Free Society (Canada)

November 2007 

In a few sentences, present your case that your brother’s death was murder.

Murder is not only the unlawful killing of one human being by another; it is also a conscious system or policies that contribute to purposeful deaths. My brother and I grew up ignorant in a rigged and manipulated system. Our choices and decisions at every step were from implanted subconscious responses from this rigged system. There are clear manipulators and people who understand the inner workings of this system and are therefore equipped with the knowledge to make better decisions, so the actions of the mindless drones (self included) that stem from this system are their ultimate responsibility. You cannot fault a person that has existed in ignorance, sometimes through generations, for not being able to choose through this rigged system. It is like telling a monkey to work out a mathematical equation. Unlike the animal, a human has the potential to break out of his ignorance. I know this doesn’t sound nice for us, but it is the truth and the first step out of our ignorance is to acknowledge this fact. As much as my brother might have rebelled, he did it in a way that plays into the position this system forces individual thinking. The system consciously murders, jails and pacifies through labor, rebels and individuals that attempt to think for themselves and that is how my brother died – fighting to be a true individual.

In your book you’re presenting several major premises about the way society is organized that may be a little difficult for a person who has never thought about it to admit, even though the evidence of its truth is everywhere around us. 150 years ago, ideas like these resonated with millions of people… it was clear to them… why do you think it’s difficult for people to accept this analysis in 2007?

This is a broad question because it depends on the people we are referring too. Working class South Americans, Asians, Middle Easterners and most Europeans I think would agree. It is us, working class Northerner’s, who find it the most difficult to accept, but then, the problem is with what we call “working class” compared to say Mexican working class. Now we can’t forget the North American ghettoes and poor areas where you would probably find people to accept this analysis, but the question should also be why they don’t want to really do something about their situation compared to the people of 150 years ago.

The propaganda machine that the wealthy have used throughout history to control the masses has become so finely tuned in our modern technological environment, that the masses are so concentrated on fighting along race, culture and nationality, instead of what really divides us all, class. Great misconceptions exist to strengthen people’s ignorance, like Capitalism beat Communism, when neither of these two systems ever existed ideally. People truly don’t understand the closed hierarchy within both systems, and the way a few wealthy elites have dominated the two. Capitalism and Communism are simply propaganda labels by the wealthy fighting their own personal wars, such as Democracy and Dictatorship. I think these misconceptions with others are the reasons the working class in the north and Europe do not get it in 2007.

I’m curious about how you arrived at the ideas presented in ‘A Rebel Life’. When Archie died, did you already have the perspective you do now, and his death merely concretized what you had already come to believe? Or was it an epiphany, where all you had learned was put in perspective by his death?

It was sort of both. From the moment I left home at 16 and found my home with the punk rockers and hardcore movement, I immediately understood that the world and the streets lined with gold that my immigrant father praised so often is not how it seems. I was a drop out, uneducated and I could barely articulate a semi original coherent thought which I didn’t pick up from the TV or magazines, but I knew something was wrong with the world. I rebelled against everything, until there was nothing left but death, so I committed suicide, not with a gun, but with conforming and going back to school. I wanted to know why things were the way they were and how to change them. I was becoming another bourgeois middle class American with a false pretense that in order for change it must be from within the system.

When my brother died and everyone around me was faulting him for choosing his path in life, a path that I was on and not out of any great strength, but by chance I got off, I could not keep going with this bourgeois morality I was forced to adopt. I want to bring justice to my enemies for the system they control and manipulate. I want to make it clear that I don’t want revenge, because that just furthers our working class ignorance. What I want is justice, but I don’t know how to get it within this overwhelmingly corrupt system.

In the book, you talk about going through a box of relics from your past such as a tape of a Geraldo show where he gets his nose broken. A lot of people may not know the story of this show. What was the topic of that particular Geraldo show and how did this fit in with the NY punk/hardcore scene?

That was around 1988, I was 18 years old and a non racist skinhead. The point of going on that show was because of the distinction I just made about skinheads. At that time skinheads were being systematically branded as racist and we wanted to show the public that the skinhead movement was not racist. One of the racist skinheads eventually threw a chair towards Geraldo’s direction when they thought that their people were under attack by his panel guests. I was in the front row about to defend myself during the chaos but a security guard intervened.

Did you know any of those neo-Nazis personally from the streets or were they from a different part of the country?

We did not know the racist skinheads and they were from down south.

Throughout the show, the opposing guests and Geraldo seem to minimize the neo-Nazi threat, but was there a genuine threat on the streets?

There wasn’t a threat of neo-Nazi’s on the streets of NYC, at least not of the skinhead variety. We went on the show because our threat came from kids and gangs of the community that thought all skinheads were racist.

Where in this contradictory position of being class brethren with those we are violently opposed to ideologically (neo-Nazis for example)… how does one navigate this?

Very good question and my answer is that if willing I can befriend my enemy’s enemy. Besides, I think the wealthy have forced the working class to radicalize their ideologies to create confusion and separation. I believe whether we are talking about white and black racists or Christian and Muslim fundamentalists, if there weren’t these constant overwhelming pressures to scapegoat our working class situation to the most immediate and easy targets we could all find a common ground. No one wants to talk about class in this country as the root cause to all of the world’s problems, Bell Hooks makes this point excellently in “where we stand: Class Matters.” We have more in common with white and black racists or Christian and Muslim fundamentalists, than we do with wealthy elites, because in the end we are all the slaves in their system. It might not be equally distributed, but a house slave and a filed slave still have the title of slave.

I’m curious about the politics of NYHC… I am aware of the activity on the LES with regards to squatting, ABC NO RIO, etc… but for the most part, the more well-known NYHC seems to have more of a violent edge to it (AGNOSTIC FRONT, CROMAGS, etc…). When you see their lyrics there seems to be a definite awareness that something wrong is going on, and a sense of commonality with others in being oppressed, but a lot of the perspectives are mixed in with nationalism and things like that. What’s your thoughts on this?

I always found the nationalism in NYHC odd, and also the influences of popular music like rap (not real hip hop) and even sports. As far as the nationalism in the bands mentioned I think at the heart of it was a working class message and that is what interested me. Now the violent aspect was and is a reflection of the life led, I just wished it was directed towards our real enemies, instead of each other. That is a shame. We were doing the work for our enemies.

Within the punk scene, divisions exist between politicized factions and non-politicized factions and one of the major criticisms of the politicized faction (people and bands) is that they are preaching to the converted. How true do you think this is?

It is absolutely true, but to put it into perspective, punk and hardcore music is a youth movement not intended to be brought into adulthood. For me, the punk and hardcore scene served as an authentic identity before my true self could be realized. In its limited capacity, it helped me understand the true nature of the world and gave me the foundation to build an articulate philosophy. Sure some use it as some jock fighting identity (to some extent I did as well), but hopefully you mature and retain these punk ethics, not by appearance (dressing, tattooing) but by intellect. In western Democracies, the war will be one by radicals within the system.

The “conform or die” decision is felt most acutely by teenage punks with the imposed futures of the previous generation looming ahead at age 18. In the book there is an almost reconciled state of conformity… do you still feel conflicting feelings about where you are?

No, when my brother died my purpose in life was finally cemented. Our working class war has many fronts. Some are on the streets, others are in class rooms and others are snuggled up right against our enemies, waiting. One of my main messages of the book is to conform and not sell out. We need to put ourselves in this system, without forgetting where we came and understanding that there is a greater purpose for our position. Unfortunately, a true and lasting revolution in a wealthy nation needs to be paid for and will not happen on the streets.

Why remove your tattoos?

As I was coming to realize my working class situation more than the songs from bands I was parroting, I understood to really fight is not look like you want to really fight. Our punk rock appearance has become just that, an empty appearance and a way for the elites to brand and categorize us and situate us in their intended class stratification. I mean, when I am born, the way I speak and my culture automatically limits my possibilities in a rich man’s system, now my appearance makes it even worse. Now what do you do to live an authentic existence? Live off the grid? If my kind weren’t at war and ignorantly enslaved like some Platonic allegory, I might and almost did just that. But my brother is dead and if I do nothing he dies and we exist as the low life, thug, junkies the wealthy would have you convinced was our true purpose in life.

Central to the story is the conviction that Archie died from drugs… What can punk communities, and communities in general do to combat addiction and the proliferation of drugs? How can non-users help users?

What concerns me the most is addiction and this bogus war on drugs as it affects the working class as opposed to the wealthy. We don’t recuperate as easily after an addiction as do the elites, whose drug use stigma is seen more as a problem as opposed to an inherent trait that we would posses. An example would be Rush Limbaugh and the Kennedys who after the addictions still maintained their personal fortunes and more importantly their status in the network. Addiction for us is not the problem, but a byproduct of the true cause – a system that favors mindless conformity and a few elites. They would rest addiction on the shoulders of the individual by calling it personal responsibility, therefore releasing the system and its manipulators of any responsibility.

Addiction is in the mind, even if it is found to be partially genetic, a healthy, intelligent, logical, rational mind can overcome and control any physical urges. We see this all the time in society when a priest sustains from our strongest urge of sex and a revolutionary goes on a hunger strike until he dies. They have the will and strength to go against our primordial urges and it is the same with addiction, disease or not. My point is a strong mind can overcome our physical nature, but our conditioning from birth breeds a slave morality that dominates across generations and therefore does not possess the strength needed to overcome these physical urges. The wealthy know this of the masses and use it to dominate.

Now what can be done to help the addict? Take away the cause to the ignorance that fosters a weak and animal mind.

In terms of the writing, it seems like a pretty ambitious creation… Usually fiction/science fiction is used for social commentary, where you’ve taken your reality and presented a pretty tight explanation of the social forces that created it. Did the book come pretty naturally or did it require many revisions? How did you come up with the structure?

During those early days of my brother’s death I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do about who I have always held responsible for our lives. It seemed like I was reverting back to my old self and wanting to avenge my brother’s death. I was truly losing control. A few weeks after his death my wife became pregnant with our daughter so I sat down and wrote her a letter about what almost happened and her purpose in life and reason to her birth. I really don’t know, but from there I just turned the letter into a book. The story is true to life so I was basically just retelling events that happened, thoughts I was thinking while adding social commentary.

What prompted you to use dreams as a device? ‘God’s Dream’ was especially persuasive.

Throughout the book I try to deal with important issues that affect the working class so I didn’t want to tell some dry memoir story or some heavy philosophical tract. I used dreams to convey some of these important messages.

What was your major work you did for your philosophy masters degree? What type of philosophy are you most interested in?

No punk rocker worth his salt would not have read and be influenced by Nietzsche, so he and the other existentialists are the foundation to my philosophy. What I concentrated on in graduate school was the philosophy of science and technology.

I have been working on a philosophy of mind and technology and the direction of its evolution. I am with other scientists and techno theorists that believe humanity is evolving towards a global brain residing in the now primitive architecture we call the internet. These theories are based on real science from real scientists like Kurzweil, Bloom, Dawkins and Dennet. Signs of this happening are abundant when at all levels of life we see an inherent struggle to connect, such as human societies, colony of bees and ants, herd animals, bacteria, you name it, the individual entity cannot survive on its own. I think that human society is radically changing as we speak and evolving towards a utopia where the biological gene is no longer the dominant replicator and as Dawkins might put it; the mind “meme” has separated itself for a more favorable digital environment to replicate.

What does literature offer for communicating a perspective? What are some books like this you’ve been influenced by or enjoyed?

What literature offers to communication can be both enlighten and enslaving. Look what the most reproduced work in history, the bible, has done to the psyche of man and the formation of societies on this planet. Literature offers a great deal, but I am afraid the traditional and archaic methods of delivering these messages are geared towards enslavement. Thankfully this internet era will destroy these old corrupt methods of delivery.

What was the band you were playing in that you mentioned in the book?

Dogsalive

How does your family feel about the book?

They feel I should not have brought our family problems to the public forum. I respect and love them but I disagree because if our lives are to have any meaning it is at the face of truth and the courage to change what most people agree to be a corrupt system. My brother’s potential to be something more and live a fulfilling life was snatched away from birth as it is for many of our working class kind. If I would have left my brother’s demise in the hands of some rich man’s system, faith and God, we would truly be nothing more than the sheep they tried to raise. My brother was a real individual and had the problems of real people. What controlled him was not his fault because like me, from birth, we are born ignorant without the understanding of HOW to climb out of our hole. Make no mistake, this “understanding” of the world is a protected secret and me not shouting about what is truly happening would be just as accountable for my brother’s murder.

Reform or revolution?

I think the system in almost every aspect is corrupt and works to maintain a hierarchical level of power, that when viewed on the world stage has not change throughout history. The only reform of this system I would agree to FIRST and foremost would be the severe limiting and capping of individual wealth and power. No one person or a few should have more power than the masses. I think if this was adhered too, than we would have a true Democratic and equal society. Short of that, it is revolution with this one principle as the primary law and building of a new society.

Thanks a lot for the interview.