Long Hair is Communism

Badges don’t get more real than this! You don’t have time to get down to the barbers for that 6-week trim. There are more pressing concerns afoot and you’ve got a list of things to do as long as your arm; read another chapter of Das Kapital (tick), fix the leaky gutter (tick), paint another picture that fits in with another critical theory argument (tick), get a haircut! (wtf — no time!)

Basically, this ‘aint a gesture, this is how it is. It’s just another hard fact of life. If you have time to get your haircut, you ‘aint focussing on the right things. You’re just getting distracted by the self-image and that’s no way to stand up to control and fight the good fight. Hell, there’s even a warning on the side of the badge that reads: Not suitable for children under 3 years — sharp point present. Of course there’s a sharp point present, this kind of knowledge will give the enemy the upper-hand …

Ok, apologies, wrong text copied into the post. I picked up this badge ages ago at the You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966-1970 exhibition in the V&A back in 2017. The show was the usual stuff about everything that was counter-cultural in the late 60s and is then commodified and sold back to us as a neat nostalgia trip by the conservative mainstream. I bought my ticket and drifted round the show, what does that make me?

Anyway, between the cracks, little gems like this badge sit quietly in a perspex box reminding you about all the contradictions this environment represents. Who really cares? It’s a cute badge and it made it into issue 16 of Le Document.

Maybe the sentiment of this badge is true. Or maybe it isn’t. That’s for you to decide. Meanwhile just thank you’re lucky stars you actually have some hair to grow long before you try and pin a badge onto your political persuasions.

Chris Tosic