Thought for tonight: What the hell is punk?
Googled
it and watched a documentary on Crass. Whether
that’s a good start point or not it certainly got me thinking. The
first thing is that it's far from about a love for the sound that
they make. The documentary talks about so many things that are hardly
mentioned these days in any constructive sense.
The
guy that formed the band was basically just an angry man who had some
mates and started a band, he got slagged for being ignorant and
sounding like an idiot so he worked on it, read his way through
Dorian Gray and eventually ended up a poetic genius and an expert on
globalisation.
They
talked about things like:
Anarchism,
which they were extremely organised about (no that’s not an
oxymoron), they found the line between opposing the existing
structures while being in it enough to spread their message. They
talked about how they weren't into normal graffiti because it is too
easy to denounce a message if it is presented in a medium which
causes damage, so they only ever did it on things like promotional
posters for war films which would be replaced fairly regularly. That
was before the internet so messages against the system really had an
impact. Its quite refreshing that they processed it that way rather
than the black hoodie window smashing approach and infinitely more
useful.
Pacifism,
can you really be a pacifist with a pure conscience? Are you causing
harm to others by not getting involved?
Consumerism,
they were offered property deals by major UK labels that would make
them rich "that you can spend on your hippie commune thing"
they said but they turned it down. A lot of the focus of the band was
on the way of living, two of them still run an open doors inn, home,
dontcallitacomune which where they take anyone in (mainly artists)
and teach things about permaculture and all that. The place is run
down and in debt because they spend all the money that comes in on
projects to make the world a better place. Pretty selfless.
If you
were going to live and run a house as a base of operations for your
work what would you do? If you were to have a steady income from your
creative works and could spend it on anything what would you spend it
on? Should more people have a social conscience and if so how?
A fan
of theirs gave them classified information on events in the Falklands
which they released in the background of one of their songs - they
were offered a job with the KGB and turned it down because they
didn't want to get involved in a mud slinging contest between
superpowers. Whether that contradicts what they said about pacifism I
don't know.
One
other element which highlights a lot of things is that 'social class'
is mentioned a lot. Some of them are very sure of their 'working
class' background which is seen as a barrier to getting into any kind
of expressive medium like music or art. To get over that barrier must
be a big step for them and I suppose is a large part of the ethos –
the documentary was called “There Is No Authority But Yourself”.
For them to have the balls to say, look I don't care if you like me
or my message or if you think I'm of the right caste to do this, and
made a career from that... blindness? From that lack of care of their
opinions is very novel/inspiring. I can see why they developed a
following.
Their
hate of Thatcher is pretty natural and obvious. Why is there not the
same movement against Cameron?
It
ended with the phrase "What happened to that voice? It's all
sort of gone". Well I think it's just changed. It doesn't have
the same amount of balls but It's stronger than ever and covering
most of the world:
- https://www.facebook.com/TRAPTheRealArtofProtest
- https://www.facebook.com/anarchistmemes
- https://www.facebook.com/libcom.org
- https://www.facebook.com/OccupyWallSt1
- https://www.facebook.com/OffiziellAnonymousPage
- https://www.facebook.com/pages/I-Acknowledge-Class-Warfare-Exists/196601040368145
When it comes to music, Rage Against the Machine and Enter Shikari (amongst others) seem to be the natural progressions - politically minded bands keeping the connection with activism and music.
