Punk’s rugged individualism.

The other day I came across a quote from Patti Smith (from her 2007 Guardian interview) that got me thinking about punk rock and its relationship to conservatism, and how the two have more in common than might first be apparent. I’m still working through my ideas on this particular subject, so this post probably won’t be as coherent as it might be, but when something strikes my interest, I’ve got to get it down. With that in mind, the quote:

“You have to kick doors open yourself. When people come up to me and say, ‘Patti, nobody wants to hear my CD and I don’t have enough money for equipment,’ I say, ‘Well, get a job, y’know?’ That’s what I did. You get people who say, ‘The government won’t give me a grant and I can’t do my art.’ I say, ‘Fuck you, it’s your own fault, you expect the government to give you a hand? The government is corrupt. Do what it takes. You do babysitting jobs, you work in the factory, you work in the bookstore or become a pickpocket, y’know? But whatever. Get a job.’ Work is really good for an artist.” Her features sharpen and there is a fierce set to her mouth. “My son is one of the best guitar players I’ve ever heard. And how does he make his money? He does manual labour, he does landscaping, he digs ditches. He’s out there sometimes eight to 12 hours a day because he lives in Detroit and it’s hard to get work there. But it’s good, it’s good. Artists should work.”

There are a few levels on which this quote can be read.  My initial thought was that it’s really an extension of punk’s DIY mentality. It’s the same mentality that says: ‘Don’t just stand in the audience singing along, letting someone else’s songs speak for you, learn three chords and speak for yourself. You don’t have to be good, you just have to have the drive.’ In telling artists not to rely on ‘corrupt’ governments to help them, Smith is carrying the do-it-yourself ethos of punk to its logical terminus.

But on another level, it’s strange to me how this quote evokes the very traditional conservative ideas of rugged individiualism, the kind espoused by Thatcher in the UK and Raegan in the US, where a person’s success or failure is due only to their personal striving, and not influenced in any way by outside factors. It’s the kind of logic I would expect from a conservative politician (perhaps bordering on Libertarian), but certainly not from a woman deemed the ‘Godmother of punk’. I think there are probably many punk rockers who feel the same–like I said, it’s the most logical end to the DIY mentality.

Don’t get me wrong, I do think hard work is good for a person, artist or not, and I think it would be wrong to rely on others to do things for you entirely if you’ve got the means to do them yourself.  But then I think about how many punk rock artists in the 1970s were on the dole and who used that money (government money!) to fund their music, and that blunts the point somewhat (perhaps not Smith’s personally, but in general). I also think of all the working class kids in the UK who, for the first time, were able to go to art college, which had been the traditional realm of the middle class, and who later went on to found punk and new wave bands because the government helped fund their studies. Like it or not, the government had a hand to play in punk and new wave’s development, both negatively and positively.

I don’t know. I’m sure many punk fans would be uncomfortable with me equating the movement in any way with ideas of conservatism, especially the conservatism of Thatcher and Reagan. Still, perhaps they were not as far apart as they might initially seem.