive. But it's pretty difficult to survive without the nurturance of an all-consuming fantasy about where you are headed and what all this hard work is for." --Pat Califia from 'Public Sex - The Culture of Radical Sex'

"Consistency is highly over valued. don't be afraid to change your mind for fear of being branded an inconsistent hypocrite." --From Splatterspleen, quoted in Zines, RE SEARCH

"Waves do not actually travel, in spite of appearances. The water only moves up and down; it is the force that travels. The simplest way to demonstrate this is to throw a stone into a pond with a paper boat in it... Although the waves appear to travel outwards, the boat merely bobs up and down." --Anon

"A worrying development among some committed political activists is their insufferable righteousness. These zealous politicos appear as nothing but fundamentalists in a religious quest, where self-made rules become doctrine and other, less worthy activists are cast out. Born again in the fire of insecurity and guilt, these people create a heaven where none but themselves truly keep the faith... a world of rigid doctrine and self-imposed commandments. And in time, these political fundamentalists take on the aspects of church clergy: Indolence, pride, superstition, bigotry, persecution and ignorance." --From 'Educating Us About You', 1996

"What's the difference between a lifestylist and a supermarket trolley? - A supermarket trolley has a mind of it's own." --Anon

"In our fear to make an effort to tear ourselves away from the conditions which ruin us, only because the future is not quite certain to us, we resemble the passengers of a sinking ship, who, for fear of stepping into a boat which is to take them to the shore, retreat to their cabins and refuse to come out from them..." --Leo Tolstoy

"The policeman on patrol has got inside our heads and his attitudes continue to be reinforced by the values of a police-loving society." --Class War, from 'No Justice, Just Us' 1997

"Revolution will be built on the spread of ideas and information, on reaching people, rather than on our habit of creating ghettoes within which to stagnate. It's no use standing outside shouting. We have to start kicking down the doors!" --From sleevenotes to first Chumbawamba single, 1985