Final chapter in the raver discussion: Part 1

Tuttle,
I was disgusted by your article. The hostile and immature language you used when referring to electronic music lovers was bizarre and hateful.  I am boggled by your misunderstanding of the rave culture.  How could you possibly believe ravers lack a culture? From our tutus, to our kandy to our fur boots, everything about raving has strong cultural meanings that identify with our music, our history and our voice. We pride ourselves on being an underground subculture, which veers from your over-played commercialized, pop music, and focuses on a uniting love of heart-pounding beats.
You pass such unfounded judgments on a huge subculture which you know nothing about. You’ve never been in the Los Angeles Coliseum with 100,000 people moving in unison to one of the most well known musicians in the world.  The largest dance music festival in North America: Electric Daisy Carnival 2009, was more than “idiocracy.” It epitomizes our message, which is more than just take E and wear our iconic rave-wear. 
The raver “Bible” is echoed in the pulsing beat and in each unique live set a DJ plays. The rave paradigm can be summed up in the letters on our bracelets, P.L.U.R. For you “mainstream bros” that stands for Peace, Love, Unity and Respect.  Don’t worry; I am not revealing any secret codes of our brotherhood, maybe you should have Wikipedia-ed “raving” before you wrote your silly opinion article.
The love and unity found at a rave is unbelievable, thousands of people worldwide come together to hear a music that connects people of every language and background.  My experiences (and those of my friends) as ravers truly have been life-changing, mind blowing and yes, spiritual. 
Addressing your accusations of rampant drug use, you probably have to look at our society as a whole.  Binge drinking and experimenting with drugs is common in underage partiers, not just exclusively in the rave scene but in many social cliques.
To say everyone at a rave or who loves electronic music is a drug user and a self-destructive partier couldn’t be further from the reality. That’s like saying every Bob Marley fan is a dope smoking, weed growing, pothead.  I can confidently say that those who continually abuse drugs are not the true ravers and music lovers. 
If you don’t have a taste for electronic music that’s your own shortcoming, but please don’t insult a culture that you don’t fit into and can’t understand. The guiding neon light of our culture is obvious: it’s about the music, not the drugs, the costumes, or the flashing lights.  See you at HARD New Years.

A Kandy Kid for life,
Mackenzie Ott