The Politics of Thoreauvian Punk

Thoreau’s innovations in American political thought, specifically in an uncompromising sense of justice and a refusal to capitulate to what is easy or popular, is also the essence of punk rock, which is associated with challenging institutional authority on everything from musical forms to clothing styles to language. Just as Black Flag’s Henry Rollins and Bad Religion’s Greg Graffin led the charge for many second wave punk bands calling out the bankrupt '80s economic positions of the Reagan Revolution, Henry David Thoreau rejected and refused to support the foreign policy disasters of President Polk, and he openly challenged any passive acceptance of the institution of slavery, especially in his native Massachusetts following the capture and re-enslavement of Anthony Burns, per passage of the Fugitive Slave Act. Thoreau's passionate defense of abolitionist Captain John Brown is one of his most aggressive and overtly political stances, indicating a support for civil disobedience by violent means if necessary. Thoreau’s support for Brown in opposition to Brown’s conviction and execution was resolute and unwavering. 

In taking the very public stands he did, Henry David Thoreau was a true American original, as significant as any of the Founding Fathers for his innovative and influential political and philosophical ideas. While not overly famous in his lifetime, Thoreau has only grown in fame over the past one hundred and fifty years. In his eulogy Emerson noted, “no truer American existed than Thoreau.” Thoreau's connection to contemporary society specifically in punk culture is related to the passion and determination with which both operate. Henry Rollins has said he believes punk is where you have “young people in vitality,” and nothing could be a more apt description of Thoreau. Pushing back against authority and the established norms of the time was a key motivator in the life of Henry Thoreau, and it is a guiding principle of punk. When Thoreau walked into the woods to build his cabin and see if he could “live deliberately” it was an absolute expression of what is now known as Punk.