May 2009 Editorial

We see it all of the time. . . People within an underground subculture who preach until their faces are blue about some cause or another before suddenly taking their lives onto a path in a completely opposing direction from the route that they told every one else to follow them on. The outspoken members of straight edge bands who disappear into the fog and then reemerge as drug dealers or damaged stoner metal types are the most obvious perpetrators, along with the peace Punks who end up becoming yuppies and skinhead hooligans who hang up their boots to become cops. Anyone who has hung out around the Punk / Indie scene for a few years has probably seen all of this stuff happen more than once. Of course everyone is entitled to question the truths that they have always taken for granted and in reality any healthy human being should examine every side of any issue that they stand behind. It takes a lot of guts to change your views or lifestyle when your reputation is at stake. However sometimes it seems that people who are the most outspoken in their views end up changing not because they have decided to make healthier decisions in their lives, but rather because they are unable to figure out how to sustain a lifestyle which is in line with the philosophies that they believe in.

What most of us find out when we finish high school or college is that it's very hard to be involved in an anti - mainstream counterculture and to simultaneously make a decent living. As a result most people either completely drop out of whatever scene they were involved in or take on a dual personality where they are working stiffs during the week, and then Punk rock warriors on the weekend. These two lifestyles are at odds with each other all too often and trying to juggle both can inevitably lead to a personality crisis. The people that fit into this role are bound to overcompensate for the inconsistencies in their lives by taking on overindulgent habits. They live their lives with no balance, but instead take on two extremes.

For me the best way to resolve this issue was to find a job where I could apply the principles that Punk rock had turned me onto and apply them to my professional life. This turned out to be no easy feat and after I completed my bachelor's degree in college I ended up being thrown out into the real world, aimless and scared shitless. I had majored in English and minored in Political Science, but shortly before I graduated I decided that I really didn't want to be a teacher. This was quite an inconvenient time to come to such a conclusion and I refer to this period as my early life crisis. I was told by every influential adult in my life not to panic and was reminded that the majority people who graduate college go on to work in a field completely unrelated to their major. Taking this advice into consideration, as it was the only advice anyone was giving, I started applying for a million different types of jobs.

Since my world was imploding around me in Massachusetts and I was finding it harder and harder to score job interviews, I finally decided to apply a scorched earth policy to my life. My Punk rock friends were all going in opposing directions and it seemed like we were all learning to hate ourselves and each other. The only thing that I could do was move as far away from them as possible and to dedicate all of my time to figuring out what to do with my life. I set my sights on Los Angeles as I had some close friends out here and it just seemed like the place to be. I admit that a big factor was that I wanted to see bands like the Adolescents and TSOL more often. Having been a visitor to this site long before I was the assistant editor I would often look at the L.A. show listings and become extremely jealous of everyone living here. With the generous help of my family and some money that I had saved I moved out to California in an overstuffed minivan with no idea about what I was going to do with my life.

When a person puts themselves into this type of position they lock into survival mode and for the first time in life I could understand why so many people "sold out." I took a job as a telemarketer selling printer cartridges to businesses and organizations. I knew that this could only be a temporary job and that I needed to find something better but at that moment the only goal I could reach for was working any job that would take me. I felt sick going into work. The higher ups at the job were all sleazy and predatory. The people working the phones with me all hated their jobs and talked shit on each other and the company. On my way back to my apartment I called my boss and quit the job after my first day.

At this point I was really panicking. I was 3000 miles from home and had just quit my job on the first day. I went back to my L.A. apartment and got deeper into survival mode. Within a week I was offered a job at a bank, answering phones for their customer service line. I knew that this job would not last either and I was already dreading the first day. It had nothing to do with any of my personal interests or ideals. I could see myself on the way to becoming a weekend warrior, so I was determined to find a better job before I even started there. It's always easier to set your goals higher when you have a backup plan to fall on. What I had determined was that I wanted a job where I could have fun and make a living without causing harm to other people. It seemed simple, but again society doesn't always make living simply an easy task.

When I finally found the job that I ended up taking it was on a whim. On Craigslist there was a listing for a job working with children with autism. Having interacted with a few kids with Asperger's syndrome at a gig I had working at a local YMCA, this job seemed appealing and I had a minimal amount of experience that I could put on a resume. I was not expecting a phone call, but within a day I was offered an interview. Luckily the guy interviewing me turned out to be into Punk rock and we struck up a conversation in the interview about the Gorilla Biscuits, Black Flag and S.O.A.. The next day I was offered the job.

Since then I have moved on to another company, but I still work with kids with autism and other developmental disabilities. The way this all comes together is that I was finally able to find a job where I could apply ideas that I had taken from Punk rock into a positive work environment. One of the values that I had taken from the Punk rock movement was a belief in giving support to people on the outside of society rather than rejecting them. Unlike members of a counterculture, children with autism don't get to choose whether or not they want to "fit in" to society or reject it. Their choice all too often is made for them by a preexisting condition. Nevertheless my job choice made sense to me as an extension of beliefs that I had carried from being involved in Punk rock.

The point of this whole rant is not to say that people who are into Punk rock should be shunned or looked down upon if they take so-called "normal" jobs, but that it is possible to make a living and use our beliefs and experiences that we acquire within our community in a working environment. Even in a more mainstream job atmosphere it's important to keep our ideals intact as much as possible. If we can not apply our philosophies to an everyday lifestyle than we prove to the world that Punk rock is nothing but a facade and a part- time hobby.

 

-Ditch-
Asst. Editor