American Hardcore

Tonight after studying a bit, Liam and I watched the movie "American Hardcore" for the second time. We saw it in the theaters (he saw it twice in theaters), but wanted to watch again. It means different things to each of us because it is something he was actually involved in. True, Liam is of a later generation and the movie only covers up till around 1985, but it speaks to him in a way it never can to me. But yet, I told him seeing the kids just FREAK OUT at these shows and get so into it for this short-lived explosive movement, it made me feel nostalgic. Nostalgic for something I did not even experience. It is just one of those things that sucks you up into its ethos and makes you wonder what it is like.

The only subculture I have ever been involved in is Christianity. And sometimes I wish for more. I would never fit in with the hardcore kids, but at the same time, I relate to the suburban malaise and the vague anger and helplessness. That feeling that you are being systemically numbed by consumerism. We talked about that at cell actually on Wednesday. We talked about why, if people are becoming so discontented with Bush and the wars we are waging, why they don't DO something. It is so easy not to do anything because we can fall back on our Ipods and our air conditioned cars and our Borders cafes; all these pleasant things. And sometimes we think they're enough for us.

But sometimes we don't, and it is GOOD that we don't. And it is good if we band together in that discontentedness and do something with that. Maybe that something is booking shows and shaving heads or maybe it's living with the poor and stretching oneself beyond born boundaries. I just know that there is something in all these underground movements of people that speaks to something in me that I can't quite name.