“Do you hear the people sing? Singing the songs of angry men!” – Les Miserables
A revolution starts with a spark, a small flame to ignite a peoples with a common goal. In this case, a Facebook event is all that was needed to round hundreds of inspired young adults to sacrifice their Friday afternoons for a common cause: dance.
Temple Students gathered around the Bell Tower this afternoon to recreate the famous Harlem Shake videos, creating a sea of costumes and fist pumping that clearly said, “We’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it anymore!”
Yet to what oppressive force can we attribute this phenomenon? With so much going on, it’s clear these Youtube pioneers were making a statement about something.
What about President Obama and his policies?
“Absolutely,” said sophomore Harmon Sachse, “Obama is directly related to this.”
Could this be in response to the recent debate surrounding immigration?
“I think it says nothing at all about immigration,” said junior Joseph McGovern, “I think everyone who’s here was already in the United States.”
Maybe this video will be a defiant rejection of corporate culture. A Temple student, who to protect his identity decided to go simply by “Tim,” commented on this possibility.
“Um,” said Tim, “I don’t know. Maybe it’s about like overplayed pop music that’s exploited by record companies.”
Although the direction of this movement is not clear, we can say for sure that it is a bold expression of our Wayne and Garth given right to party on.
Daniel Craig can be reached at daniel.craig@temple.edu.
