The Modern Punk

I am not a punk. Maybe I once was, but I am not anymore. I am a member of the United States Army, an organization in which I am forced to do things that do not fit into my personal agenda, and I perform these actions without question and usually without thought. Every day I go to work, whether it be servicing a vehicle in the motor pool or jumping out of a plane into combat, I do it everyday; and everyday that I do it I know that I am one day closer to my eventual freedom from the yolk that is around my neck right now. Being a Punk is knowing what freedom truly is, and being free.

Somehow over the years the original Punk movement has been warped into an insane fashion statement and hard-core music scene. It seems that kids are growing up today and falling into this supposed Punk movement without knowing what they are representing. They are being taught that listening to the Sex Pistols and spiking your hair and wearing a chain around your neck makes you a Punk and gives you the right to criticize other people for not being one of these so-called Punks. They are pressuring their peers to conform to the way that they dress and to do all the things that the Punks like to do so that they can be accepted into the ever-elusive Punk scene. They are shopping and working at stores like Hot Topic which is ran by profiteering gluttons looking to exploit a twenty-five year old movement by pushing overpriced trendy merchandised marketed at an affluent 12-21 year old market like it is some sort of drug that they need to take to be rebellious and to 'not give a damn'.

Let me tell you something. Being a Punk has nothing to do with not caring about anything and doing whatever the fuck you want. Being a Punk has everything to do with caring, it has to do with caring about your own beliefs, it is about following your heart and not society, it is about standing up against oppressive elements in your life, it is about living your life day by day and not dwelling in tomorrow or yesterday. Being a Punk is following your own agenda, and while your agenda may include that of others, that of people you care for, it is still your agenda; you do nothing that you do not believe in.

Being a Punk is playing Joe Crocker for your friends instead of Pennywise because you like his music better. Being a Punk is wearing casual clothes instead of leather and chains and patches to a Sex Pistols concert because you are more comfortable in them. Being a Punk is standing up for your own beliefs, even if it means losing everything you have. Being a Punk is telling the world “Fuck You, I'm going to live my life like I want to, not like you want me to.”

Being a Punk is conforming, conforming to the standards that you have set for yourself. It all started because people got fed up with society's way of doing things and wanted to live their lives by their own rules; and it can still be that way, if you can just go look in the mirror and find yourself underneath all the piercings and hairspray. I am not saying to take out your piercings or to cut off your spikes, personally I loved my piercings and my spikes, I am just asking you to be able to look beyond them and not label yourself because how you look or the music you listen to, but rather label yourself by the ideals you believe in. And once you have realized who you are, go tell somebody, go and spread the word to the world that it is okay to be yourself, no matter what you are; follow your heart to wherever it leads you. At that point you will be able to look into the mirror and call yourself a Punk.

The Conformist Non-Punk

These are sites which I like:
  • 27b/6 by David Thorne
  • Not Always Right

About the Author:

   The Author of this site is a man living in denial about the notion that there is anyone intelligent enough to have a conversation with anymore, so he writes to his computer instead.

   To summarize, he writes and rants and makes shit up.