Punk Manifesto by Greg Graffin
I have never owned a record label, nor directed a successful
merchandise company, so I don’t pretend to be an expert on marketing. I have
evolved through my craft as a songwriter, but others have labeled it and
marketed it and made it neat for consumption.
Although I have made money from Punk, it is a modest amount
when one considers the bounty that has been bestowed on the companies that
promote Punk as some sort of a product to be ingested. It has always been my
way to de-value the fashionable, light-hearted, impulsive traits that people
associate with Punk, because Punk is more than that, so much more that those
elements become trivial in the light of human experience that all punkers
share.
Since it has been a part of me for over half of my life, I
think the time has come to attempt a definition, and in the process defend,
this persistent social phenomenon known as Punk. It is astounding that
something with so much emotional and trans-cultural depth has gone without
definition for so long, for the roots of Punk run deeper, and go back in
history farther than imagined.
Even in the last two decades, it is difficult to find any
analysis of the influential effect that Punk Rock had on Pop Music and youth
culture. And rarer still are essays detailing the emotional and intellectual
undercurrents that drive the more overt fashion statements that most people
attribute to Punk. These are some of the wants that compelled me to write this.
If my attempt offends the purists, collapses the secrecy of a closed society,
promotes confidence in skeptical inquiry, provokes deeper thought, and decodes
irony, then I have done my job and those who feel slighted might recognize the
triviality of their position. For I have nothing to promote but my observations
on a sub-culture that has grown to global proportions, and through visiting
much of it, I have found threads of common thought everywhere.
Common thought processes are what determine the ideology
that binds people together into a community. There is desire among Punks to be
a community, but there needs to be some shape imparted on the foundations of
the punk ideology, and where it comes from. The current Punk stereotype is
scarred by mass-marketing and an unfortunate emphasis on style over substance.
But these ills don’t destroy the Punk sentiment, they merely confound the
education of the new generations of people who know they are punk, but don’t
know what it means. It is a long road to understand what it means. This essay
is part of the process.
PUNKS ARE NOT BEASTS:
Punk is a reflection of what it means to be human. What separates us from other
animals? Our ability to recognize ourselves and express our own genetic
uniqueness. Ironically, the commonly held view, among the marketeers and
publicity engines, stresses the “animalistic”, “primitive” nature of punks and
their music.
They assume that violence is a key ingredient in punk music,
and this assumption is easily perpetuated because it is easy to market violence
and news items about violence always get column space. This focus on violence
misses a key element of what Punk is all about:
PUNK IS: the personal expression of uniqueness that comes
from the experiences of growing up in touch with our human ability to reason
and ask questions.
Violence is neither common in, nor unique to punk. When it
does manifest itself it is due to things unrelated to the punk ideal. Consider
for example the common story of a fight at a high school between a punk and a
jock football player. The football player and his cohort do not accept or value
the punk as a real person. Rather, they use him as a vitriol receptacle, daily
taunting, provoking, and embarrassing him, which of course is no more than a
reflection of their own insecurities. One day, the punk has had enough and he
clobbers the football captain in the hallway. The teachers of course expell the
punk and cite his poor hairstyle and shabby clothing as evidence that he is a
violent, uncontrollable no-good. The community newspaper reads “Hallway Beating
Re-affirms that Violence is a Way of Life Among Punk Rockers”. Spontaneous
anger at not being accepted as a real person is not unique to punkers. This reaction
is due to being human, and anybody would react in anger regardless of their
sub- cultural, or social affiliation if they felt de- valued and useless.
Sadly, there are plenty of examples of violence among punks. There are glaring
examples of misguided people who call themselves punks too. But anger and
violence are not punk traits, in fact, they have no place in the punk ideal.
Anger and violence are not the glue that holds the punk community together.
IN UNIQUENESS IS THE PRESERVATION OF MANKIND:
Nature bestowed on us the genetic backbone of what punk is all about. There are
roughly 80,000 genes in the human genome, and there are roughly 6 billion
people carrying that genetic compliment. The chances of two people carrying the
same genome are so small as to be almost beyond comprehension (the odds are
essentially ½ 80,000 times the number of possible people you can meet and mate
with in a lifetime! A practical impossibility)
The genes we carry play a major role in determining our
behavior and outlook on life. That is why we have the gift of uniqueness,
because no one else has the same set of genes controlling their view of the
world. Of course cultural factors play the other major role, and these can have
a more homogenizing effect on behavior and world-view.
For example, an entire working-class town might have 15,000
residents who are raised with the same ideals, work at the same factories, go
to the same schools, shop at the same stores, and like the same sports teams.
As their children develop, there is a constant interaction of opposite forces
between the social imprinting their culture imparts and the genetic expression
of uniqueness.
Those who lose touch with their nature become society’s
robots, whereas those who denounce their social development become vagrant
animals. Punk stands for a desire to walk the line in between these two
extremes with masterful precision. Punks want to express their own unique
nature, while at the same time want to embrace the communal aspects of their
cookie-cutter upbringing. The social connection they have is based on a desire
to understand each other’s unique view of the world. Punk “scenes” are social
places where those views are accepted, sometimes adopted, sometimes discarded,
but always tolerated and respected.
PUNK IS: a movement that serves to refute social
attitudes that have been perpetuated through willful ignorance of human nature.
Because it depends on tolerance and shuns denial, Punk is
open to all humans. There is an elegant parallel between Punk’s dependence on
unique views and behaviors and our own natural genetic predisposition toward
uniqueness.
THE BATTLE OF FEAR AND RATIONALITY:
The compulsion to conform is a powerful side-effect of civilized life. We are
all taught to respect the views of our elders, and later when we realize that
they are just dogmatic opinions, we are taught not to make a commotion by
asking difficult questions. Many just go along with the prevailing notions and
never express their own views, which is analogous to a premature death of the
individual. Our species is unique in the ability to recognize and express the
self, and not exercising this biological function goes against the natural
selection gradient that created it in the first place. This complacency combats
a fear of failure. It is easy to assume that if everyone else is doing
something, then there is no way to fail if you just go along with it. Cattle
and flocks of geese can probably recognize this advantage. But the entire human
race could fail because of this mentality. Thinking and acting in a direction
against the current of popular opinion is critical to human advancement, and a
potent manifestation of Punk. If an issue or phenomenon is found to be true
only because other people say it is so, then it is a Punk’s job to look for a
better solution, or at least find an independent variable that confirms the
held view (sometimes the popular view is just a reflection of human nature,
Punks don’t live in denial of this). This ability to go against the grain was a
major part of the greatest advances in human thinking throughout history. The
entire Enlightenment period was characterized by ideas that shunned the dogma
of the time, only to reveal truths in nature and human existence that all
people can observe, and that are still with us today.
Galileo fought the church, the church won the battle, by
putting him in jail for life, but ultimately lost the war; few people today
believe that the sun orbits around the earth, and thus God didn’t create the
earth as the center of the universe. Francis Bacon insisted that human destiny
is equal to understanding. If we deny this fundamental principle of what it
means to be human, he reasoned, then we descend into the depths of mere
barbarism.
Charles Darwin, wrote after the heyday of the Enlightenment,
he nonetheless was directly influenced by its tradition, was trained as a
theologian and yet still was driven to understand the underlying order that
connected biological species he observed in his travels. His views threw into
question many of the Bible’s tenets, yet his reasoning was sound, and through a
process of self-improvement (the struggle in his own mind to understand) he
improved mankind by establishing a new benchmark of human knowledge.
The dogma of the church was further marginalized. The fear
of repercussion from the church was overshadowed by the wave of understanding
that his views created in people, and by the truth to his observations.
The modern-day Punk thought process, driven by this desire
to understand, is a carbon-copy of the Enlightenment tradition. The fact that
so many historical examples exist that reveal a will to destroy dogma leads to
a powerful tenet: It is a natural trait of civilized humans to be original. The
fact that uniqueness is so rare reveals that our nature is stifled by an
equally potent opposing force: fear.
PUNK IS: a process of questioning and commitment to
understanding that results in self-progress, and by extrapolation, could lead
to social progress.
If enough people feel free, and are encouraged to use their
skills of observation and reason, grand truths will emerge. These truths are
acknowledged and accepted not because they were force-fed by some totalitarian
entity, but because everyone has a similar experience when observing them. The
fact that Punks can relate to one another on issues of prejudice comes from a
shared experience of being treated poorly by people who don’t want them around.
Each has his/her own experience of being shunned, and each can relate to
another’s story of alienation without some kind of adherence to a code of
behavior.
The truth of prejudice is derived from the experience they
all share, not from a written formula or constitution they have to abide by.
Punks learn from this experience that prejudice is wrong, it is a principle they
live by; they didn’t learn it from a textbook. Without striving to understand,
and provoking the held beliefs, the truth remains shrouded behind custom,
inactivity, and prescriptive ideology.
WHAT IS TRUTH?
Philosophers distinguish between capital “T” truth and truth with a small “t”.
Punks deny the former.
Truth with a capital “T” assumes that there is an order
prescribed by some transcendental being. That is to say that truth comes
ultimately from God, who had a plan for everything when he created the
universe.
Little “t” truth is that which we figure out for ourselves,
and which we all can agree upon due to similar experience and observations of
the world. It is also known as objective truth, from within ourselves, revealed
here on this earth; as opposed to big T truth, which comes from outside and is
projected down to us, specifically for us to follow. Morality need not be
thought of as a product only of big “T” truth. Objective truth lends itself
just as readily to a moralistic, spiritual culture.
PUNK IS: a belief that this world is what we make of
it, truth comes from our understanding of the way things are, not from the
blind adherence to prescriptions about the way things should be.
Punk’s dependence on objective truth comes from the shared
experience of going against the grain. Anyone who has stood out in a crowd
feels the truth of the experience. No one had to write a doctrine in order for
the outcast to understand what it meant to be different. The truth was plain
enough, and that truth could be understood and agreed upon by all those who
shared a common experience.
WHAT IS FEAR?
The fears that drive people to conform have caused dismal periods in human
history. The so-called Dark Ages, were tranquil and without upheaval, but also
dismally quiet and pestilent, nary a contrasting view to be found. The
pseudo-comfort and tranquility that the people of the Dark Ages experienced, by
conforming to a rigidly enforced bureaucracy enforced by the king and church,
was masked entirely by the misery they had to endure in their day to day life.
Life is easy as a peasant, no direction, no purpose, just produce more goods
and offspring for the benefit of the king. But using fear to control peasants
(or modern-day blue-collar workers for that matter) is just a short-term foul
exercise, because peasants have the same mental equipment as the royalty.
The deeply ingrained biological traits of self-recognition
and the desire to express the self cannot be quashed for long. Eventually
peasants realize that life without the practice of reason is as good as being a
farm animal. Being controlled by fear is the same as being biologically inert,
unable to take part in the human drama, merely wasting away. The fear that
controls human behavior is learned. It is different from the immediate,
reflexive, run-away-from-the- nasty-stimulus response that other creatures
employ to stay alive. We have motor reflexes like these as well, but fear of
failure, and fear of speaking out come from the limbic system.
The limbic system is a network of neurons in our brain that
control our most deep-seated emotions. It connects two parts of the brain
together: the midbrain, where sensory information is sent (i.e. sight and
hearing stimuli) and the forebrain, where that information is processed.
Although the forebrain has been around for at least 480 million years (it was
present in the earliest vertebrates), it evolved special functions with the
advent of humankind.
A specialized portion of the forebrain, called the cerebral
cortex, is highly developed in humans. 95% of our cerebral cortex is
responsible for associative mental activities like contemplation and planning.
The other 5% is responsible for processing motor and sensory information. By
comparison, a mouse (also considered a higher vertebrate), has a cerebral
cortex with only 5% of its neurons devoted to associative functions, while 95%
are devoted to motor and sensory functions.
The highly developed limbic system is at the core of what it
means to be human. We differ from other animals in the amount of time we spend
planning, contemplating, and expressing ourselves. Our limbic system is very
powerful. It can over-ride primitive emotions, and suppress deep desires.
Anyone who has ever seen a sad movie with friends, and willfully held back tears
because they didn’t want their friends to see them crying, employed the power
of their limbic system. They contemplated the repercussions of their friends
reaction to crying, and shut off the emotional cascade that would have brought
the tears.
In the same way that rationality is the product of the
limbic system, fear is also centered in the same neurons of the limbic system.
Fear is usually rational behavior, based on irrational thoughts, and it can
freeze the processing power of the cerebral cortex. Denial and fear go hand in
hand, and both are examples of how our limbic system can suppress obvious
stimuli and promote behavior that is safe and conforming.
The limbic system is like any other organ in the sense that
it can operate unchecked to produce detrimental results. Being in touch with
our bodies leads to overall general health, and the limbic system needs
constant attention in order to master it. To overcome fear, one needs to be in
touch with their limbic system, and recognize when it is suppressing the
obvious.
Etiquette and “being nice” are forms of limbic-system
repression, necessary at times, but ultimately demeaning of human originality.
Lying is the ultimate form of limbic-system repression. It is a denial of the
obvious. Truth-tellers, those who are authentic and trustworthy, have learned
to master their limbic system. They recognize the desire to lie, but
rationalize the futility of advocating something that is not true. Liars, on
the other hand, are slaves to their limbic system, out of touch with their most
basic mental capacities. Their behavior is guarded and shifty because they let
their flawed reasoning, to cover up the obvious, control their entire makeup.
They eventually have to give in to the truth and concede defeat, but only after
every possible avenue of deception and twisted logic has been advocated in the
interest of hiding their fear. Politicians, Clergymen, Business leaders, and
Judges are masters of twisted logic and promotion of fear. They make good
intellectual targets for Punkers because they don’t respect people who have
learned to master their limbic systems. And Punkers are not afraid to point out
that which is obvious, even if it means their social status might be
jeopardized.
PUNK IS: the constant struggle against fear of social
repercussions.
THE PUNK MOVEMENT:
I have tried to enumerate some of the factors that make Punk a movement, in the
cultural sense. The typical stereotype of a feeble-minded ruffian vandalizing,
destroying, stealing, fighting, or arguing in the name of some empty,
short-lived cause is no more punk than the pretty-face-empty-head image of
today’s pop stars.
Because it is so easy for record companies to sell images of
violence, sex, and self-importance, many bands have taken the bait and
portrayed themselves as Punks, without realizing that they were actually
perpetuating a stereotype of conformity that is wholly un-punk.
The “come join us” attitude that seeks to attract followers,
usually results in a rabble of weak people who think that their power lies in
the large numbers of like-minded clones they have compiled. There is no
strength in numbers however, if the people are glued together by a
short-sighted, self-serving, fear-induced mantra that promotes factions and
exclusionary principles. Strong ideologies don’t require a mob, they persist
through time, and never go away, because they are intimately connected to our
biology. They are part of what it means to exist as Homo sapiens. Punk typifies
that tradition. It is a movement of epic proportions, that transcends the
immediacy of the here-and-now, because it is, was, and always will be
there-and-forever, as long as humans walk the earth.
As we enter a new era in the voracious march of culture,
Punks will have their day. The internet has allowed people to communicate
directly once again. On the web, human behavior is interactive, like it was
before the advent of mass-media.
People now focus on ideological discussions and lifestyle
issues, as opposed to the classic 20th century behavior of closing oneself off
from cohorts, and adhering to a network’s, or commercial’s prescriptive code of
acceptable behavior. The lies, and mysteries of elitism will erode quickly as
the global conversation that transpires daily on the web invades more people’s
lives.
The world population will be more receptive to alternative
ideologies because they will be creating them. People will be less receptive to
ideologies of out- dated institutions because the holes and flaws in their
logic will be ever more amplified when they are broadcast instantly around the
world as they become revealed.
The “Strength-In-Understanding”, and “Knowledge-Is-Power”
ethics that Punks maintain will become the norm. The rigidity, brutishness, and
futility of secret agendas will be made obvious, paving the way to an
appreciation of human uniqueness, and a new era of originality.
WHO IS PUNK?
Everyone has the potential to be punk. It is much harder for someone who comes
from a placid, un-challenging, ignorant upbringing, because they don’t see the
value in questioning or provoking the institutions that gave them such
tranquility. But such examples of carefree existence are rare in today’s
shrinking world.
Eternal questions still burn in the minds of most people.
What it means to be human is becoming more clear every decade. Sometimes,
people are trained to follow the safe path to an early grave by consuming and
repeating the dogma of a fearful aristocracy.
On the other hand, the human spirit is hard to kill. Punk is
a microcosm of the human spirit. Punks succeed with their minds, not their
brute force. They advance society by their diversity, not their conformity.
They motivate others by inclusion, not domination.
They are at the front lines of self-betterment and by
extrapolation can improve the complexion of the human race. They adhere to
unwritten universal principles of human emotion, obvious to anyone, and shun
elitist codes of behavior, or secret agendas. They embody the hope of the
future, and reveal the flaws of the past. Don’t tell them what to do, they are
already leading you.
PUNK IS: the personal expression of uniqueness that
comes from the experiences of growing up in touch with our human ability to
reason and ask questions.
PUNK IS: a movement that serves to refute social
attitudes that have been perpetuated through willful ignorance of human nature.
PUNK IS: a process of questioning and commitment to
understanding that results in self-progress, and through repetition, flowers
into social evolution.
PUNK IS: a belief that this world is what we make of
it, truth comes from our understanding of the way things are, not from the
blind adherence to prescriptions about the way things should be.
PUNK IS: the constant struggle against fear of social
repercussions.
-Greg Graffin, Bad Religion
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