Rastaman Quotes

Rastaman don’t deal with negativity so oppression is now downpression even though there is no up in the word. Dedicate is livicate, I and I, well God knows what that means, but it sounds like somebody trying for their own holy trinity but forgetting the name of the third person.

No worries" is the best thing to happen to sullen teenagers since I was one - even better than vampire sexting, GTL, or Call of Duty. When I was a sullen teenager, we had to make do wtih the vastly inferior "whatever". "No worries" beats "whatever" six ways to Sunday. I'ts a vaguely mystical way of saying "I hear your mouth make noise, saying something that I plan to ignore." It has a noble Rasta-man vibe, as if you're quoting some sort of timeless yet meaningless proverb on the nature of change - "Soon come," or "As the cloud is slow, the wind is quick." In terms of ignoring provocation, "no worries" is just about perfect.

The goal of wisdom is the good life, here and now.”265 Marley similarly emphasizes a this-worldly life of joy: “[I]f you know what life is worth / You would look for yours on earth.”266 Marley does not want people to have to wait until the afterlife to live. He states, “I want people to live big and have enough,”267 and proclaims “Rastaman live up!”268 and “the greatest thing is life.”269

Part of it seems like how these Americans grew up. They collect things. So Tony Curtis or Tony Orlando will show up at Mantana’s and they all ask him for this autograph business, which is him signing his name on a napkin. And they cling to it, and collect it like they’ll never see Tony Curtis again. Now Chuck is taking things home, collecting them like he had to make sure they were safe. I don’t know what he has to protect a coffee cup from. Or five boxes of rubber bands, a picture of Farrah Fawcett, a picture of President Carter or a box full of liquor as if they don’t have liquor in America. Or a sculpture of a Rastaman grabbing on to his an erect penis, the head bigger than his actual head. The man must think he is Noah saving a statue of a Rasta with a huge cock for his ark. If he’s saving that fucking sculpture and don’t plan to save me I swear to God I will kill him.

I have also desisted employing the concept of ‘Rastafarianism’, a term I personally abhor which seems to be a source of confusion to outsiders and embarrassment to Rastas themselves. Almost every contemporary commentator on the movement has used this insensitive term without considering the discipline of doctrine and organisation it seems to connote. Even Garvey who did establish a rigorous ideological programme and formal organisation through which to articulate it was not keen on ‘isms’ (M. Garvey, 1967, Vol. 2, p. 334). Ras Tafari most certainly does not warrant the attachment of ‘ism’ to its name.

Continuing the plea for unity that began in the first line of the song, the first verse begins with a quotation of Ps 133:1 (KJV): “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” How good and how pleasant it would be Before God and man To see the unification of all Africans As it’s been said already Let it be done We are the children of the Rastaman We are the children of the Higher Man440