I think the film highlights the inherent paradox of anarchy. Anarchy allows violence & violence leads to the state. Punk (or counterculture) is a reaction to the state (or mainstream culture), which still operates within the system being protested. When you try to destroy the system, you can't improve it. And in the end, aren't we all posers? Is even possible to NOT to be a poser?
It's a haunting takeaway, hopeful but confused & defeated. And that's real.
I think it's that paradox which draws my interest to anarchy but why I can never settle comfortably in it. I guess I'm still a minarchist, but even then my idea of the best size of a minimum government, when protecting the rights of all is priority, has grown.
It makes me think of docus, The Garden: Commune or Cult? & The Anarchists. (Both HBO.)
The first is about a commune in Midwest US, well-meaning but dysfunctional as many are. The 2nd is about a long-running anarchist convention in Acapulco that descends into chaos. All three point to these paradoxes.
I look at how punk culture grew from 1985 (SLC Punk was set) to 1998 (when it was filmed), how it had become mainstream, & how that made all of us alternative kids into fashion punk posers.
But also, we internalized some of punk's culture. We spent the 90s working out these paradoxes (of authenticity as well), which is why irony & cynicism were so fashionable. We carry that culture today thru the paradox of influence — punk ideals can only spread thru assimilation. That we must work AT the system, WITH the system, and that the power of influence towards liberation is iterative across generations.
Because the ecosystem of power is just a bunch of snakes eating each others' tails.
Hopefully we eat them in the right direction.
It's Tao. Order begets chaos begets order begets chaos. And that's life. That's self-organization. The struggle is the point.
lol OMG there are mods in this movie. Were there even still mods in 1985? They're buying acid from a punk and they have mopeds, suits, trenchcoats, fedoras, and everything. I think there's going to be a fight.
Mx. Luna Corbden
Raurquiz