the compulsion to conform is a powerful side-effect of civilized life. we are all taught to respect the views of our elders, and later when we realize that they are just dogmatic opinions, we are taught not to make a commotion by asking difficult questions. many just go along with the prevailing notions and never express their own views, which is analogous to a premature death of the individual. our species is unique in the ability to recognize and express the self, and not exercising this biological function goes against the natural selection gradient that created it in the first place. this complacency combats a fear of failure. it is easy to assume that if everyone else is doing something, then there is no way to fail if you just go along with it. cattle and flocks of geese can probably recognize this advantage. but the entire human race could fail because of this mentality. thinking and acting in a direction against the current of popular opinion is critical to human advancement, and a potent manifestation of punk. if an issue or phenomenon is found to be true only because other people say it is so, then it is a punk's job to look for a better solution, or at least find an independent variable that confirms the held view (sometimes the popular view is just a reflection of human nature, punks don't live in denial of this).
this ability to go against the grain was a major part of the greatest advances in human thinking throughout history. the entire enlightenment period was characterized by ideas that shunned the dogma of the time, only to reveal truths in nature and human existence that all people can observe, and that are still with us today.
galileo fought the church, the church won the battle, by putting him in jail for life, but ultimately lost the war; few people today believe that the sun orbits around the earth, and thus god didn't create the earth as the center of the universe. francis bacon insisted that human destiny is equal to understanding. if we deny this fundamental principle of what it means to be human, he reasoned, then we descend into the depths of mere barbarism.
charles darwin, wrote after the heyday of the enlightenment, he nonetheless was directly influenced by its tradition, was trained as a theologian and yet still was driven to understand the underlying order that connected biological species he observed in his travels. his views threw into question many of the bible's tenets, yet his reasoning was sound, and through a process of self-improvement (the struggle in his own mind to understand) he improved mankind by establishing a new benchmark of human knowledge.
the dogma of the church was further marginalized. the fear of repercussion from the church was overshadowed by the wave of understanding that his views created in people, and by the truth to his observations.
the modern-day punk thought process, driven by this desire to understand, is a carbon-copy of the enlightenment tradition. the fact that so many historical examples exist that reveal a will to destroy dogma leads to a powerful tenet: it is a natural trait of civilized humans to be original. the fact that uniqueness is so rare reveals that our nature is stifled by an equally potent opposing force: fear.
punk is: a process of questioning and commitment to understanding that results in self-progress, and by extrapolation, could lead to social progress.
if enough people feel free, and are encouraged to use their skills of observation and reason, grand truths will emerge. these truths are acknowledged and accepted not because they were force-fed by some totalitarian entity, but because everyone has a similar experience when observing them. the fact that punks can relate to one another on issues of prejudice comes from a shared experience of being treated poorly by people who don't want them around. each has his/her own experience of being shunned, and each can relate to another's story of alienation without some kind of adherence to a code of behavior.
the truth of prejudice is derived from the experience they all share, not from a written formula or constitution they have to abide by. punks learn from this experience that prejudice is wrong, it is a principle they live by; they didn't learn it from a textbook. without striving to understand, and provoking the held beliefs, the truth remains shrouded behind custom, inactivity, and prescriptive ideology.
what is truth?
philosophers distinguish between capital "t" truth and truth with a small "t". punks deny the former.
truth with a capital "t" assumes that there is an order prescribed by some transcendental being. that is to say that truth comes ultimately from god, who had a plan for everything when he created the universe.
little "t" truth is that which we figure out for ourselves, and which we all can agree upon due to similar experience and observations of the world. it is also known as objective truth, from within ourselves, revealed here on this earth; as opposed to big t truth, which comes from outside and is projected down to us, specifically for us to follow. morality need not be thought of as a product only of big "t" truth. objective truth lends itself just as readily to a moralistic, spiritual culture.
punk is: a belief that this world is what we make of it, truth comes from our understanding of the way things are, not from the blind adherence to prescriptions about the way things should be.
punk's dependence on objective truth comes from the shared experience of going against the grain. anyone who has stood out in a crowd feels the truth of the experience. no one had to write a doctrine in order for the outcast to understand what it meant to be different. the truth was plain enough, and that truth could be understood and agreed upon by all those who shared a common experience.
