Hippies. Although i share some ideals with hippies, crunchies, or whatever you choose to call the tie dyed wearing masses these days i have moved so far away from any association with such folks. The earthy aspect of my personality has been heavily overshadowed by the punk aspect of my personality in recent years and the shadow just seems to grow more and more every day.
My ideals have not changed as much with time. With the exception of far less chemicals being consumed since graduating college my environmental inclinations and passions have not wained. In fact they have only strengthened. So why has the ever present punk aspect of my personality all but dominated my adult life as it did in my childhood?
A pit stop to the restroom of a hippie run eatery this past weekend helped me realize why. More specifically, the graffiti on the walls of said lavoratory brought me to my enlightenment. The neo-crunchie graffiti of 2008 is exactly the same as the Phish-head graffiti (who are getting back together, as an aside) of the 1990's, which is exactly the same as the Dead-head graffiti of the 1980's and the hippie graffiti of the 1960's and 1970's.
Mushrooms, Alice in Wonderland "eat me, drink me" references, pot leaves, and 420. Even the dress code has not changed. If you wanted to waste use of a time machine on a meaningless experiment you could take 'hippies' from any time period and drop them off at a concert in any other time period and not only, according to my hypothesis, would they fit in without damaging the space time continuum they (or anyone else around) would not even realize that they were of a different time.
There is absolutely no progress within that counter-culture. There is just a romantic cling to the roots of the movement, and that is all.
The punk movement, on the other hand, is constantly moving and redefining not only it's look but it's very core to stay ahead and to stay true. By the time something is beginning to catch on within the scene enough for the larger populace to notice, a new wave is coming up just under the surface. It stays timely and applicable.
Of course you will see some throwback aspects to certain looks and even some keeping an 'old school' look alive, but generally speaking, if you were to repeat my same 'hippie' time machine experiment with the punk scene a discrepancy would be noticed within a nanosecond. Footwear, pant type and sizes, shirts, jackets, headwear, and haircuts are always constantly evolving. There are tribal stylistic threads which carry on and pass from one era to the next but there is enough variation and self style included into the mix to keep it fluid and pertinent.
Drop a current skater from the local park into a 1980's backyard halfpipe and you would have thought an alien had descended. Even more than the surficial fashion - the art, the music, and the ideals of the punk have always kept up with the times. In fact, in many cases, they have been far ahead of their time.
That sense of progress, that sense of growth, that sense of timeliness is what keeps the punk counter-culture so near to my heart. Much like the pin-up pornography of the 1950's the only way you can truly define punk is by saying you know it when you see it.
Oct 13, 2008
Oct 12, 2008
True Americans ARE Terrorists
i've been thinking about American history a lot lately. Have things always sucked like this? Will Bush go down as the worst president ever, or will there be no one left to record the history? Who will win out in this upcoming election? Have Americans always been this easily duped?
A look back in history shows that in the past, Americans have given black males opportunities before they have given women those same opportunities. At times, women were not allowed in rallies for civil rights because organizers were afraid that they too would ask for rights. These promoters thought that women wanting rights as well would hurt their own race's chances of achieving equal rights. Although this is a sad commentary on our progress is does bode well for Obama. It seems that it is still better to be a male, of any race, in this country than to be a female. Just look at the GOP's VP selection (big letters are fun). If she does not set women's rights back at least a decade i do not know what would.
Although that lipsticked up hick from Alaska tells us we need to stop looking backwards, looking backwards is exactly what i have been doing. Maybe it is my 'anti-authority' mindset that has me doing the complete opposite of what that idiotic heli-hunter says but i find that i am not alone. Not alone now and not alone throughout America's history.
We are a country who has rebelled against authority over and over again throughout our short history. The heroes in our text books were all terrorists. Throwing tea into the sea. Throwing snowballs at British soldiers (my we like throwing things... maybe that is why baseball is America's pastime). i never understood why the south were called 'rebels' when the northern souls were the ones who rebelled against slavery. Ending slavery was more important that keeping our country together.
Civil disobedience is our obligation as Americans. Whether you look up to Henry David Thoreau or Martin Luther King Jr start including you middle name and disobey. As those before you have rebelled against unfair taxation: rebel against what our government is doing with our money. As those before you have rebelled for civil rights and the rights of women: rebel that homosexuals deserve the same rights as heterosexuals. Whites had to help blacks get treated fairly, men had to help women get treated fairly, now us heterosexuals have to help homosexuals by demanding that they too get treated fairly.
For years our government has said that imposing necessary environmental standards would mean them wrongfully meddling in the free market. What are they doing now? If they are not meddling with the free market now i am not sure what would be considered such. Maybe if a hurricane floods out DC then they will finally take notice of the havoc we have caused and the legacy we leave our children. Or more likely, the flooding would just result in our politicians taking even more time off.
Imagine if Clinton had said that the internet was too dangerous and made it illegal. What state would our economy have been in during the 1990's had we not seen the internet boom. Bush Jr did just that by making stem cell research, in essence, illegal. That could have been our next economic wave but instead he decided to paddle out past it and we have been left in flat waters. Even the most modest of environmental regulations could have helped in creating a new green economy but that too was crushed under the Regan era fossil fuel economy type thinking of this current administration.
After years of chastising the United States as if from afar during the Bush Jr administration i look at the politicians running at every level in this upcoming election and am nothing but disappointed. Is this the best we can do? Is this what we deserve?
NO!
The US is not some country i watch on TV, it is my country and i want it back. i am tired of feeling like an outsider here because i do not shop at the mall to get over 9/11, or because i do not take out loans for more than i can handle, or because i want someone smart in office rather than electing who i would rather sit beside at a sporting event. This is MY country. In fact this is more so my country than those sheep that i feel excluded by because the true Americans throughout history have done what they know and feel is right, not just what the government tells them to do. That is what has caused us to progress and what has caused us to be role models for so many in the past. It is time to step back up into that role in the world.
i for one will no longer hold my tongue in public settings no matter who i may offend in hopes that it will give strength to others to do the same.
Clean coal is an even more idiotic concept than jumbo shrimp. If you think that gays are any less human beings than you are, then you are just wrong. If you do not want to stop the dying of Americans in Iraq by bringing them home than you do not support the troops. If you are driving around an eight passenger SUV with a 'support the troops' magnet on the back you are a fucking lier. USE LESS OIL if you support the troops.
Either start taking actions to protect the environment or stop this baby-bump fad. You cannot have it both ways. The Earth cannot handle how we are currently living so unless we change, our children will not have the opportunity to take care of themselves. How selfish is that?
This is my country, and the sooner we all start taking ownership of that the quicker things will improve. As echoed many times before (including in 'V for Vendetta') i will borrow the saying once again: people should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people.
A look back in history shows that in the past, Americans have given black males opportunities before they have given women those same opportunities. At times, women were not allowed in rallies for civil rights because organizers were afraid that they too would ask for rights. These promoters thought that women wanting rights as well would hurt their own race's chances of achieving equal rights. Although this is a sad commentary on our progress is does bode well for Obama. It seems that it is still better to be a male, of any race, in this country than to be a female. Just look at the GOP's VP selection (big letters are fun). If she does not set women's rights back at least a decade i do not know what would.
Although that lipsticked up hick from Alaska tells us we need to stop looking backwards, looking backwards is exactly what i have been doing. Maybe it is my 'anti-authority' mindset that has me doing the complete opposite of what that idiotic heli-hunter says but i find that i am not alone. Not alone now and not alone throughout America's history.
We are a country who has rebelled against authority over and over again throughout our short history. The heroes in our text books were all terrorists. Throwing tea into the sea. Throwing snowballs at British soldiers (my we like throwing things... maybe that is why baseball is America's pastime). i never understood why the south were called 'rebels' when the northern souls were the ones who rebelled against slavery. Ending slavery was more important that keeping our country together.
Civil disobedience is our obligation as Americans. Whether you look up to Henry David Thoreau or Martin Luther King Jr start including you middle name and disobey. As those before you have rebelled against unfair taxation: rebel against what our government is doing with our money. As those before you have rebelled for civil rights and the rights of women: rebel that homosexuals deserve the same rights as heterosexuals. Whites had to help blacks get treated fairly, men had to help women get treated fairly, now us heterosexuals have to help homosexuals by demanding that they too get treated fairly.
For years our government has said that imposing necessary environmental standards would mean them wrongfully meddling in the free market. What are they doing now? If they are not meddling with the free market now i am not sure what would be considered such. Maybe if a hurricane floods out DC then they will finally take notice of the havoc we have caused and the legacy we leave our children. Or more likely, the flooding would just result in our politicians taking even more time off.
Imagine if Clinton had said that the internet was too dangerous and made it illegal. What state would our economy have been in during the 1990's had we not seen the internet boom. Bush Jr did just that by making stem cell research, in essence, illegal. That could have been our next economic wave but instead he decided to paddle out past it and we have been left in flat waters. Even the most modest of environmental regulations could have helped in creating a new green economy but that too was crushed under the Regan era fossil fuel economy type thinking of this current administration.
After years of chastising the United States as if from afar during the Bush Jr administration i look at the politicians running at every level in this upcoming election and am nothing but disappointed. Is this the best we can do? Is this what we deserve?
NO!
The US is not some country i watch on TV, it is my country and i want it back. i am tired of feeling like an outsider here because i do not shop at the mall to get over 9/11, or because i do not take out loans for more than i can handle, or because i want someone smart in office rather than electing who i would rather sit beside at a sporting event. This is MY country. In fact this is more so my country than those sheep that i feel excluded by because the true Americans throughout history have done what they know and feel is right, not just what the government tells them to do. That is what has caused us to progress and what has caused us to be role models for so many in the past. It is time to step back up into that role in the world.
i for one will no longer hold my tongue in public settings no matter who i may offend in hopes that it will give strength to others to do the same.
Clean coal is an even more idiotic concept than jumbo shrimp. If you think that gays are any less human beings than you are, then you are just wrong. If you do not want to stop the dying of Americans in Iraq by bringing them home than you do not support the troops. If you are driving around an eight passenger SUV with a 'support the troops' magnet on the back you are a fucking lier. USE LESS OIL if you support the troops.
Either start taking actions to protect the environment or stop this baby-bump fad. You cannot have it both ways. The Earth cannot handle how we are currently living so unless we change, our children will not have the opportunity to take care of themselves. How selfish is that?
This is my country, and the sooner we all start taking ownership of that the quicker things will improve. As echoed many times before (including in 'V for Vendetta') i will borrow the saying once again: people should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people.
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