Optimistic

Gang of Four - Natural's Not In It Their first album, Entertainment!, was a hugely influential classic album from the UK post-punk era. Bands like Franz Ferdinand nowadays absolutely love this record. Combines a sort of punk-funk backing (with that jerky, skitty guitar, prominent bass, interesting drum rhythms), lyrics containing a load of Marxist analysis**, and the use of Brecht's "Entfremdungseffekt" (the closest translation of which is probably "alienation effect") - they were all too aware of how seductive music can be, as you get sucked into the song through the establishment of an emotional attachment to what you're hearing (perhaps you start imagining the band playing live, or a landscape the sounds remind you of) meaning that the political message in the lyrics would easily be forgotten, remain unnoticed or be dismissed as just part of a fictional narrative providing the background to wherever your imagination is taken. Brecht, however, would use certain devices in his plays to remind the audience that they were sitting in a theatre watching a production so they could not become too immersed in the characters or the overall storyline - he would ground the audience by having the characters suddenly break into rhyme, address the viewers directly or even keep all lights in the theatre switched on throughout the play. As a result, people would much more easily be able to analyse the characters' interactions with one another from a logical standpoint and then further apply what they were seeing to their real world lives. Gang of Four did this by making it absolutely clear to you that they were just playing instruments in a studio, with no reverb effects or anything of the like. Furthermore, the version of the song "Anthrax" on the Damaged Goods EP actually had the guitarist's voice coming through the right-hand speaker explaining the recording process in great detail while the actual lyrics were sung through the left speaker. The idea was to use the popular medium of music to spread the word about the failings of capitalism and the need for social revolution. All in all, this shit is !@#$ing fantastic. **(this song deals with commodity fetishism ("I do love a new purchase/A market of the senses. Dream of the perfect life:/Economic circumstances") and sexual power relationships ("Natural is not in it/Your relations are of power/We all have good intentions/But all with strings attached"), while other songs deal with topics such as reification, the problems of work in capitalist society and issues with mainstream culture) Sorry for going on and on about this, but music is my absolute passion and really gets me excited. I will take any opportunity to talk at length about my favourite bands.

I'd support 2nd Amendment-style legislation here in the UK. Not because I'm some sort of insane tea party Republican, but because it'd be handy to have the workers armed already for when the revolution comes.

Your Empathizing Quotient is 58. Baron-Cohen (2003) suggests that this means "you have an above average ability for understanding how other people feel and responding appropriately. You know how to treat people with care and sensitivity". Your Systemizing Quotient is 16. Baron-Cohen (2003) suggests that this means "you have a lower than average ability for analysing and exploring a system".