I've read in Monday's Indy about the new production of Hair@Gate Theatre:

Hair has had a radical rethink in Daniel Kramer's knockout revival of the "American tribal love-rock musical".

Instead of Vietnam war, there's Iraq and the horrors of the occupation. Instead of LBJ, there's Dubya."

Gives it a four star rating.

I'm curious. Very curious indeed. I love the original, the film actually. I was too young to be able to have the opportunity to see it live, add to that I was raised in behind-the-iron-curtain Bulgaria, you can see the probability dive.

Nevertheless, the plight of the hippies, not so strangely enough, stroke a chord with my generation back in BG. It inspired our freedom, not only the make love not war freedom, but a far more deep understanding and acute feeling of freedom - to move, to love, to do what you want to do. You could hear "Let the sun shine" at assorted venues and occasions, from the spontaneous green demos against chlorine pollution in Rousse in the mid-late 80s, to summer work camps, school productions featuring "solidarity" against the victims of imperialism, the Varna lighthouse July[a], to name a few.

It was a cult musical film, which together with Pink Floyd's "the Wall", and a host of bands like Revue, Nova Generacia (New Generation), Hazart, Poduene Blues Band, Barabi Blues Band... formed the musical foundations what became a lightweight political ideology for change. Why lightweight? Well there was no real ideology, simply idealism and longing for change, longing for freedom. Optimism for better times.

Unfortunately, when change came, the history repeated itself. Idealists dreamt it up. Naive. Generally good willing. Then came the opportunists, who swinged some muscle and change came true. Then came the bastards. Sorry, then came the unscrupulous.

One of the best examples would be the history of the Bulgarian Green Party. I must admit that I don't have a clue how are they doing now, so I'll talk only about history.

It was born out of the Rousse protests of 87-88 and the Sofia Summit in 89 (if memory doesn't mess up the dates). It was initially spontaneous, largely unorganised, informal union of like minded people. Then came change. And the party was actually born. Somehow, from somewhere crawled up the pragmatists. They started at first subtly, then less so, then outright straight forward to dominate. "Pragmatism" was popular, I believe it still is in the old BG. So the pragmatists believed in the pragmatic, anti-communist, thought to be non-populist broad alliance of diverse parties called SDS[UDF]. From that alliance, contrary to the typical green instincts the Green Party ended up having right-wing, sometimes very extreme, policies. Surprise, surprise. Has anyone checked how many of the founding members were still in it? How many of the people on the streets in 87-89 were in it? I don't know the answer, but I believe none. By that time the party managed to alienate and get rid of it's early charismatic leaders. The idealists were gone. Drinking in the pubs. Completely disillusioned with politics. The pragmatists have won. Where is the Bulgarian Green Party now? Who has heard of them? How come that a weird alliance of nationalists and anarchists have spearheaded the Sofia waste protest of the last spring and summer?

Churchill might have been right to say that if you are not a communist in your youth, you don't have a heart and if you are still a communist later, then you don't have brains. Give me more heart. Lock the brains and the pragmatists somewhere away. In most cases under the pretence of the bigger good they serve other pragmatic forces. Be it big money, good relations with strong friends, stable resource streams, their own pockets, a combination of the above, whatever.

How many of the nowadays politicians world wide wear their hart on their sleeve?

There is good news though. These days people generally distrust image and hollow words, they require actions, coming from the heart. They demand. They murmur in front of the telly, in the pubs, in the blogs worldwide. They go to concerts. Charity is popular again. Even markedroids are using good causes to promote brands. Yuk. But still, the heart brigade is staging a comeback. But don't forget the brain clan. It can always put marquees up to shield that burning sun, charred sausages and grilled chicken are always better than sunburns.