Individuality. What a concept.
This will show just how "old school" I am but, time was when rebellion was as simple as wearing a plain shirt rather than the one with the alligator on it. Cutting your hair short and a bit spikey rather than parted in the middle. Why you were the James Dean of your school if you did that. But really at the time it was more of an attitude that seperated you from your peers.
But like the hippy movement before, punk became a fashion not really attached to ideals. These days to show you are your own person you must have a 6" drill bit stuck in your head and plaid hair. "So you think you can define me? Watch as I ram a pop rivet into my genitals! Power to the people!"
We can't just have our own unique personalities and views and be happy, but you have to make sure that it's shoved down everyone's throat. But are there ideals lurking behind the costume of the skinny white guy with number five twine strung into his hair to approximate "dreads"? What are the fresh, upstart, opinions of the kid with the tie-dye shirt and hat of weed and afro? That's the problem. The more extreme elements of legitimate schools of thought like the hippy or punk movement are copied minus what lies underneath and then paraded as a counter-culture movement themselves. Blue hair is not rebellion it's a color and one that your grandma also uses.
Where is the individuality in following a rebellious fashion statement that is now thirty years old? Those who follow an "alternative" lifestyle are not content to do so and be left alone, they demand that all accept it and embrace it. It's like a pathetic child's attempt to get noticed and get attention. A true individual or "rebel" follows his or her own path and is true to themselves without the slightest regard for who accepts it or notices. There is no "look at me, look at me" aspect at all.
Listen, punk is dead, hippyism is dead. Those people have grandchildren now. All you'll get from picking from it's burnt out remains is rubbish.
The old Punk rocker with his slighty spikey hair and shirt unadorned with reptiles sits and smiles and remembers a time when true rebellion would spring from the inner depths of one's mind, and not something that cost a hundred bucks at the mall.
postscript to this entry. The Poet does find it very sexy though when women pierce their belly buttons. But that's another entry altogether.
Over and out.