Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Straight Edge
"I'm a person just like you, but I've got better things to do than sit around and fuck my head, hang out with the living dead. Snort white shit up my nose, pass out at the shows. I don't even think about speed. That's something I just don't need. I've got the straight edge" (Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat) The anthem of a healthy lifestyle comes raging out of the speakers. Minor Threat knows exactly what they are talking about. The vow to forever live their lives with the "stay punk, stay clean ethics" is one of the best countercultures in our ever changing world. This subculture is straight edge. Straight edge (also known as sXe) is a goal to control your own life. This includes rebelling against the normal teenage activities, such as drinking, smoking, drugs, and promiscuous sex. The straight edge lifestyle consists of many beliefs that are all positive for the person who vows straight edge. The theory of this hardcore punk band from the 1980's in one that all teenagers should see as something positive, it is an idea to examine your own life. This scene consists of a room filled with thrashing loud music, and girls and boys "throwing down" together, a dance that's very popular amongst the straight edgers that looks more like fighting.
This lifestyle started off with nothing more than good intention for the body of the person who became straight edge. The healthy lifestyle that originally started as a group of pacifists, has become something about impressing other people; A heartfelt attempt to clean up the underground became a trend just like everything else. While members of the straight edge scene live pure and good lifestyles by making prudent decisions, some members of the brotherhoods and sisterhoods actions contradict the very base of their beliefs.
I have talked to straight edge people. I have read news articles, seen news reports, and listened to interviews. I've talked to the Reno police department who now classify straight edge as a gang, just like The Bloods or The Crips. Everyone who calls themself straight edge has given me one impression on the whole, and that is that straight edge is something for yourself. It is an internal promise that you make to live your life healthily and on your own terms. Ruth Horner, an active member of the straight edge partnership believes just this. She said "the goal is to regain as much personal control over your own life as possible." If this is the truth, then take the sharpie X's off your hands and make this an internal decision. There is no need at all to project the lifestyle.
This is nothing short of an advertisement. According to the American Heritage Dictionary an advertisement is “A notice, such as a poster or a paid announcement in the print, broadcast, or electronic media, designed to attract public attention or patronage.” ("Fourth Edition." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language. 10 Oct. 2005.) This is exactly what the straight edge scene consists of, proving to other people that you are better than them by flaunting something outmoded. This is a cry for help, a desperate hunger for attention, and maybe even a psychiatrist’s recommendation for the broken minded.
Just like people have the right to be straight edge; people have the right to strongly disagree, and preaching your position is nothing short of redundant. Charles Bronson was a hardcore punk/power violence thrash band noted for its ground-breaking, powerful, government-bashing songs with confrontational clips from movies and TV that offer commentary on Political-social Aspects of society of the 21st century. While they were a band that was entirely straight edge they humorously poked fun at the sXe scene, and its inevitable prospect to become a trend like everything else we encounter today. Their angst filled lyrics tell of movements based on nothing less than who is better than everyone else. They screamed this song of praise until their throats bled - "You've lost your punk points. You've broken the #1 rule: Talking' shit about others who could care less about your views. In it for the trend. Just keep telling yourselves you care and every six months or so, change your identity like the color of your hair." Living healthy is no longer what it's about. The band whose lead straight edge lives understands, along with everyone else, that the real edgers, have lost everything they've worked for.
It is no longer a brotherhood. It is a trend. The only brotherhood sXe is involved in is the one with myspace, studded belts, bandanas and the Xcores. When something becomes a trend it loses all sense of dignity, and is no longer taken seriously, and this is the inevitable but near future of the straight edge lifestyle. To walk into the doors of a punk rock show with X's on your hands, is like a police officer wearing his badge when he is off work. That says "I am a cop." The X's say "I am the scene." These things create biased opinions and are both completely irrelevant when meeting someone. The straight edge scene has become nothing but a bunch of elitists, who think they're better than everyone else. Straight edgers have come to be people who disregard other people's beliefs, and only believe in their entirely biased lifestyle. This entire belief started out as a bunch of conscientious objectors, but it now consists of violent affiliates who take their personal values too far. Times have evolved the straight edge inclination into layers. There are three different kinds of straight edgers. There are the problematic, ignorant people who place themselves above everyone else, when that is not at all where they belong. Then there is kind who have all the morals of a straight edge person, without the willpower to keep it strong. They don't drink, if the aren't at a party. They don't smoke, unless there in a place where that is cool, and they don't eat meat, unless of course they're in the mood for a tendercrisp bacon cheddar ranch.
Then there is the genuine sXe, who is unfortunately now few and far between. These people value clarity and their ability to control their own lives without having something to prove. These people are, 99% of the time, decent people who see their choices for what they are, choices, nothing more, and nothing less. "You cant be straight edge on and off. Even if you aren't drunk, you're partaking in a culture that the straight edgers don't want to support." (Steinhauer) Watch out if you don't agree with the sXe's, though, because you could end up on the ground of a parking lot with half of a baseball bat in your skull. Straight edge is not about individualism or reconciliation anymore. "(international) noise conspiracy, and active straight edge band proclaims "capitalism sole my virginity"" (qtd. In Sanneh) ,and little do they know, they aren't exactly kidding. Straight Edge has become nothing but the select few who think they're above everybody else.
Everything they claim to be contradicts their own beliefs. Chad Gilbert, a straight edge guitarist for a pop punk band called New Found Glory said, "Straight edge isn't about rules. It's a philosophy about being in control of your own actions and making decisions for yourself." How could this possibly be, though? If being straightedge is about your own actions, then why the hate crimes against those are not, themselves, straight edge? If its about making decisions for yourself, why do they wear the X's on their hands? Why would you go about proving something that should be internal, to everyone else? Straightedge is like a smart person being stupid, all the clarity with none of the intelligence. In a 20/20 Interview on Straight Edge, John Quinones said "Brad Harmon is a deputy with the gang unit of the Salt Lake City county sheriffs' office. He says straight edgers may boast of being squeaky clean and health conscious, but he's found many of them are nothing more than violent gang members who assault people who smoke and beat up people who drink alcohol." (qtd in "Straight Edge")
Many of the straight edge people refuse to take prescription or over the counter medicine, drink caffeinated beverages, refuse all meat bi-products and even refuse luxuries such as chocolate. A lot of straight edgers say it’s about going to their grave with a clean body. That's like buying a guitar and never once strumming the strings. It’s writing a letter and never sending it out. Life isn't about holding back, and being careful of what could be. Its about pushing everything to the limit. Our voices have the ability to scream, so we can be heard, not so we can spend out entire lives whispering. To win, you have to risk loss. To feel indisputably happy, you have to feel genuine sorrow. In order to be grateful for life, you must come close to death, and if you don't, every day will be the same. James Dean, a young actor on the 1950's devoted to rebellion once said "Dream as if you'll life forever. Live as if you'll die today." If some of these straightedge kids keep living their lives in opposition of what James Dean believed, they will never know happiness, beauty, or genuine fervor for any one thing. What happens when the sXe's turn 21? I guarantee that 75% of them aren't strong enough to still say no. Straightedge started as a really good, positive, interesting idea. However, it's gone too far. It's now a bunch of kids, waiting to live the rest of their lives in regret.
"In the end, we are left with more questions than answers and with a renewed humility for the complexity inherent in getting it right when dealing with the range and nuance created by live actors in a changing youth subculture. Clearly, what he have found is preliminary, and more work needs to be done both on the internet and with field research to further explore this side branch of the American tradition of abstinence based on social movements." (Helton & Staudenmeier) Straight Edge is not complete. It is contradictory to itself and condescending to anyone who does not agree. Minor Threat started the term straightedge because they said the straight edge of a ruler reflected their ways of life. Straight Edge is no longer something internal, special, or particular. It’s just like everything else. Maybe we should change the name from Straight Edge to Waves like the ocean, because it seems to me that it has more ups and downs than the elevators in Trump Plaza. So if you're straight edge, and chose to live your life that way, I hope you're strong enough to make it a commitment for life, but please, throw you're straight edge t-shirts away and get those tattoos removed, because if its as domestic a trend as you say it is, keep it that way.
This lifestyle started off with nothing more than good intention for the body of the person who became straight edge. The healthy lifestyle that originally started as a group of pacifists, has become something about impressing other people; A heartfelt attempt to clean up the underground became a trend just like everything else. While members of the straight edge scene live pure and good lifestyles by making prudent decisions, some members of the brotherhoods and sisterhoods actions contradict the very base of their beliefs.
I have talked to straight edge people. I have read news articles, seen news reports, and listened to interviews. I've talked to the Reno police department who now classify straight edge as a gang, just like The Bloods or The Crips. Everyone who calls themself straight edge has given me one impression on the whole, and that is that straight edge is something for yourself. It is an internal promise that you make to live your life healthily and on your own terms. Ruth Horner, an active member of the straight edge partnership believes just this. She said "the goal is to regain as much personal control over your own life as possible." If this is the truth, then take the sharpie X's off your hands and make this an internal decision. There is no need at all to project the lifestyle.
This is nothing short of an advertisement. According to the American Heritage Dictionary an advertisement is “A notice, such as a poster or a paid announcement in the print, broadcast, or electronic media, designed to attract public attention or patronage.” ("Fourth Edition." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language. 10 Oct. 2005
Just like people have the right to be straight edge; people have the right to strongly disagree, and preaching your position is nothing short of redundant. Charles Bronson was a hardcore punk/power violence thrash band noted for its ground-breaking, powerful, government-bashing songs with confrontational clips from movies and TV that offer commentary on Political-social Aspects of society of the 21st century. While they were a band that was entirely straight edge they humorously poked fun at the sXe scene, and its inevitable prospect to become a trend like everything else we encounter today. Their angst filled lyrics tell of movements based on nothing less than who is better than everyone else. They screamed this song of praise until their throats bled - "You've lost your punk points. You've broken the #1 rule: Talking' shit about others who could care less about your views. In it for the trend. Just keep telling yourselves you care and every six months or so, change your identity like the color of your hair." Living healthy is no longer what it's about. The band whose lead straight edge lives understands, along with everyone else, that the real edgers, have lost everything they've worked for.
It is no longer a brotherhood. It is a trend. The only brotherhood sXe is involved in is the one with myspace, studded belts, bandanas and the Xcores. When something becomes a trend it loses all sense of dignity, and is no longer taken seriously, and this is the inevitable but near future of the straight edge lifestyle. To walk into the doors of a punk rock show with X's on your hands, is like a police officer wearing his badge when he is off work. That says "I am a cop." The X's say "I am the scene." These things create biased opinions and are both completely irrelevant when meeting someone. The straight edge scene has become nothing but a bunch of elitists, who think they're better than everyone else. Straight edgers have come to be people who disregard other people's beliefs, and only believe in their entirely biased lifestyle. This entire belief started out as a bunch of conscientious objectors, but it now consists of violent affiliates who take their personal values too far. Times have evolved the straight edge inclination into layers. There are three different kinds of straight edgers. There are the problematic, ignorant people who place themselves above everyone else, when that is not at all where they belong. Then there is kind who have all the morals of a straight edge person, without the willpower to keep it strong. They don't drink, if the aren't at a party. They don't smoke, unless there in a place where that is cool, and they don't eat meat, unless of course they're in the mood for a tendercrisp bacon cheddar ranch.
Then there is the genuine sXe, who is unfortunately now few and far between. These people value clarity and their ability to control their own lives without having something to prove. These people are, 99% of the time, decent people who see their choices for what they are, choices, nothing more, and nothing less. "You cant be straight edge on and off. Even if you aren't drunk, you're partaking in a culture that the straight edgers don't want to support." (Steinhauer) Watch out if you don't agree with the sXe's, though, because you could end up on the ground of a parking lot with half of a baseball bat in your skull. Straight edge is not about individualism or reconciliation anymore. "(international) noise conspiracy, and active straight edge band proclaims "capitalism sole my virginity"" (qtd. In Sanneh) ,and little do they know, they aren't exactly kidding. Straight Edge has become nothing but the select few who think they're above everybody else.
Everything they claim to be contradicts their own beliefs. Chad Gilbert, a straight edge guitarist for a pop punk band called New Found Glory said, "Straight edge isn't about rules. It's a philosophy about being in control of your own actions and making decisions for yourself." How could this possibly be, though? If being straightedge is about your own actions, then why the hate crimes against those are not, themselves, straight edge? If its about making decisions for yourself, why do they wear the X's on their hands? Why would you go about proving something that should be internal, to everyone else? Straightedge is like a smart person being stupid, all the clarity with none of the intelligence. In a 20/20 Interview on Straight Edge, John Quinones said "Brad Harmon is a deputy with the gang unit of the Salt Lake City county sheriffs' office. He says straight edgers may boast of being squeaky clean and health conscious, but he's found many of them are nothing more than violent gang members who assault people who smoke and beat up people who drink alcohol." (qtd in "Straight Edge")
Many of the straight edge people refuse to take prescription or over the counter medicine, drink caffeinated beverages, refuse all meat bi-products and even refuse luxuries such as chocolate. A lot of straight edgers say it’s about going to their grave with a clean body. That's like buying a guitar and never once strumming the strings. It’s writing a letter and never sending it out. Life isn't about holding back, and being careful of what could be. Its about pushing everything to the limit. Our voices have the ability to scream, so we can be heard, not so we can spend out entire lives whispering. To win, you have to risk loss. To feel indisputably happy, you have to feel genuine sorrow. In order to be grateful for life, you must come close to death, and if you don't, every day will be the same. James Dean, a young actor on the 1950's devoted to rebellion once said "Dream as if you'll life forever. Live as if you'll die today." If some of these straightedge kids keep living their lives in opposition of what James Dean believed, they will never know happiness, beauty, or genuine fervor for any one thing. What happens when the sXe's turn 21? I guarantee that 75% of them aren't strong enough to still say no. Straightedge started as a really good, positive, interesting idea. However, it's gone too far. It's now a bunch of kids, waiting to live the rest of their lives in regret.
"In the end, we are left with more questions than answers and with a renewed humility for the complexity inherent in getting it right when dealing with the range and nuance created by live actors in a changing youth subculture. Clearly, what he have found is preliminary, and more work needs to be done both on the internet and with field research to further explore this side branch of the American tradition of abstinence based on social movements." (Helton & Staudenmeier) Straight Edge is not complete. It is contradictory to itself and condescending to anyone who does not agree. Minor Threat started the term straightedge because they said the straight edge of a ruler reflected their ways of life. Straight Edge is no longer something internal, special, or particular. It’s just like everything else. Maybe we should change the name from Straight Edge to Waves like the ocean, because it seems to me that it has more ups and downs than the elevators in Trump Plaza. So if you're straight edge, and chose to live your life that way, I hope you're strong enough to make it a commitment for life, but please, throw you're straight edge t-shirts away and get those tattoos removed, because if its as domestic a trend as you say it is, keep it that way.
There is Only One You
Did you know that I have
a birthmark on my right pointer finger?
I swear it’s shaped like Africa,
I swear.
In India, cows are holy.
In American, cows are lunch.
Did you know that Albert Einstein
suffered from A.D.D,
and the boy who sits next
to me at lunch has a webbed toe?
People ask him if he swims faster.
The answer is no.
Did you know that Vincent Van Gogh
cut his ear off, and sent it to his girlfriend as a gift?
And Martin Luther King got his dream from Gandhi.
Did you know that when you hear a ringing in your ear,
that is the last time you will ever hear that frequency?
And that Hitler could not live with what he had done,
so the last life he took was his own?
Did you know that only one out of every hundred
people was born with hair that is red?
and that Thomas Edison swore that
he heard the voices of dead people?
Did you know that your forearm is
the same size as your foot?
and that the Costa Rican Flying Quetzal
birds are fly in pairs,
so they are never alone?
Did you know that life is beautiful?
Did you know?
a birthmark on my right pointer finger?
I swear it’s shaped like Africa,
I swear.
In India, cows are holy.
In American, cows are lunch.
Did you know that Albert Einstein
suffered from A.D.D,
and the boy who sits next
to me at lunch has a webbed toe?
People ask him if he swims faster.
The answer is no.
Did you know that Vincent Van Gogh
cut his ear off, and sent it to his girlfriend as a gift?
And Martin Luther King got his dream from Gandhi.
Did you know that when you hear a ringing in your ear,
that is the last time you will ever hear that frequency?
And that Hitler could not live with what he had done,
so the last life he took was his own?
Did you know that only one out of every hundred
people was born with hair that is red?
and that Thomas Edison swore that
he heard the voices of dead people?
Did you know that your forearm is
the same size as your foot?
and that the Costa Rican Flying Quetzal
birds are fly in pairs,
so they are never alone?
Did you know that life is beautiful?
Did you know?
Art & Ice Cream
i am an Artist because inspiration lies within
the ocean and the trees.
because i believe in so much.
because i know that Art is fingers and they way
they intertwine with another’s hand.
and the way boys have beards and girls just don’t.
because my Mom will never stop saying “caa” when referring to a vehicle.
i choose Art because i have poor hygiene and cannot get out of bed.
because i see faces in the curtains.
i see Art because the earth is made of oil paints,
and oil paints are made from the earth.
with the skies pinks, blues, purples and greens,
who needs craft stores?
because in the summer my feet are always dirty.
because in the winter my socks are never clean.
because of that clear lucite at my Grandma’s house,
and when my freckles come out I can not keep my happiness to myself.
i am an Artist because I am far too good at brazen self promotion.
because i never let go of my camera
and you can quite often find me in abandoned buildings.
because of those awful rabbi’s on the computer room wall,
and those quirky signs in the kitchen.
i am an Artist because i live in New Jersey,
and sometimes i feel like i am the only one
who thinks it’s the greatest place on Earth.
also because my Nana’s ceramic elephant has only had one tusk for years.
i am an Artist because I like hammocks and tea,
the city, and strawberries.
because sometimes makeup is fun;
and other times i think it’s the most terrible thing ever.
because my Ipod capacity is always growing,
and Florida smells different than my home.
i live my life around Art because i will never ever get tan.
and because my Dad still wont bring my
gifts to work for false fears of them being stolen.
because i am a firefly.
because i have grown up around Love.
because “Friendship is thicker than blood.”
I will always be an artist
because I love what I do,
and mostly because I will never forget
that cold ice cream store, and the smell of
the back room there where I took my first art lessons.
The flower I painted was pink. My best friends were there.
I can still taste those small chunks of ice in the rainbow sherbet.
I can still taste how good it felt to create.
the ocean and the trees.
because i believe in so much.
because i know that Art is fingers and they way
they intertwine with another’s hand.
and the way boys have beards and girls just don’t.
because my Mom will never stop saying “caa” when referring to a vehicle.
i choose Art because i have poor hygiene and cannot get out of bed.
because i see faces in the curtains.
i see Art because the earth is made of oil paints,
and oil paints are made from the earth.
with the skies pinks, blues, purples and greens,
who needs craft stores?
because in the summer my feet are always dirty.
because in the winter my socks are never clean.
because of that clear lucite at my Grandma’s house,
and when my freckles come out I can not keep my happiness to myself.
i am an Artist because I am far too good at brazen self promotion.
because i never let go of my camera
and you can quite often find me in abandoned buildings.
because of those awful rabbi’s on the computer room wall,
and those quirky signs in the kitchen.
i am an Artist because i live in New Jersey,
and sometimes i feel like i am the only one
who thinks it’s the greatest place on Earth.
also because my Nana’s ceramic elephant has only had one tusk for years.
i am an Artist because I like hammocks and tea,
the city, and strawberries.
because sometimes makeup is fun;
and other times i think it’s the most terrible thing ever.
because my Ipod capacity is always growing,
and Florida smells different than my home.
i live my life around Art because i will never ever get tan.
and because my Dad still wont bring my
gifts to work for false fears of them being stolen.
because i am a firefly.
because i have grown up around Love.
because “Friendship is thicker than blood.”
I will always be an artist
because I love what I do,
and mostly because I will never forget
that cold ice cream store, and the smell of
the back room there where I took my first art lessons.
The flower I painted was pink. My best friends were there.
I can still taste those small chunks of ice in the rainbow sherbet.
I can still taste how good it felt to create.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)