THE (PUNK) ROCK EDITORIAL
I got a ton of real excellent writing this week and this is just one of
them. I also got a ton of hate mail (at me and Epitaph) and that was
petty funny. How come hate mail always has the most typos and worst
grammar? Hmmm... I wonder.
Here's an editorial that a lot of us can relate to and those of you who
don't relate: You will sooner than you think!
"Growing Old with Punk"
Entering the gates of the Warped Tour in Minneapolis this past summer, I
couldn't help but feel slightly out of place. I hadn't been to a punk
show for at least a year and had not been close to a pit for more than
three. Less than a month later, I would be graduating from graduate
school and moving across the country to begin research in a doctoral
program in history. I was older than the vast majority of the punks
around me, and I wondered how I could still fit in with this younger
crowd: I was on a career track, for goodness sake, but at a concert
surrounded by teenagers! I'm happy to say that, despite my trepidation,
I easily slipped back into my old form and thoroughly enjoyed the bands,
the atmosphere, and the energy of the younger crowd.
How does one grow old with punk rock? With each passing year, friends
and relatives tell me that someday I'll have to stop going to punk shows
and stop purchasing the albums: "Why can't you grow up and listen to
normal music?" As I advance in years, I wonder if I should just settle
down into the establishment and go with the crowd. Maybe punk was just
a thing I was while I was young. How can I still be punk while paying
the mortgage, having responsibilities to colleagues and students,
creating retirement portfolios, or planning for a future family? Oh,
when I was younger the answer was so easy: I'd always be punk, always
question authority, always seek to live as my own person, and never,
without thinking, conform to the standards of society. I'd forever
challenge those people who lost their individuality so easily. Yet here
I am now, conforming to society's rules in order to survive. Life
changes so much when you're on your own.
Not everyone is lucky enough to be like Mr.. Brett and his staff, who
through Epitaph are able to stay directly involved with punk as they
grow older. Most of us will go on to various jobs or careers, get
married, have children, eat Thanksgiving dinner with the in-laws, take
family vacations to Mount Rushmore, or worry about finances and how
we're going to afford tuition payments for little Billy when he grows
up. How can one stay punk through all of that?
I'm argue that punk ideals do not have to disappear in the face of
maturity and/or responsibility. Cling to the idea that, no matter what
the conditions, you are your own person. You have the final say in many
matters, and you alone can decide what is right, moral, or justified.
As you grow older, it's not your role that changes but only the
situation. Today you may stand up against some moral outrage of the
government, tomorrow you may stand up against an incompetent or insipid
principal at your child's elementary school. Now that I'm older, I
necessarily take a more active and personal role in my rebellions,
however small they may be. To a young punk of, say, sixteen years of
age, my conflicts with my insurance company may sound "establishment" or
run counter to a subversive, underground cultural attitude. But to me,
it's still punk to not take abuse sitting down and to let your voice be
heard.
Forget not the words of Greg Graffin in "No Direction," who told us that
people will unwittingly let society: "tell 'em what to be, tell 'em what
to wear, tell 'em what to say, tell 'em how to act and think."
Questioning or resisting anyone or anything that tells you what must be
done or what is right is, in essence, being punk. That won't change
with time, so long as you remember to stick to your punk roots in the
face of ALL change, chronological or otherwise. And if your old, aching
bones feel up to it, keep going to the shows and support independent
music, the thing that got you involved in the first place. Punks form
an open-minded community that knows no age limit. By staying punk, I've
been able to live life on my terms without sacrificing my ideals or my
music. And in the process, at the Warped Tour I was fortunate enough to
see Rancid at their best, surrounded by younger punks but still feeling
right at home.