What was going on during Wingnut Dishwasher Union? Tell me what you feel necessary!
1) Wingnut Dishwashers Union was a project that reflected a developing sense that drug and alcohol abuse were seriously affecting my life in negative ways. The nihilism and self-destruction that I pursued in my earlier life were killing me, and making it impossible to develop a life of joy, freedom, or connection to the people I loved. A lot of the songs have to do with thinking about responsibility as a component of freedom. I was also discovering that I was unable to stop or moderate my drug use, even when I wanted to. I became heroin dependent during the time I was writing Wingnut Dishwashers Union songs. Correspondingly, my sense of despair and hopelessness deepened as I slid into escalating cycles of addiction and misery. That continued until I ultimately got sober. Johnny Hobo is about an old way of living, Wingnut Dishwashers Union is about questioning that way of living but not being able to do anything about it, and Ramshackle Glory is a point of departure into a new way of living. Do you think your perspective of Anarchy has changed from Wingnut to Ramshackle Glory? What differences in your life make that different? 2) My perspective on anarchism isn't very different, there's just more space for that perspective to influence my actions. I was very unsuccessful at putting anarchist principles into practice before I got sober, because I am a drug addict and an alcoholic. It didn't really matter what I believed in; the only way I could do what I needed to do was through domination and manipulation of the people around me. The difference in being sober is that I'm capable of a wider range of behavior, and more if it can be in line with my interpretation of the anarchist spirit: living as much as possible without dominating others or being dominated by them, and attempting to dismantle everything that forces us into relationships of dominance and submission. Can you describe your entrance into the Punk Scene? How did you find it? Why did you stay with it? 3. I became interested in punk because someone mentioned offhandedly to me that there was a connection between punk and radical politics. I don't remember who it was, but it must have been an adult--maybe a college student who was interning in one of my Junior High classes. I saw a flyer for a punk show in the next town over and decided to go. At the time, the person who was booking shows just happened to book a lot of political crust punk bands. There were people distributing literature at the show. The bands talked about what the songs meant in between playing. It was really cool. I didn't know anyone else around my age who had political opinions, so I was pretty excited just to be there reading the zines. I'm not a very outgoing person, and at that age I was actively nervous around people, so I don't think I even met anyone. I just knew that whatever I had just seen was where I wanted to be. It was my first show, so I just thought all punk shows were like that. I went to every one that I could. Pretty quickly I found out that a lot of punk shows don't have anyone distributing literature, a lot of bands don't sing about anything important, and a lot of punks aren't very interesting people. I stayed in the punk scene because I found people in it that I related to more than anyone I knew outside of it, and over time the set of aesthetic and cultural values I had in common with those people solidified into an increasingly coherent identity. I remember I was seventeen or eighteen, feeling angry and sorry for myself because I always felt uncomfortable around people and didn't think anyone liked me, and in a conversation with my friend Johno I said something about how I wasn't a punk. I was feeling really bitter about punk at that point in my life, both for not being "revolutionary" enough and for not making me feel more comfortable personally. Johno raised his eyebrows a little and started asking me about who I was friends with, what music I listened to, what literature influenced me, etc. I was very stubborn, but he patiently demonstrated to me in that conversation that most things about my life were heavily influenced by my connection to punk. I could no more deny being "punk" than being my parent's son. That transformation isn't all good. I've spent so much time in this specific subcultural context that I have a hard time relating to people outside of it. That's a really small world to inhabit, and over time I think it's crippling. I need deep ties to things outside of punk in order to be reasonably happy or well-rounded. Getting sober brought a lot of those kinds of relationships into my life. A lot of people I know the best in Tucson I only know because we're in recovery. We don't have anything else in common. I think that's really important, to find common cause with people I don't necessarily agree with about anything. Going to college brings me out of punk world a little bit, although not as successfully because I don't actually have any friends that I met through going to school. Besides Punk, what else has inspired you? (Music, Literature, People) 4. The people in my life inspire me, primarily. Undertaking common projects of our own determination with people I like is my favorite thing to do. At my house we raise chickens and grow vegetables. We fix the stuff that breaks, because we don't have a landlord and otherwise it stays broken. We share food. We work out in the back yard together listening to pop music. I love all that stuff. Our lives are not a collection of separate intentions that happen to sleep in the same building. They are a common project, in many ways. Obviously we are all individuals, doing the things we want to separately from one another. But we are also together, and part of something that is all of ours together, in very real ways. My friends are brilliant. Most of them are braver than I am. When I am walking with them and they get catcalled or queer bashed by passing cars, they scream back. I think I would be too afraid to do that. Some friends have taken risks and caught charges that put them at risk for prison. I think I would be afraid to do that. I don't know why people want to interview me about anything. The things I do meaningless next to the danger that many of my friends face for who they are, and the punishment some have faced for what they were willing to do. Letters of Insurgents by Fredy Perlman is a book that inspired me. The Dispossessed by Urusla LeGuin is a book that inspired me. Debt by David Graeber is a book that inspired me. I play in a punk band, so I hope we get to play shows that are fun for us and the people that come to them. It's pretty straightforward. There's not a grand vision. 5. What was your childhood like? Has anything from your childhood affected your music? My childhood was rural and middle-class. My parents are really nice. My brother is really nice. Most of my early problems were related to school, difficulty integrating into it either socially or institutionally. Longstanding feelings of isolation and rejecting authority certainly affect my music. Obviously my social, racial, economic, and geographic background influences who I am at every level. That would be a lot to sort through, and I'm sure I wouldn't catch most of it anyway. My dad is a musician, so that probably made me more likely to play music. It certainly meant that I had access to instruments and recording equipment growing up that most people wouldn't have.
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Jack OgilvieJack Ogilvie is 16 years old. He enjoys writing about Anarchy and occasionally gives into the angst of a cynical high school student, so a willing to receive criticism audience is needed. Archives
February 2014
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