The Power and the Limits of Punk
(Composed when the author was beginning a phase-out of his decade-long involvement in the Chicago hardcore punk scene in the 1980's.)
The power of punk lies in its being a type of culture that is owned and administered by the people who are a part of it. In many instances, punks (many of whom are young) own the means of communication — the record companies, the fanzines, the performance halls. In this light, punk, therefore has a larger possibility of being a truly human culture not alienated from its participants like the “mass culture” of mainstream society….Mass culture doesn’t have at heart the interests of those who involve themselves in it. The means of communication are owned by an elite that has only one interest — money. Music, in this culture, becomes a commodity much like labor has become a commodity in capitalist society. Punk has negated the passive role left for consumers of popular “art” and “music” in America. The interests of its participants are usually (but not always) reflected in punk culture.
BUT PUNK DOES NOT GO FAR ENOUGH, however.
To criticize the conformity and mass boredom of society is a first step, but it isn’t the last one. Or shouldn’t be. Punk does not articulate enough of a critique of politics, economics, and culture. And although there are differing beliefs among punks, those who can see further than mindless rebellion must begin to articulate their concerns in theory and translate this theory into action. If this critique is not formulated or articulated, punk will be INCorporated into American, capitalist society which will degrade punk into being yet one more useless and non-threatening trend.
American capitalist society can and has commodified rebellion ans alienation (even as it has (re)produced this alienation and rebellion itself). Yet punk has already reproduced a very negative aspect of American culture: anti-intellectualism and the fetishism of action. Those concerned with the future of punk and the future of society must first come to value critical thinking as part and parcel of any activist projects. Only then can full-blown resistance take root.
