Conservative Punks
This is my post in a thread at MoFi about conservatism in the punk scene.
Rebellion is a core value in punk culture, and that's why you see conservative punks, despite the fact that conservatism and rebellion are on the surface mutually exclusive.
I'm voting for John Kerry in this election, but when I watched the final debate on a TV at work with all of the LA Democrats giving him a free pass on his every answer, even when he said something they had just minutes ago heckled Bush for saying, the punk in me wanted to throw their hypocrisy in their faces. When the anti-war protests started, I was so fucking pissed at all of the "I'll protest anything" bandwagoneers that I wanted to make a big sign that said "bongos are not an instrument of protest" and crash the party. The idea of protesting protesters gives me punk goosebumps.
Punk, at its best, is about making people rethink what they thought they knew. From music, to fasion ("A safety pin is fashionable? Why the hell am I spending money on jewelry when I can get it basically free?") to politics, to religion, to punk itself.
Punk is full of political zombies stumbling around thinking that Jello Biafra should be president, and that would make the world a utopia. Okay, I love Jello as much as the next guy, and the Kennedys definitely helped to shape my worldview and open my eyes to politics and social issues, but it's not fucking dogma. Question everything, second-guess everybody, and never accept anybody's authority.
If punk can be boiled down to anything, it's a movement against dogma. When left-liberalism becomes the dogma, punks have the inclination -- and one might even say the responsibility -- to rebel against it. If that doesn't seem intuitive, then you're missing the point of punk.
Standing on stage and preaching to the choir is not punk rock. Every show, every stage, every forum of any kind, is your opportunity to get in someone's face and make them think about something.
Maybe "Nanny-State Punks Fuck Off" isn't as catchy as the original, but you get the idea.
The thing that irks me is that conservative punks aren't starting their own anti-liberal movement, they're just accepting an existing mainstream ideology. That's a pretty fucking cheap way to do it, if you ask me. Chickenshit conformists, just like their parents.
Rebellion is a core value in punk culture, and that's why you see conservative punks, despite the fact that conservatism and rebellion are on the surface mutually exclusive.
I'm voting for John Kerry in this election, but when I watched the final debate on a TV at work with all of the LA Democrats giving him a free pass on his every answer, even when he said something they had just minutes ago heckled Bush for saying, the punk in me wanted to throw their hypocrisy in their faces. When the anti-war protests started, I was so fucking pissed at all of the "I'll protest anything" bandwagoneers that I wanted to make a big sign that said "bongos are not an instrument of protest" and crash the party. The idea of protesting protesters gives me punk goosebumps.
Punk, at its best, is about making people rethink what they thought they knew. From music, to fasion ("A safety pin is fashionable? Why the hell am I spending money on jewelry when I can get it basically free?") to politics, to religion, to punk itself.
Punk is full of political zombies stumbling around thinking that Jello Biafra should be president, and that would make the world a utopia. Okay, I love Jello as much as the next guy, and the Kennedys definitely helped to shape my worldview and open my eyes to politics and social issues, but it's not fucking dogma. Question everything, second-guess everybody, and never accept anybody's authority.
If punk can be boiled down to anything, it's a movement against dogma. When left-liberalism becomes the dogma, punks have the inclination -- and one might even say the responsibility -- to rebel against it. If that doesn't seem intuitive, then you're missing the point of punk.
Standing on stage and preaching to the choir is not punk rock. Every show, every stage, every forum of any kind, is your opportunity to get in someone's face and make them think about something.
Maybe "Nanny-State Punks Fuck Off" isn't as catchy as the original, but you get the idea.
The thing that irks me is that conservative punks aren't starting their own anti-liberal movement, they're just accepting an existing mainstream ideology. That's a pretty fucking cheap way to do it, if you ask me. Chickenshit conformists, just like their parents.
posted by Kris at 4:06 AM (Perm. Link)
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home