Punk skepticism: A perfect mix of skeptic and rebel

2008 March 31
more by

Podcast: Download

by Anonymous
Article ID: 1215

Skepticism is a philosophical commitment to doubt. However, to doubt without end is of no use.

Committed skeptics include Harry Houdini, Penn and Teller, Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, James Randi, Christopher Hitchens, and many other intellectual giants.

My doubts began not with the profound words of astronomers, nor by studying stage magic. My doubts began with rage. Holy rage which drives teenagers to truancy and smoking.

In my case, it drew me to countless mohawks and hair colors. It drew me to body piercing and tattoos, it drew me to loud defiant music like the Dead Kennedys, Slayer, Marilyn Manson, Black Flag, The Misfits, Danzig, and later to industrial music.

I doubted society and its presumptions.

I saw through the lies school told me. I saw that teachers who were teaching me didn’t give a damn about what they taught. I saw through the pretend benevolence of authority figures, especially the police and school administration.

I saw through the ridiculous exaggerations of Reagan’s “Just Say No!” campaign.

I saw through the lies of commercialism, and was painfully aware that if I was spending money, someone had engineered my purchase through advertising.

I saw through conventional religion. Even my attempts to be a Christian later in life were rife with heresies and ideas that conflicted with the status quo.

But I still fell for a lot of crap.

I fell for alternative medicine, the new age movement, ridiculous theories about JFK’s assassination, and finally Christianity.

Why was I so gullible when I was so committed to rebellion?

Indeed, there is no greater rebel than the skeptic. So why are youth movements like punk, goth, industrial, hip-hop, and metal so devoid of skeptics? I guess that we felt so judged by the world, we wanted to be open minded. We heard nonsense not from our enemies in uniforms and ties, but from our friends. It was our friends forecasting horoscopes, it was our friends doing the tarot reading, it was our friends with the hip young bible study.

So we bought it.

At least I did.

I think that a time of a new era in punk must arise. Perhaps a few co-conspirators could engineer it.

The era of the skeptical punk, the dangerous angry youth who is as perceptive in seeing a fraud as she is in seeing the world as a conformist facade.

That she – this heroic uber-mensch, punk skeptic – will demand scientific evidence for all claims that are not readily self-evident!

When she is born, then revolution could be the next step.

The passion of punk with the mind of the skeptic would be an unstoppable revolt against the easy victimhood that the public falls into due to its own inertia.

If I had something to pray for, I would pray for this.

But since prayer is little more than talking to oneself I can instead act.

The punk skeptic is here in me.

Am I alone?


Did you like this article? Want more? Support Digital Bits Skeptic.

Other articles related to this topic:

from → Astrology, Fortune-telling, New Age, Philosophy, Politics, Pop Culture, Psychology, Religion

2 Comments
2008 April 25
Rathpig permalink

As a teenager in the Reagan Era and a fan of second-wave punk, I think many of us did embrace a skeptic’s view that covered a range of thought from politics to corporatism to religion and even “punk” itself. As I now rapidly approach middle-age, I find that my political views disdain either side of the spectrum and my religious views have become tolerant but dismissive. What so many children of this era missed was that questioning authority can become it’s own religion when you merely question blindly and fail to analyze the result. So many people embraced left-wing politics, veganism, and new age mysticism as a reactionary effect to Conservatism, consumerism, and traditional religion, but these same people failed to realize that they were merely building onto the other side of the same coin the hated.

Anarchy and Rebellion were trademarked and sold in the exact same manner as Law and Patriotism were sold to an earlier generation. When it was examined, the entire process became a sham. In many cases it became a scam. Acting like everyone else in nonconformity is conformity. Thinking like everyone else in rebellion is just another status quo.

Even the irreverent and irreligious “Anonymous” generation that has emerged in this new century fails to completely understand that skepticism has to be applied first to yourself. But more so than any previous generation, this one may understand it deeper and more sincerely. Skepticism is a process. Slowly we are progressing toward a more enlightened punk.

2008 November 20
Tim permalink

Never mind the bullocks, here’s the skeptics.

So to speak you mean. (he he)

I don’t belive punks dead it’s just asleep some where.

I’m 38 and still a punk. Have been since I was 12.

So f__k religon, F___k politics, F___k the lot of ya.

oh yeah hope you all have a nice day and love to the family.

Comments are closed for this entry.