Punk Rock is a Trauma Industrial Complex (Abstract)

 Punk Rock is a Trauma Industrial Complex 

Abstract

Punk rock, from Pink Flamingos to Pig Destroyer, is a "Trauma-Industrial Complex".  It both repels and allures.  The audience of punk rock is exposed to traumatizing sounds, physical experiences and imagery, from brutal chicken murder in Pink Flamingos to injuries suffered from mosh pitt beatdown; certain members of the audience become shocked.  This upsets the default reflection mode of the brain which is responsible for analysis.  When this becomes overloaded due to the shock, the audience becomes depressed and anxious as they try to process what they have witnessed.  This sometimes means returning to the scene of the traumatization; the punk show, the midnight porn theater or starting back up Grand Theft Auto on the computer.  This normalizes the trauma.  As Warhol says, "the more you look at the same thing, the more the meaning goes away and the better and emptier you feel." 

               The peddlers of the trauma-industrial complex, hardcore bands, pornographers, avant garde artists, must therefore continue traumatizing more audience members for them to keep coming back.  The level of shock must increase, shift perspective or transform somehow.

               Many of these artists and peddlers are themselves often traumatized, having the false illusion that they can cathartically release their emotions as an exorcism through the act of punk rock.  While punk can serve as exercise, (a natural antidepressant), occasionally an exercise in community building (although when "freedom of creative expression" is prioritized over community building, venues can get shut down), documentation and aesthetic design for material, by its very queer historical origin, is not heteronormative and is therefore shocking to heteronormative society by definition.  Punk is norm breaking by definition, the word punk originally coming as English street or prison slang for homosexual.  

              The only way out of the Trauma-Industrial Complex is to internalize and understand the Trauma-Industrial Complex and apply it directly to one's life. This enables us to see that those who have scorn and betrayed us only did so because they were somehow traumatized or marginalized themselves.  While it is vital to communicate and address the pain that  occurs when injustices are committed upon us and it is vital to speak up for our rights, have no illusions.  Art cannot exercise trauma from the body.  There is currently no cure for PTSD.  Do not get caught in a trauma-industrial complex.  In extreme situations, attempting to exorcise trauma from the body only makes it worse because it makes more trauma.  Be selective about the sounds, imagery, news, and generally speaking, content you consume as much of it profits from exploitative labor of those who have histories of intergenerational trauma, sexual trauma, physical trauma, trauma from racism, trauma from sexism, trauma from homophobia, trauma from transphobia, and trauma from watching video games.