Dennis Hopper has passed.. one of a vanishing breed.

Dennis Hopper died on Saturday, at the age of 74.

The world is a little less interesting for this loss.

Little by little, we find a world bereft of "real" men.  Not in the sense of being macho caricatures - but in the sense of men who wore their hearts on their sleeves - who stood up and said, "I am who I am."

We are drawn to these people, people like Dennis Hopper, Hunter S. Thompson, and Lenny Bruce, because we are starved for people who are real, who are "genuine".

Ironically, Dennis Hopper's first film was, "Rebel Without a Cause".

Think about that title for just a moment.

Rebels without a cause.

Dennis Hopper's life, strange and dysfunctional at times as it was, embodied that notion - of living a life as a rebel.  Making his mark the way he chose to make it, but not to make a statement, not for some "cause". 

Just because.

And sometimes, that's enough.

In this time of "politically correct" speak, we need more Dennis Hoppers, not fewer.  As much as we enjoy patting ourselves on the back for criticizing those who dare to break outside the mold, who make mistakes in life, jumping on the bandwagon to attack and wag our fingers at those who we discover to be "imperfect", the reality is that we love rebels and we still need them.

Because the rebels are the only ones who create real art.  Who challenge us to look at the world around us and ourselves - not as we wish we were, but as we are.

Without Dennis Hoppers and, today perhaps, Marshall Mathers, we are on a road to become little more than a "Generation of Swine".

Indeed.

Rest in peace, brother, rest in peace.