  The lights are dimmed, my headphones are on (Sublime tonight, for a change), and I got my juice box out of the fridge, so it must mean that it is time for me to blog. First things first: To the asshole junior(s) who scraped my stickers off my car: I'm sorry that my beliefs don't conform with what your parents brainwashed you with. Nevertheless, my car is my property and I can express whatever I want on it. It is classless and juvenile for you to stoop to vandalizing my car rather than telling me that you don't agree with me. When I find out which of you did it, I'm going to plaster your car with John Kerry stickers. I've got a bunch of them coming in the mail.
The warcraft analogy in the post below made me laugh pretty hard. Time for a brief interlude in my blog to comment on Houley's post. I'm sorry if I come across as a jerk below, but I'm going to take a page out of Mr. Wanninger's book and remove the "I think" part of the sentence. So, lets go: I'll split my thoughts up so they don't become too convolted. First off, lets say we can split punk into two parts: beliefs and actions. I'll split beliefs into politics and philosophy, to be brief.
I realize that politics is a part of philosophy but it since most punks have very similar politics I will split it from philosophy. Philosophy is what I talked about in an earlier post and will talk about later in this post. Politics are what punk rock springs from. Punk rock is usually associated with a leftist working class movement, and that is not totally true but is close enough for the sake of this argument. Most punks like punk rock and vice versa. For most, punk rock is the road into punk.
This ties into psuedopunks and politics, which I will reference later on. But anyway, actions can also be split into two things: internal actions and social actions. Social actions are things like wearing certain clothes, saying certain things, or hanging out with certain people. Internal actions are things that happen inside you. It could be a belief, an idea, or just a thought. Internal actions are much more common in punks than in social actions because some people are shy or just don't care to dress or act different.
A good example of a internal action would be this: One day Hawkeye and I were walking down the hall, and he wondered out loud if we weren't just cattle being herded through pens. This was a very punk thought, because it challenged the idea that school is beneficial to us. So now punk has been split into four parts: politics, philosophy, social actions, and internal actions. Going by these we could say that qualities a punk might have is that they are leftist, like punk rock, believe in free will and individualism, refuse to accept social norms, dress, act, and think different than other people. But this is not exactly right, because most punks are a combination of only a few of them. For instance, a psuedopunk might have only the social and political qualities of a punk.
They don't realize or practice what is at the core of punk and therefore are not punk. Some people only practice internal actions and are punk. Some people are wacky individualists and are punk. You can't fit punk into only one of these categories. There are all sorts of different punks. But you are not a punk just because you think you reject society, to use Houley's all-encompassing word.
You have to understand society in order to change it. In conclusion: you can't just hate George Bush and wear some clothes you bought at Hot Topic to be punk. Also, there are many different kinds of punk and I am starting to realize that it takes a lot of work and explanation to define the word "punk. " To continue on, with my feelings on Houley's comments (again, with the polite "I think" removed): 1. Society is not the ultimate judge of you. YOU are.
This is one of the things that is at the heart of punk. That you can decide what is right for you (please don't take this literally, as in a doctor or a dentist) is a central tenet of punk. The whole psuedopunk thing might seem like a contradiction to you, but they do look to society to judge them and determine their worth. Thus, they aren't punks. But I digress. Saying society decides who we are is basically saying we have no free will.
I truly hate the idea that is isn't myself who decides who I am and where I am going. To bring a taboo subject into this argument, I've always felt that atheism is free will. The idea that no God, no greater power guides us to do what we do. But I don't really want to start a religion discussion, at least not until this is over. Anyway, I have the right to choose what I am and what I will be, not society. You should read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , because it is about social perceptions and is quite good.
2. I agree that everyone wants to be accepted (except G.G. Allin, who lived to be hated). I'm pretty sure that the need to be accepted is one of man's base needs, according to Freud. I can't remember because I haven't heard anything about psychology in a while. But I also believe that the need to be accepted only goes to a certain extent.
Why compromise your values and beliefs to get invited to a few more social functions? A lot of the time, the purpose of human interaction is to seek acceptance. We don't seek acceptance from societies or groups, though. We seek acceptance through individuals . I could care less what the vast majority of people think of me, but there are people that I listen to and care about. I disagree with your 'rejection' idea.
I follow almost all aspects of society, and the only ones I reject are the ones I want to change. I don't reject them to gain attention or seem more 'punk. ' 3. I've covered most of three in my point two, but I will say a couple things. I know we all need to be accepted. I'm sure for you if the whole tennis team hated you it would hurt.
It would hurt me if the people I whose judgements I trust called me a psuedopunk. It would hurt if the Oselands called me a poser. We are all human, and no one is a perfect punk or conformist or whatever. Back to rejection: I don't 'reject' society to be punk. I reject it becuase I am a punk and it conflicts with what I believe. I do what I do because it is who I am and I enjoy doing it.
4. Ask any punk what they think of psuedopunks and you will get the same answer. We are punks, but we also love punk rock and to see them piss all over our way of life by buying their clothes from Hot Topic and pretending they are rebelling and by proclaiming their love for ideas we would die for really pisses us off. I kind of covered this earlier. The words "punk" and "change" and "doing the right thing" are interchangeable. Are you a punk?
I'm not going to tell you. You tell me. I dislike most of the juniors I know because a lot of them are pretentious assholes. I know many of them well, be it through TV Pro or Halo or whatever. Like I said earlier, some of them are cool, like Tom and David. I don't hate any of the kids we play Halo with, though I dislike some of them.
I was talking more of all the juniors together. I will admit to being prejudiced against most of the people with power, be it social or political or whatever. I won't say I dislike people just because they are rich, though. A lot of my friends are well-off, including Chris and Erik, two of the punkest richest bastards I know. Blew my paycheck already. For all the Clash talk about the evils of capitalism, they sure are costing me a lot of money.
I'm thinking about a Halo practice tomorrow. If you guys read this, call me tomorrow, and I'll take a headcount of how many of us are available. I think we are going to mulch the Goat on Sunday night. I can't remember where my Uncle Ed lives, but I know it is on a lake somewhere. Moved some trees today. I started playing Worms again and it has once again developed into a full-out addiction.
Where is the Hobster at? He started the whole punk argument (well, I guess it is more of a discussion) by calling me a "psuedopunk. " I would love to hear what his definition of punk is. Hobe, if you read this, type "raow. " Nothing is going on tomorrow except me putting together the Goat practice, so maybe I'll write a thought post that will spark an argument in the day and then do my usual late-night update. Raow. 
