Canada’s Debate

Ok, picking up where I left off yesterday…

As I was saying, it is difficult to understand the “anti-punk” phenomenom without making crass generalizations or broad, unsubstantiated sociological assumptions. Besides, I’m not that profound. Perhaps I can play a smaller role in slaying this beast. St. George had his horse afterall. The best I can hope for without actually doing any work is documenting isolated examples of the “anti-punk” as I see it, and making it clear for all to see. And of course I can think of no better place to start than the wellspring of faux-culture; pop music.

Good Charlotte is ostensibly a band, although I remain unconvinced. They are also considered in some circles as “punk.” Don’t believe me? Check out the really disheartening blog that I culled this picture from. That of course isn’t to say that they are in fact “punk.” But they have clearly clothed themselves in the punk accoutrements. But lets take a look at their lyrics. Apologies in advance. This verse comes from a song called Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous:

I’d like to see them spend a week
Livin’ life out on the street
I don’t think they would survive
If they could spend a day or two
Walkin’ in someone else’s shoes
I think they’d stumble and they’d fall
They would fall… (fall)

Now, what do you think the odds are that the ‘band’ members have a great deal of experience living on the street. I did a little research at their webpage and I came across this charming personal anecdote. “Benji and Joel graduated high school in June 1997, and for a graduation present the twins’ mother presented them with a pair of open airline tickets to California.” Now I don’t know about you, but growing up in the suburbs of Maryland and having parents who can lavish gifts worth several hundred dollars each (even if it is only for a special commemoration) doesn’t exactly evoke the image of street-hardened, disenfranchised youth. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying these folks didn’t work hard to create their ‘music,’ but I consider it pretty disingenuous for them to write about the travails of today’s hard-put youth as if they rose from the streets to overcome anything. But hey, if you need any convincing, read this post from the lead guitarist’s blog:

I am hoping that you all have seen Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, as a true Tim Burton fan I made it to the midnight showing the night before its release. I was all excited from seeing the movie so I did a drawing of Willy Wonka that night when I got home. I have been waiting to post about the movie so I could add the drawing in here for you guys to see. So now we have it so when you click on the thumbnails in our blogs they will open to reveal a full size image. Hopefully this will work. Hope you like the drawing, for the artists out there who are reading this it’s drawn with various sized rapidograph pens and colored in Adobe Photoshop using a Wacom tablet (sorry for the geek talk but I always like knowing this stuff, so i figure some of you do too!) Anyways the movie rules go see it!!

Anyone else having a hard time picturing Sid Vicious or Joe Stummer saying something like that, even to his closest fans?

Now it would be unfair to suggest that “anti-punk”, or punk in general resides purely in music. It does afterall have a profound social statement to make. The fact is that music is the most pervasive instrument by which anti-punk has “spread.” The internet is certainly building steam, as it slowly moves away from the “Free Society” idealism of the early 90’s to the mass-market commercialism of the last seven or eight years. For your consumption I have an example that is even better than the ones I had planned on using.

Sweet-Jaime (it’s really pronounced like Jamie, but I like Lou Reed) mentioned to me the other day a site called ConservativePunk. I reflexively gagged. Punk music has never had a specific ideological agenda or central ethos beyond vocalizing the concerns of an erstwhile marginalized social group. The ideas flow up in punk, not down. Yet here we have a site that understands punk the opposite way. While it’s true that most (if not all) punk outlets speak from a left-wing point of view, that is because the issues that they speak for are the ones that punk audiences feel need to be heard. However, this site has a different goal. They even have a mission statement, something which seems at odds with the whole “punk” thing if you ask me. “#1 To inform today’s youth that identify themselves with the punk scene with the facts, rather than rumor and conspiracy theory.” That’s right. They are trying to persuade their audience. See, thousands of young people the world over have been blinded by the liberal punk conspiracy, and they need to be deprogrammed by a well organized group of political activists. Now, call me crazy, but again, this doesn’t sound very “punk” to me. Of course, they’re all open-minded people who want us to form our own opinions with objective facts provided in a relevant way for youth. So lets cull a sample of their contribution:

To grow up white in America over the last three decades has been akin to wearing a hair shirt: From the time of early childhood, the average Caucasian’s ears are pummeled with a steady litany of all the horrible atrocities commited by the white man — in particular, the American and “Eurocentric” white man. From the plight of the Native Americans, to the tendency to “Orientalize” those innocent Jihadists in the Middle East who’d love to slash our throats, to slavery, to the “real” blame for September 11, all the guilt can be laid solely at the feet of the Evil White Man.

Excuse me? Apparently social criticism, sympathy and personal reflection are values that need to be stomped out. Now, besides from desperately needing to read “Unpacking the White Backpack” this guy needs to drop the ‘tude and really complain about what it is that is bothering him. Of course, maybe he is just so deluded that this is actually what is “up his ass.” Regardless, this is a pretty clear example of the anti-punk.