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Pussy Riot Raises Free Speech Issues Through a "Biased Informative Musical"

by Philip Hamilton
Pussy Riot takes on a different way to raise awareness to free speech issues in Russia, and other countries, by presenting the audience a "Biased Informative Musical".
The main spokespeople for the group "Pussy Riot" performed, what I deemed to be a "Biased Informative Musical", at the Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz. The word bias typically denotes a negative connotation, but for the purpose of this article I will not use bias in that sense, because bias is an important reaction to one's life experiences that can result in eventual positive change. Specifically, worldview biases emerge out of one's interpersonal experiences with people they know privately, in addition to those that they know through business, governmental and religious institutions. The biased anti-authoritarian view of members of Pussy Riot formulated from their time in imprisonment and from the multiple instances of police interference of the lives of individuals working to expose the corruption of Valdamir Putin, members of his regime, and the people who imprisoned them at the facility in Ural Mountain.

One may not always support some of the progressive feminist ideologies of Pussy Riot or may feel that the issues they had in Russia does not pertain to them. However while their socio-economic and political ideologies do not match all people under pseudo-democratic government rule, the caliber of their fight to expose government actions relating to treatment of individuals imprisoned for committing acts, that should've been protected with their so called free speech, and how they support the public disclosure of government processes relating to privacy right, such as the leaks committed by Edward Snowden, should be respected and appreciated.

During the Question and Answer session, after the musical performance, a member of the audience asked if the group was a band since they have been making political music. One of the female members proclaimed that they were not a band, but rather the figureheads of a political movement that they do not want simply focused on just their imprisonment stories, but rather on the stories of those who faced government suppression for supporting the principles Pussy Riot stand for. In an iconic statement she said that American members of the audience are part of Pussy Riot due to their willingness to expose government oppression in Russia and in other countries.

The question is whether informative musicals on political issues is truly effective in getting people up in arms for change, as compared to the traditional organized protests. Time will indeed tell.
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