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I remember the punk rockers back in Brantford, the ones that went to my school. There was a nice cultured little group of them. You could obviously tell they were punks. They wore the hardcore drab. They wore the leather. They wore the army pants. What always gave me a chuckle, however, was the patches. Patches of course are a big part of punk culture. There's a big difference between wearing a Dead Kennedys patch and an Operation Ivy patch, for example, because they are for different causes and beliefs. The Dead Kennedys were heavily supporting political causes, one of their more famous patches is against racism. Operation Ivy is a broader based unity band. So as you can see, yes, each patch is supposed to represent what type of person you are when it you get right down to it. I myself have one Bad Religion patch, one Dead Kennedy patch and one patch with the simple anarchy symbol, in white though, not the traditional red. The Bad Religion patch is for self-actualization and respect for myself and speaking my mind, and I already explained the Dead Kennedy patch, thought mine is rather vague, not devoted to a sole cause, such as the anti-racist movement. The anarchy in white is an anti-government patch, but the white lines in it symbol show the anachist movement as peaceful and structured, rather than the red lines of blood and mayhem in a regular anarchy patch. But anyhow, I was talking about the Brantford punks. There were maybe 5 of them, I'm not sure, they all kind of looked the same and blurred together. What I found amusing was the patches they wore. They changed rather often. On a Monday morning I'd se one of them with a Dirty Bird patch, for example, and by the end of the week they'd all be sporting them. And then in two weeks it'd be an Exploited patch, and so on. Okay, maybe I don't know exactly what I'm trying to say here. Only that the complacency and conformity within a group of high school punks was to me, astonishing. Patches to me are one of the highest forms of individuality, especially if you can make them yourself. But they kind of shat all over that idea, and would switch from cause to cause to cause and I never quite figured out why. I would have asked, but it always seemed that the other punks were scared of me. I mean, I would be handed a poster when their band was playing at a local club, but that was about it. Strange.
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