This following quote is from a zine I recently picked up from Mr. Mike Arsenault. so hashtagcredz to him.
"For some time now I have been awake to witness the horrors of the electric jungle and their program masses batter the souls of children, teaching them facts about how it is and how to live it until every square inch of thought, love, and individuality is torn away from them (Cancer from the marrow) oblivious to what once was before their assimilation into the fallacy of a universal right or wrong. When you look in this mirror what do you see, an employee, a boss, a success, a failure, a slave, a master, a human, or a machine. Every second that passes you become less free. Start deciding what's right for yourself." Once the goosebumps recede, feel free to leave a comment as well as share this quote with friends and family. Also once again, thanks to Mike and the awesome zine he wrote up.
0 Comments
I know, I know. Pretty crazy I actually posted something. I've written a good deal in the past month or so, so I have some stuff worthy of posting. Enjoy it
-Jack I could sit here and explain how great Anarchy is and the excitement of the upcoming revolution or I could give you the essential truths. There is no revolution. There is no hope of building nationwide communes. However, Anarchy is not an empty cause. The fight still continues and while success is not much of an option the beautiful moments of pure Anarchy still exist. The climax of a riot, the friends you meet in the mosh, the feeling of pure equality are the moments that make the Anarchist cause one of worth. To strive for these moments is to truly be free. While it may seem that progress is not a possibility or that the Anarchist do not work for anything we still move forward in strange ways. Just to have people searching for the Anarchist adrenaline is enough progress. To have belief in the cause is a revolution enough. Anyway, how else would one expect the Anarchist movement to progress? No protest of petition will support an Anarchist system. Working in this way makes revolution an even more distant target. Sure protest can change the minds of some but not the minds of the nation, the government, and the voters. Instead, following an Anarchist movement is truly the best way to start a revolution. Reading this, you may think that this comes off as a lazy tea party style perspective but it truly is the most pure form of Anarchist progression towards a 'revolution'. Through a following of Anarchism comes more moments and more experiences of the true Anarchist life. The moments that the average Anarchist will have as their only revolution. The nationwide revolution will not happen but there is a revolution for everyone to experience on their own in which they don't need social status or wealth to enjoy life. 10,000 unique views. Holy shit. I never thought this blog would take off so quickly. In just under a year I went from an angst filled teenager talking about politics and views I didn't understand to an even more angst filled teenager with his shit together. The fact that this blog has come so far has encouraged me to get back to posting as often as possible. I just need to ask the people who view this blog one thing. Comment on everything and anything I post. Tell me what to write about or something you enjoyed. Send in your own work. Anything to benefit this site further would be amazing. And to the Anarcho-Punks out there that want more Pat the Bunny related stuff, comment and I'll do my best to reach him. Once again, thanks for the support
1) In your own words, how would you define anarchy?
A group of people living in freedom and co-operating as equals without any one group or person in power. This is just one persons vague definition though, people use this word in a variation of ways. But in a nutshell I guess that's what I would describe it as. 2) How does anarchy define you? I don't think anarchy does define me, and for the record I don't consider myself to be an anarchist, although I may have some of the same ideals as an anarchist in the sense that I strive to live as freely as I can someday without supporting corporate department stores, fast food chains, factory farming, and any other organizations that take advantage of and or exploit people, animals, and the environment. I wish I could say that I lived that way now but that would be anything but the truth, It takes a lot of willpower and self control which I struggle with everyday. 3) In what way do you think anarchy works? (National scale, statewide, through communes) I don't think I'm educated enough on the topic to even try and answer this question but I'm glad to see young people like yourself asking it. If I had started asking questions like that when I was 16, I might have some kind of an answer for ya 4) What introduced you to the Punk/Folk scene? Well I've got to give alot of credit to good old buddy ole pal Mark Leonard on this one. The first few folk punk shows I saw were at Sam Ventura and his place in Norwich years ago which they called 'the Cubby Hole' .I had played in bands and been to punk shows before but seeing him play along with Riki Rocksteady, Eric Petersen, Bread and Roses, Brownbird Rudy Relic, and other amazing acoustic acts was really inspiring and opened up a hole side of punkrock I'd never seen before. Which then led to epic (to us anyway) summertime camp fire jams and singalongs till stupid o'clock in the morning down at the falls ( Indian Leap) also in Norwich. Since then I've really fallen in love with the songs, d.i.y. ethics, intimacy, and sense of community I feel being a part of it! 5)What has inspired your music? (music, literature, etc)I don't read as much as I'd like to say I do, but one of the last books I read was called 'On the Lower Frequencies, a secret history of the city' by Eric Lyle and that really inspired me to learn the different ways people live and survive without slavin away at a job they hate and at the same time getting so involved in their own communities. As far as music,I'm really into alot of artists on Plan-it-x records like ghostmice, ramshackle glory, Andrew Jackson Jihad, spoonboy, and onsind to name a few. I love their dedication to what they do, their convictions to what they believe, their positive message, and just the way their songs/music makes me feel. They make me want to be a better person, get more involved with my community, and practice my song writing. 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. "So Jack, how do you feel about Obama winning the election?"
"I'm pretty happy about it! You know that..." My sentence was cut off as Jared slapped me across the face screaming, "Get Rad! PUNKROCKANARCHY!" Before I could say anything back, I heard something that shocked me "Obama is a fucking communist" I was furious with that comment and ready to retaliate when I realized something. Instead of telling him to shut the fuck up I could question his statement! "So Aiden, How is Obama a communist?" Hesistant to speak, it takes him a while to say anything. "Cause he has communist policies!" Oh he felt so fucking good I couldn't wait to teat that fucker down! "And those policies are?" No answer! He knew that he had lost but still had to respond in some way for fear of mockery among friends. "Obama is fucking retarded!" Oh WOW, he got me! What a smart comment regarding the policies of Obama. How could I have not seen this before? Obama is a, "fucking retard" and that makes him a communist! Why didn't I vote for Romney? With the recent election of Obama, Republicans all over the place have risen to the occasion, sharing their, "intelligence" behind Obama's "corruption". Sure I'm not always the most knowledgeable person when it comes to politics but I make sure what I say is true. I also shut up when I know I've lost. Also just because I'm an Anarchist doesn't mean I'm unintelligent or uncultured. I'm concerned with where this country is heading too. The only difference is I believe in ACTUAL freedom, is that so strange? I'm not saying that being a Republican is the wrong way to go. If you think it's the ideal form of government, that's great! Sure, I won't be nice to you about it, but I still respect you have your own perspectives. Just because people on TV tell you that Obama has communist policies does not make it true. Obama has done well with the shitstorm brought on by the previous Republican Party and he is most certainly not an idiot! -Jack Just a couple of minutes ago, I decided to join a facebook group called The Pact. Some of you may have been recently added to this and I find it important to convince you to like this page.
The Pact was created by two kids who have both been affected by suicide. They don't have any funding or a big project behind them, just two kids. This is so much better then those suicide prevention walks because there is no corruption. People do those walks so they seem like better people to the general public then they really are. When you get two kids dedicated to one purpose, you know they aren't going to bullshit you. Clearly they are dedicated to one purpose and I really hope they keep up their work! Please like their page, you don't need to do anything but click one fucking button. If you feel comfortable you can even share a story in a judge free zone. However if you don't want to post a story you can simply follow the page and maybe even occasionally check it out! I am willing to post anonymous stories so make a fake email and send me what you want posted! -Jack I know this is too late to really enjoy, but it's still a story to report. This man, sponsored by Redbull, Felix Cumgargler broke the highest skydive record. Not only did he break that but he also broke the goddam sound barrier. Felix Swashbuckler jumped from 23 miles up! Impressive right? meh. I'm unimpressed after hearing about the man that helped him beat the record. Joseph Kissinger or something along the lines of that, was the holder of the previous record. He jumped from 20 miles up and what impressed me the most was the fact that he did it 52 fucking years ago. He had nowhere near as much technology as Redbull did. Not only that, but he also failed the first two times. On one of the attempt his suit teared open and on the second attempt his parachute was incorrectly deployed, nearly killing him. Joseph Kittenlicker is the badass out of the two of them. Just remember that 52 years ago the technology was shit compared to today. It almost killed Joseph Dishflinger twice! But it didn't stop him. Two near death experiences and he still persevered to set the record at 20 miles!
-Jack Well, it's sophomore year and I have already broken a few promises. I told people I would treat the incoming freshman with the respect they, "deserve" (A sentence I can no longer say with a straight face). I also mentioned regular posting times which I may or may not stick with. Jared, however, has not posted in three months (hint hint Jared). Otherwise I'm looking forward to sophomore year. Even though I'm still an underclassmen, the seniority over one group is great. That and the fact that I'm coming in to a school I know is also a good feeling. Better yet classes seem to be easy and with my newfound free period what could go wrong? Absolutely fucking nothing! The sophomores have complete contol over the freshman in the fascist regime we have created. 1PercentIrony is no longer an Anarchist Blog. We have supreme leadership over the freshman and everyone besides Thomas Hall sucks. But on the other hand, welcome incoming freshman who probably won't read my blog. I hope everyone enjoys their year. The blog this year may take a different turn for the better or worse. Either way Jared and I will post somewhat regularly. Expect at least two or three maybe four posts per month and none in the summer because fuck you I'm spiderman.
There may also be new additions to the site. I urge anyone interested in writing to send in a story to [email protected] I also may or may not make shirts with the 1percentirony watermark on it. If you have an idea for the shirt email me with a picture of said shirt. In the off chance you would like to purchase one talk to me, pay me, and I'll order them. PROPAGANDA FTW -Jack |
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
Categories
All
|