Hello fellow ranters.... Before I start on  the topic of great ranters of our time I would like to address a few recent issues that caught my eye. Firstly I would like to congratulate INFO who, while posting a comment, criticised my choice of font colour….. ah yes I see great ranting potential there. Thankyou… as I saw this as the basis of a good rant about style vs. substance. However I do believe you were somewhat restrained. Be loud, be proud I say.  Anyway back to style vs. substance. A number of good rants can come from this – quality of customer service for one, Government Awareness campaigns another ( see The Hollowmen Episode 1 series 1)

Reality television, politicians, journalism – or what passes for journalism,( see any episode of Mediawatch) the list goes on and on and on…

Anyway, great ranters of our time. Checkout the rantings of Hunter S Thompson especially his Rolling Stone years. Dennis Miller (prior to 2001, before he turned to the dark side) Jello Biafra (yes of Dead Kennedy fame), Lewis Black and Bill Hicks are worth a look. Much of these ranters can be seen on Youtube. Forgive me for not placing any links but Code of Conduct Alert!!!! Offensive language, sexual references, drug references, anti religious references and probably everything else that offends!!! Be Warned. Any way hyperlinks just cheat you out of that warm fuzzy feeling of discovering something new for yourself. Soooo… off you go…to Youtube…….  Youtube - a link

Oh and I nearly forgot, just for you Lawley, here’s an embedded photo from Flickr. For your viewing pleasure and while your waiting, waiting, waiting for Youtube to load....

I’ll leave you with this thought……..

“ If a camel is a horse designed by committee then what’s a giraffe???????”

I thought I would start with the Oxford Dictionary’s explanation as to exactly what ranting is, Sorry Lawley, but  that’s 12 of my words ( I love a good technicality!!)

If you  are new to the art of ranting then the most obvious place to start is talkback radio, where people who have way too much time on their hands and earnestly believe that everyone is interested in what they have to say, get riled up by some right wing  …**! who’s busy getting kic... sponsorship from the enormously large corporations they should be defending the “little person” against. Thank God for the internet where everyone can have a good solid rant against the machine and we no longer have to rely on the word being controlled by the incompetent media. (but that’s a whole other rant. See ABC’s Mediawatch for some inspiration.)

Anyway, a short history of  ranting

Ever since man walked out of the trees and not off a spaceship, (yet another excellent ranting topic) man has ranted. Cave dwellers in France discovered detailed drawings explicitly depicting a long and drawn out visual rant about someone named Ogg and Zorg and a landrights issue.

Plato is well reputed to have been a ranter or an opinionated git depending on who you spoke to.

Both world wars gave rise to an extraordinary amount of ranting, Probably the most significant being Hitler (but we didn’t understand him) so we have to go with Winston Churchill who was busy ranting about fights and beaches in between drinks.

The drug filled sixties was dominated by great ranters. I can’t think of any at the moment but I am sure they’re there.

The Seventies gave rise to one of the most famous ranters of them all Hunter S Thompson and the rest is history….. and I’m sure this is all accurate as I found it on the internet.

Next post:  Great ranters of our time!