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Wednesday
November 9, 2016 |
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I went through puberty during the
Reagan administration, which is probably why I
turned out so twisted. He took office when I was 11.
I understood only that my political refugee parents
were shocked that a B-movie actor could ascend to
the presidency. He starred alongside
a chimpanzee, for Pete's sake, and many said
the chimp had more brains. By the time his
scandal-ridden tenure was over I saw him for the
monster he was, an awareness fostered by punk
culture more than anything else--the 'zines,
records, stickers, shows, and community. I spent
hours alone in my room poring over lyrics as LPs
spun on my $99 all-in-one Yorx stereo. That
subculture was my window on a worldview that jolted
me out of my suburban status quo conditioning. Today
as I try to process the enormity of what just happened it helps to
revisit music that's timely as ever. Remember, Make
America Great Again was Reagan's slogan, and now
here we are again with an even less
qualified celebrity becoming frontman for the
military-industrial complex, but now with the added
zest of total
surveillance, for-profit
prisons, and death
by drone. It got me thinking about creating a
punk rock syllabus, a course of participatory study
emphasizing self-sufficiency, critical thinking, and
creative expression. Now is the time to make America
punk again. |