![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
May. 9th, 2002
Punk of the Year
May. 9th, 2002 09:54 amI had a feeling the mailbox bomber was some punk kid. When I saw that he signed his notes "Sincerely, Someone who cares" I was all, "How emo can you get?"
It probably wouldn’t be funny if he wasn’t so inept at the bombings. But since no one got seriously hurt, we can make fun all we want. Is it the mark of the complete lack of innovation in punk that this kid was in a band called Apathy? The politics quoted in the NY Times are such boilerplate, bad punk politics it verges on satire. ""I often wonder why so many people spend their entire lives consuming what is fed to them, without knowing if they are consuming anything at all," his letter said. "All of my family and friends were raised to believe . . . to be gullible . . . to be materialistic . . . t o fear authority . . . to blindly follow."
It’s not even that I necessarily disagree with those statements, and it’s not even that the idea that blowing up mailboxes (or mail carriers) to get that message across is a little confused. It’s the inability of punk to get beyond that very basic message in 25 years that’s distressing. In fact, one could argue that punk politics are regressing. At least early punk, while always having a heavy emphasis on the individual, could discuss collective action and class politics. I mean jeez, Dad read his, "You’ve gotten the attention you asked for/please surrender" message in a union jacket, why couldn’t son have at least blown up some rich people’s mailboxes.* Sad.
The NY Times also quotes a post on Apathy’s me ssage board supposedly from him responding to criticism saying ""You all are just a bunch of conformists conforming to the will of the overlord media who rules over the land with an iron fist." I hate "conforming conformists" don’t you? I don’t know about the authenticity of that one though. It reads more like bad Jello Biafra than Kurt Cobain really.
I do hope MRR puts his picture on the cover as "Punk of the Year". At least maybe punk will seem a little dangerous again. Inept and dull-witted, maybe, but at least a little scary
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/08/national/08PIPE.html?ex=1021835880&ei=1&en=bafe3170802bbaf4
*Any government agents reading this should understand that this is a rhetorical question. Thanks for reading.
◊e
It probably wouldn’t be funny if he wasn’t so inept at the bombings. But since no one got seriously hurt, we can make fun all we want. Is it the mark of the complete lack of innovation in punk that this kid was in a band called Apathy? The politics quoted in the NY Times are such boilerplate, bad punk politics it verges on satire. ""I often wonder why so many people spend their entire lives consuming what is fed to them, without knowing if they are consuming anything at all," his letter said. "All of my family and friends were raised to believe . . . to be gullible . . . to be materialistic . . . t o fear authority . . . to blindly follow."
It’s not even that I necessarily disagree with those statements, and it’s not even that the idea that blowing up mailboxes (or mail carriers) to get that message across is a little confused. It’s the inability of punk to get beyond that very basic message in 25 years that’s distressing. In fact, one could argue that punk politics are regressing. At least early punk, while always having a heavy emphasis on the individual, could discuss collective action and class politics. I mean jeez, Dad read his, "You’ve gotten the attention you asked for/please surrender" message in a union jacket, why couldn’t son have at least blown up some rich people’s mailboxes.* Sad.
The NY Times also quotes a post on Apathy’s me ssage board supposedly from him responding to criticism saying ""You all are just a bunch of conformists conforming to the will of the overlord media who rules over the land with an iron fist." I hate "conforming conformists" don’t you? I don’t know about the authenticity of that one though. It reads more like bad Jello Biafra than Kurt Cobain really.
I do hope MRR puts his picture on the cover as "Punk of the Year". At least maybe punk will seem a little dangerous again. Inept and dull-witted, maybe, but at least a little scary
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/08/national/08PIPE.html?ex=1021835880&ei=1&en=bafe3170802bbaf4
*Any government agents reading this should understand that this is a rhetorical question. Thanks for reading.
◊e