'What is Punk anyway?'
Punk is inherently a contradiction because people define it as 'not caring about what other people think', but at the same time the punk scene is more rigidly socially defined than most other scenes. Punk isnt just caring about yourself though, because it is full of politics, liberalism, etc - at least within the punk scene, ideally, there is a community created of people who dont want to live the mainstream but can support each other and live their lives how they want, and help others do the same. Sadly the scene gets polluted with poseurs... and gets diluted into something it is not. I would argue that the original punk scene is an attempt to make identity, community, and a sense of place in places like the suburbs where everything is 'whitewashed'into clones of itself and makes no sense to the limited aspect of a human's brain. But in a sense punk also functions as a catch-all for people who won't or can't fit into whatever mainstream sets out for them. As a literary version of my girlfriend once said,
"You can't choose to be punk. You just are. It doesnt matter if you want to be or not. Its in everything you do. You can't voluntarily become punk, if you try, you becoming a glaring fraud with a big mohawk and too many piercings. It just happens. But be aware that the weird little kid that you made fun of in high school is probably far punker than you, and someday that will be evident too."
Then again, don't pay attention to what i say. That's not punk either! I guess its something everyone figures out for themselves, or is supposed to. Sadly, most people don't try. I encourage anyone who thinks i'm wrong or has other ideas to /msg or node them.