Techno in the face of fascism

Gunnar Haslam and Johannes Auvinen wrote essays for XLR8R that hopefully will stir up some lively debate.  I am all for giving musicians the occasional platform to express these kinds of opinions.  The "fascism" claim is clearly exaggerated and intended as click bait, if not viewed this way, it's hard to take anything they write seriously.  

It is undoubtedly true that for decades, politicians have scapegoated clubs for various societal problems.  For instance, getting drugs off the streets is a hard order of business, so local politicians tend to go after the clubs instead.  It's easier than dealing with a multifaceted societal problem at its roots, and it's a straightforward way to produce results when they need to show the public that they're doing something about it.  A spate of violence or a single OD death usually provides a convenient catalyst for getting the ball rolling.  None of this has anything to do with fascism though.

They are right about the spirit of neoliberalism dissolving itself into club culture.  Neoliberalism first and foremost seeks to keep the capitalist machine running, trying to avoid serious damage but not seeking to make things better for all.  Similarly, much time and money has been invested into super clubs and megastar touring DJ's with the intention of sustaining the bubble as long as humanly possible (this applied to the entire live music industry really).  The music is taking a back seat to the "experience" of going out.  Boomer era acts have sustained themselves for decades by enabling their fans to revisit the songs of their youth.  Current "stars" may be in for a rude awakening in ten or twenty years when they discover that fans didn't connect to the music as they thought and have moved on to whatever the new technologically flashy concertgoing experience will be.  

The solution, however, isn't the techno protectionism that Haslam seems to be advocating for.  His call for a more direct relationship between artists and fans suggests that local scenes need to more self sustaining, but this will make them become more insular and stifle collaboration.  For DJ's living in the bubble of New York or Berlin maybe this is a reasonable option.  But people outside the meccas of clubland want to make a living too.  His criticism of a DJ's carbon footprint seems downright silly to me.  DJ's don't travel with huge entourages and diesel guzzling trucks full of equipment to their gigs.  The life of a touring DJ is just about the most environmentally friendly form of live music work there is.  

At the end of the day, clubgoing is for the most part a luxury.  Techno doesn't have to be something of substance, it doesn't need to change the world.  Going to a club isn't supposed to be hard work, it's an escape from real life and real responsibilities. For the first wave of Detroit techno pioneers it was both, i.e. the music represented a good time and an escape from the urban decay of the (then) present with an eye toward a gleaming, futuristic future.  That was a vision unique to Detroit in the 80's, it can't be copied and pasted elsewhere as a rallying cry against political leaders you happen not to like.