Leave Ethics For the Kids.

I am at a bit of a disposition since I was a kid who grew up in the mid-nineties. Being a punk rock or an indie rock kid, as I was (am), has a lot of stigma's that come along with it. Many of them are a lot harder to shake than you'd think. I guess the bug gun is the punk ethic that has come with every generation that has lived by the punk rock musical code: you travel, play, eat sparsly, ask for very little money for both records and other merch, obide by the strict ethical standards. These are the die hard rules. I guess for most bands drinking and drugs would come into play as well. That can be left up to the individual. I don't think punk rock has an official position on that subject.

The problem with this punk ethic is the "not making money" part. This was already hard in the nineties, but now it's carried over to now. I understand the desire for many people to want to keep records cheap so kids can buy them; that's great, but it comes at a sacrifice. Maybe now, because of my age, I find myself unwilling to make those sacrifices so easily. For instance, I'm not well versed in travel, but gas is obnoxiously expensive. I feel like everyone who gets gas at the local station should be sitting there waiting for Bugs Bunny to shoot up beisde them with an "Idiot" sign pointed at them. Of course, I could do it instead, but the average American is way too tense and I'm not sure I want to test that kind of potential rage.

My point is that being punk rock is hard. It never wavers. Its morals are always the same. Times be damned! Age and health be damned! There comes a time, at least for myself and several others that I've spoken to about this, when you want to keep having the same global outlook. We all want that optomism, but we also want to be able to survive and make more than a living wage. If that means jacking up the price of a shirt or a CD that the money from goes straight to food for me and my friends, yeah, I'm doing that. I need to eat and I want to be able to get to the next town. These things have become so dead to punk rock ears though, that people don't understand that sometimes it's not an exaggeration. You NEED to eat. You NEED sustinence. I'm sorry if I'm not punk rock because the 7" isn't 3 dollars anymore, but fuck man, gas isn't even 3 dollars anymore. Give me a break and give the moral high ground a break while you're at it.

Of course, I'm sure the view is nice up there with all the really PC kids. Fuck those kids. Chill out.

*Wow, that took an amazing turn there at the end. Sorry. That's for another time.