by Abi Riot
Something in the scene these days has caught my attention. Though once recognized was very obvious, punks today arent who they used to be. This doesnt refer to all punks by any means. But kids today are afraid to call themselves punks. The reason behind my view on this, or at least what made me realize it first was the critisizing of bands who are proud to be punks, which I think is speered by this critisism that punks themselves get from other people. I am not just talking about teenage punks whos parents say "This is just a phase" ( come on all of you guys were there once), but these other subcultures that have derived from the music scene today, from the dirty street punk that is the foundation to many other scenes, and more than anyone - dead punks. Society views young punks to be grasping on to something to be an induvidual, and so punk has some scewed image of this "dont label me, I am just being myself"- then punks are questioned why, if they want to be so much of an induvidual, are they "looking like you are wearing a uniform" and worst of all are accused of being "a conformist". Society, and established life has mixed the meaning of being an induvidual, with rebelling societys expectations and well being a punk. So in a quick defense, kids in the scene are fast to use the "dont label me" rutien, because its more accpeted in society to be unique than be a punk and being closed minded and hypocritical. Why are these two things mixed up- I have no explination. There are plenty of proud punks out there that will gladly raise their fists and are sure to make sure everyone knows they are a punk. In the big picture- punk is viewed as a way to be an induvidual- when you look at the world from an "us vs them" perspective (meaning punks against everyone else) you can see that the ratio between Us to Them is very small to a lot of people. I view the punk image to be a loud dirty chunk of public shock. We do everything we can to make sure society rejects us and everyone can get a full view of our middle finger- we get off on mothers grasping their childrens hands as we walk passed, store managers casually fallowing us through stores, cops always giving us a second glance, constintly being prejudged and stereotyped in every aspect of life, if you want to admit it or not- we do, why else would we be punks? In the small picture, we are all dressing a like, we do all listen to almost the same music and we do fallow almost all the same views (depending on what kind of punk you are). When you look at it like that we are all the same, there is no induviduality in that- but who gives a fuck? We arent trying to be induviduals, we are portraying an image to shock society and say fuck off! Or at least we should, isnt that why this whole thing started?- To give a name for all of those fuckers who would rather be hated than ignored, who have something to say and if you dont listen you'll get a boot up yer ass. This isnt about being our own person, its about being a part of something bigger, something that will provide you with fuel to gas your socially disruptive behavior. Fuck all those people who call us hypocritical and close minded- we are fucking punks, and as long as society continues to reject us we always will be.
