I've completed my goal of 2000 words a day on my current writing project, my wife has a meeting tonight, I've already practiced for an hour or so on the guitar, and tonight's television is a dismal bore. So in what I figure will be a total waste of time, I'll piddle away a few words in an effort to save you from the dismal nature of the life path you seem to have chosen. You don't need to thank me.

It occurs to me that if you're sociology teacher was "appalled," as you say, then I wonder how good your teacher really is. A sociologist's job is not to be appalled, it is to be non-judgmentally observant.

It is often the nature of the more avid adherents to a particular popular music fad to believe that, somehow, their music will change the course of history. This was one of the characteristics of the Great Folk Scare of the Sixties, and although it did play a salutary role in the civil rights movement, despite all the anti-war songs, we still seem to be involved in a perpetual state of international conflict. Well, it seems (from what you say) that the same claim is made by the fans (short for "fanatics") of hardcore punk as well. As a scholar, one should have sufficient objectivity to be aware when some sociological aberration might apply to oneself. As a fledgling sociologist, you especially should be aware of that.

I may be an old geek by your lights, but I've been around long enough to see a number of music fads come—and go. Punk is the bastard child of Rock 'n' Roll, which is, itself, the bastard child of rhythm and blues, which, in turn, is an off-shoot of—what? Blues—which is one of several forms of folk music. Sorry. Ya just can't get away from it. Yes, folk music is old. It's old because it has substance and it speaks to the human condition, which, although tragic in many of its aspects, it also contains great joy.

It's not that unusual for someone who is devoted to one particular category of music to be naïvely contemptuous of other forms. Unfortunate, but not unusual. It cuts you off from many things that, were you more open and broad-minded, you might find highly enjoyable. But it sounds like you are in danger of digging your own narrow little trench and missing most of the good things of life because you seem to view all else with contempt wrought by your own ignorance. Too bad. For your sake, I do hope you outgrow your adolescent attitude. And lest you try to accuse me of the same musical chauvinism you seem to suffer from, my rather protean musical taste includes the full range of musical forms—folk, classical, country, opera, rock, world music, everything. I prefer some types of music to others, but I'm open to all.

In other threads, I believe you were the one who styled yourself as "The Trickster." Just remember that, in the end, the main one that the Trickster tricked was—the Trickster. Joseph Campbell wrote of The Hero with a Thousand Faces. "The Punk with a Thousand Faces" just doesn't have quite the same ring.

Don Firth