Posted on December 20, 2009 - by Jon Curtis

Cynicism

Jon is the singer in the punk rock band The Cut Ups, as well as a guitarist in Annalise, and is a committed citizen of the City of Exeter. He’s been playing in punkrock bands for at least ten years, writes zines, puts on shows and talks too much. His favourite record of all time is ‘Repeater’ by Fugazi and would gladly turn into Ian Mackaye. His main ambition in life is to be a quiet person.

Friends, we as punks like the rest of the country were given this week final conformation from our former illustrious leader (Mr Blair esquire) that we went to war in Iraq with no good reason. Half a million people were killed because Mr Blair didn’t listen to at least 1 and a half million British people who took to the streets suggesting that this war might possibly suck even more than the previous Gulf catastrophe. And those half a million people who died were killed because their leader (an equally misguided chap) didn’t have something that we suspected him of.

But why am I telling you this? You can read the newspapers, or watch the TV and this truth is available on all mediums. The reason for this word is because of the de-politicisation of punkrock. I have been listening to punkrock bands for nearly 15 years, and I caught on late, but even in that time, things have reduced.

I started listening to bands like The Offspring and Social Distortion because they sounded like they cared about things. I don’t know now if those bands were exactly cutting edge thinkers, but they were cynical about their world, and “the man”, whatever that meant! But friends, where are those bands now? Who can think of the last new band who were cynical? Frank Turner’s been doing it for years, Billy Bragg’s an old man, and Anti-Flag are on their 18th album. These days, for lots of punks I know, being subversive means wearing a t-shirt with swear words on it. Where is the band that’s going to save your life? Where is the punkrock song that makes you want to take apart this festering political system piece by piece?

Cynicism is a beautiful thing; all the best people have it! A realisation that things aren’t the way they should be, and you can reassess anything you want to reassess. Take nothing for granted, and you’ll find the things that really matter! So, when that Oxbridge educated, self-convicted, ruthlessly ambitious clown ignored the people who had put their trust in him, ignored the scientists who knew much more about the situation than him and ended up with the blood of thousands on his hands, we had a responsibility to learn what he’d done, how he’d done it and how we could stop it happening again. Punks have more value as lawyers, teachers and scientists than they could ever do as artistes and rogues. Long live the cynics.