POLITICAL AND PERSONAL ISSUES 1. What did Ian MacKaye have to do with the starting of the straight edge movement?
Ian wrote a song called ‘Straight Edge’ for Minor Threat, and the straight edge movement was basically started from there. Ian says that he really did not intend to start the movement: “I’m interested in the phenomenom of youth movements, so it’s pretty amazing to have written a song that has apparently launched one, but it was never my intention and I cringe when I am associated with the more violent or fundamentalist elements of ‘straight edge’. Having said that, I also want to be clear that by far most of the people I’ve met who identify themselves as part of the S.E. movement strike me as good and constructive”.
