Given the nature of this website there are lots of claims to be "anti-establishment," or "anti-mainstream," or "anti-capitalism." My question is what makes you so anti-establishment?
Here's my purpose in asking this, talk is simply talk. What action have you taken? What have you actually done to push against what is established in order to provoke, or at least aid, the ever present push of progress? Getting ink, having piercings, dying your hair, shaving it off or tossing it up into a mohawk or liberty spikes is nifty and pleasing but what has it done? Wearing leather jackets and your favorite old and faded Black Flag shirt looks good, no denying it, but what does it perform? What function does it have?
I'm not trying to attack any form of personal style, I'm just curious. Do you simply wear your anti-establishment notions? Do you say, "I wear this clothing because fuck you! This is my statement to the world!"? If so, what is that statement? What has it performed other than making you feel more edgy and hip because you're on the perceived edge of the socially acceptable? Most of you, I assume, do realize you're not a minority. Not because of how you dress, not because of your hair, or your piercings. You can take out the metal, cut the hair and dye it back, change your clothing and be part of the majority. That, by definition, prevents you from being the minority because it is self-imposed. Minorities are socially imposed due to power-structures. Fact. I'll give a pass on ink for one reason, you can't wash it off and more often than not it costs more to get it removed than it did to get in the first place. For many with ink once it is on, it's on for life. If for any reason because many are not in a pay-bracket that can afford to remove it. But even this is self-imposed, and does not exactly constitute the feeling of being anti-establishment because "I'm part of a minority now too!"
So when I ask what have you done this is what I mean. Have you gone out and been boots on the ground for marriage equality? Have you ever volunteered for an organization like Food Not Bombs, or any under-privileged non-profit food kitchen? Do you do so regularly? Have you ever stood in a crowd and been a body in the mass protesting against something? Wallstreet? Unlawful police practices? Particularly racist state and federal funding practices in regard to education? Have you ever marched in a pride parade not because you are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, a friend or family member, but just because you felt it was right? That people, notice I say simply people, should be proud about who they are? Have you ever registered people to vote? Gone door to door for causes you believe in knowing you'll have doors slammed in your face and threats leveled against you? Have you ever joined a committee or organization that you believe strongly in? Do you honestly practice improving your own grasp of acceptance? Fuck tolerance, tolerance is low hanging fruit. I strive for acceptance. Have you stood up for someone being harassed due to their sexuality, race, religion, political beliefs, or medical conditions? Have you ever sponsored someone for the Special Olympics? Have you ever volunteered at institutionalized homes for the members? Have you ever sat down with someone so drastically different from you that communication is difficult and find a point of connection? Have you ever participated in a rally or a sit-in, any form of non-violent demonstration?
That is what it means to be "anti-establishment." What you wear is inconsequential. How you look does not matter. Don't tell me you wear your social activism, most who claim that likewise spend their days drinking, getting high, and being self-absorbed asshats. Get out there and actually DO something.
People like to say the world is more screwed now than it was X years ago. This is not the fact. And this is not a fact because the world is filled with people who actively do something to try and improve it. Progress doesn't come from your hair, or your piercings, or your ink, or your clothing. It comes from you directly. Everything else is cosmetic and malleable.
Perhaps in the interest of being "alternative" we each should act in a way that is alternate from the establishment and not simply think of ourselves. It does not take much of your time to volunteer, you probably weren't doing anything so important on that day anyways. And once you do it once you should feel attracted to doing so again, and again, and again. Because we as people should care about all people's quality of life.