Anti-Zombie Apocalypse... Always.

After a stressful train trip - we left Madrid a half hour late, and then the conductor came on board our car and said, "blah blah blah MINUTOS! blah blah blah MINUTOS! blah blah blah" and no one could translate for me, leaving me concerned that I was never actually going to get to there at all, let alone on time - I finally got in to Logrono. My cousin and her boyfriend met me at the train station. We dropped my stuff off at her apartment, chugged some Jack Daniels then went out to the show she had been telling me about. Logrono is not a big place at all and the streets seemed nearly deserted, but we opened the door to a club full of smoke - most of it not tobacco - people and a band on stage. The music was cheesy rock n roll with a band that didn't take itself too seriously. It was hard not to dance a little while sucking down the pisswater beer they serve in Spain (seriously, the beer is terrible here!). Unfortunately, we missed the opening bands and only got to see a few songs before the show ended and I was subjected to endless introductions in mostly Spanish in which I was kissed in that Euro way by about two dozen people.

My cousin's boyfriend, Miguel, is an anarchist. Anarchists are the same the world over and their views can be summarized as follows: You are wrong. Everything they do or say about anything is absolutely right, always. Siempre. Hypocrisy is not a state that is ever applicable to themselves. They will never let you hear the end of it if they find you that one time you ate at a McDonald's, but think nothing of chain smoking their Phillip Morris cigarettes.

Miguel knew that I had been in the army and Afghanistan and was eager to tell me exactly what he thought of that. I just laughed. He tells me he could never obey orders and that fighting for one's country is stupid. When I told him that it's not about "your country" it's about your buddies and doing your job and not giving a shit, he of course balked. Ya see, another thing about anarchists, especially young ones, is that everything one does has to have a great purpose. He gets in fights himself as part of the the antifa (antifascists) gang who fight the fascist gangs, and that's perfectly justifiable because then he's fighting, well, fucking fascists. There's a good, moral purpose to it. Killing Taliban though is not because those guys are just fighting the invaders and they'd be ordinary peace-lovin' folk if the U.S. hadn't invaded their country and killed their families.

It's not like I haven't thought about this stuff. I've thought about it, I've struggled with it and I've come to the conclusion that I just don't care. 22-year-old anarchists from Spain who still live in the same house they were born in and don't have a clue how life works on a planet earth are not going to tell me how to live and expect me to take them seriously. Fortunately, I can find it amusing rather than being offended.

On the title of the post. The anarcho-punks here are fond of wearing t-shirts that say "anti-fascista... siempre." Now, as an American the term anti-fascist is always amusing, since no matter how close to actual fascism our country gets, the term is always derogatory. Even the swastika-tattooed actual neo-Nazis in America are offended at the term. Saying you're anti-fascist is sort of like saying you're anti-zombie apocalypse. I mean, duh. I'd also be against the idea of a Death Star exploding the planet with laser beams, too; I'm not going to make a t-shirt out of it. It's an obvious statement to begin with, but adding "siempre" to it just takes the cake. I'm anti-zombie apocalypse always. My cousin would now like to design a t-shirt that says "anti-fascista... a veces." But of course that's only funny to Americans who live here, because as it turns out, there ARE sometimes-fascists. They're the skins and punks who just like to fight, and will do anything to fit in with their friends, who may not be as idealistic as young Miguel here.

OK, this post is longer than I intended. I'm just pleased that I can still write in English, as my brain has had to function in half-languages for the past two or three days. Off to read a bit then watch some football and drink shitty beer.