AUTOEROTICASPHYXIUM (AEA) Magazine (NY)
Your publication A Rebel Life: Murder By The Rich is described as “the New York hardcore punk memoir of violence, drugs, gangs and classism.” What are all the things this description entails? What purpose is its publication intended to serve?
I wrote with philosophical undertones, but rooted in a working class language. I get many kids who barely read tell me this is one of the few books they have read. I think it’s because I speak about the raw and real happenings of the streets, without some cowboy glorification that we are accustomed to seeing in action packed movies and books. So when I speak to these working class kids that barely read, it is from the heart and about a story of growing up in the streets of NYC, in the eighties, during one of its most violent periods. I’m telling them about experiences that they know all to well such as violence, drugs and gangs. But, I’m also telling them about who the real enemy is and how we are conditioned into our roles from birth. I’m presenting them nothing short of a manifesto on understanding our working class situation, and conforming as best we can into this corrupt system and finally waiting for the right moment when the revolution is true. I’m declaring through this book and the blood of my brother that I have not sold out my people, no matter what I look like and where I am in this class hierarchy. I will be on the front line of this war, spilling my blood and all of my material assets until justice is brought to my brother’s grave. So, the purpose of this book is to wake up my working class people and understand our created divisions of race, nationality, culture and religion and unite under one working class commonality. Ultimately, this book is written for my daughter, who was conceived and being conditioned to fight our enemies one day in a way that my ignorant and emotional mind could not find.
In A Rebel Life you take the position that the upper classes are ultimately responsible for the death of your brother, Archie. You argue that people are only responsible for themselves when they have total freedom to decide for themselves. Since the lower classes are controlled by the upper classes, they don’t have such freedom. In what ways do you see the upper classes as controlling the lower?
I think the hierarchy of status, power and wealth is the most obvious. It’s a primitive stratification of society that comes right out of our ape ancestor. It was used as a survival mechanism, when human society by enlarge, did not have the potential of reaching a higher individual consciousness, as Nietzsche acknowledged with his Overman doctrine. Human evolution has for the first time in history within the past one hundred years, spearheaded the growth of the mass human mind. It is a growth towards individualism. No one can predict the outcome, but we can say that this old form of hierarchy has no more purpose in the twenty first century as technological advancements equalizes the masses. We have seen the catalyst to its destruction in the twentieth century with some of the bloodiest class wars.
To get back to the question, the most obvious way the upper classes control is by their concentration of wealth to small groups of people throughout the world. Other examples are their living, working, eating, fighting, and schooling segregations. The way their dietary intake is usually far healthier and the safety in their neighborhoods much more soothing. And the way their education is far more superior, leading them to a more enlightened state of being and the inside knowledge of the system they are given assures a high position in the great machine of inequality. And how their rational thinking, obtained by these higher universities, helps them to conquer their animal nature and therefore control the drunken, working, sporting, soldiering, sexed up, drugged up mess that makes up the 98% of the world’s population that fight each other for half of the world’s wealth. The way they are assured through history that we will remain in our primitive nature, hoping to win the lottery or for the few of us to sell out our kind so that they may exploit and leave us an empty religious, national, racist shell of a human animal. This master class has one inherent defect in their being that makes them even lower, in terms of morality and ethics than the slaves they subjugate, and that is the awareness of their crime of purposeful inequality. For the majority of them, they are conscious of their actions and the majority of us simply react to our environment that they manipulate. It’s a classic analogy of a chess game.
The lower classes simply don’t have access to the same opportunities and it is not because as they would have us believe from our choosing. As I said in the book, no one consciously chooses ignorance.
How long has A Rebel Life been in publication? How well has it been received since it was first published?
The book has been out about a year now and given my limited resources and not beholding to any corporation, it has been well received.
A second edition of A Rebel Life has now been printed. Do you expect this edition to reach more people than the first?
I wanted to make a broader appeal with the new artwork, as I know many people judge immediately by the cover. My book has been defined by some as angry, maybe to fanaticize these timeless truths I am merely echoing from other great thinkers that came before me. I think my justified anger is just one component of the book, along with love, redemption, and truth.
What interviews have you done that are most worth mentioning in that the interviewer gave you an opportunity to provide the most informative answers?
I’ve done a few interviews and I think all of them have given me the opportunity to express and clarify my views I laid out in the book. I think your questions and the ones from the Free Society magazine have given me the greater opportunity to express my political and philosophical views.
You left home at sixteen, lived on the streets for a number of years, and then decided to return to school on a path toward a mainstream career. When hearing Archie passed away of a drug overdose, you opted to take revenge not through violence but rather through uprooting the system from within. Today, do you see the early stages of your rebellion as a journey? Do you believe you would have eventually arrived at the point you are now if Archie was still alive?
I probably would not have arrived at this conscious rebellion if my brother had not died. I have always understood the class struggle from the moment I hit the streets, but after torturing myself through gangs, constant violence and drugs, I gave up on the struggle in a way and conformed. Sure, I lied to myself like every other bourgeoisie liberal and said I’m going to change the system from within, but I was disillusioned with this struggle because human beings seem to never change their animal nature. When my brother died, I looked over everything about my life and its purpose. I’ve come to realize that you cannot beat a rich man within his system. You can’t even fight the system head-on and win. The fuel of a greedy and corrupt system is the ignorance of its people. How do you change the nature of people, though education? Unlikely. Through force? Unlikely. Wait for the biological evolution of man’s genetic makeup to naturally select out the greed and ignorant trait? Unlikely or too long. The masses have one hope to equalize society and become true individuals in an earthly utopian paradise and that is through technology. Embrace it at every level, unhindered and as scary as it may appear because it will correct our genetic makeup and strength our minds and destroy the few who want the masses the way they are today – in chaos.
In the interview you did for Free Society you said, “Capitalism and Communism are simply propaganda labels by the wealthy fighting their own personal wars, such as Democracy and Dictatorship.” What exactly did you mean by that?
I simply meant that these are ideals that have never existed on earth. They are a way to divide the working class to fight for a few rich people. America is not a true Democracy because it doesn’t have a society of equals and it isn’t a capitalist system with free markets unhindered by government and major corporations that not only influence, but manipulate the supposedly free playing ground. I’d like to know what these working class soldiers are bringing to the Middle East as they advertise Democracy from their lips and some of us know it’s nothing more than a few American rich families destroying a few Iraq rich families. And in the end, both soldiers, if they have survived, go back to working under Democracy, Dictatorship or what have you. It’s the same in Communist systems where the few control the majority of the assets, and although the class stratification might not be as severe, there is a concentration of wealth and power. Again, no equals, just empty labels.
There are a handful of dream sequences in A Rebel Life. What are these intended to represent?
There are three dreams the main character has which are titled God’s Dream, Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and My Brother’s Dream. In the first chapter God’s Dream, I pay homage to Nietzsche’s popular death of God philosophy where God is killed by his own creation, man. With this chapter I try to bring the reader to understand that the God concept and the rich man are one and the same. I tried to convey the message that religion and the God idea is a creation of the rich to subjugate the working class. With the second dream, I borrowed the title of one of Dostoyevsky’s short stories called Dream of a Ridiculous Man, where a man that is dissatisfied with the world is determined to commit suicide. In my chapter, the main character has the same sentiments, because he understands that most likely the working class will always remain in their ignorant and animal nature. In the last dream sequence, My Brother’s Dream, the main character envisions an alternative lifestyle for his younger brother. This was the hardest part of the book for me to write and that dream that still haunts me to this day.
How well has the press received A Rebel Life since its publication? Are there any countries where it received a particularly favorable response because of the socio-political climates there?
So everyone understands, we are not talking about the popular press, like the New York Times or Oprah. I’m not sure how they would respond, probably not favorable to the ideas I put forth in this book.
For the magazines and people that have reviewed the book, they have all had good things to say. There is no doubt, if I had the reach to market the book in Europe and the rest of the world that is where I would get the majority of my readers. A handful of my reviewers come from small, rather underground magazines from Europe and Canada, and it seems like they appreciate my critique of a rich man’s America. I get emails all the time of solidarity from non Americans.
How in your view do classic movies like 1984, Brave New World and A Clockwork Orange reflect our society today?
These movies show that there is an underground of ideas that do not trust the main stream with their delusion outlook of the future. These are not just movies. They are a look into a possible future.
Explain how you feel organized religion might have contributed to the current state of affairs in the U.S.
There have been books written on this topic and without taking too much time I’ll just say that religion, spirituality, faith and any metaphysical belief serves as a purpose to dilute the masses from the truth of their existence. And this truth does not look good.
How do you see mainstream pop culture’s societal influence from the 80s to the present, in terms of perpetuating the ideas of conforming to specific dress codes, keeping up with the Joneses and remaining in competition for the most toys?
I’m honestly not sure. I really don’t pay much attention to pop culture and how it influences people, it is just another mechanism to pacify the masses.
Do you see more of a complacent “it is what it is” or “you can’t fight City Hall” attitude towards the rich these days as opposed to the time you were involved in the punk scene? Are people less likely to speak their minds about what they see happening in the mainstream for concerns of being suppressed? Is the power of money or the power of knowledge ultimately stronger?
For the first question, I think the complacency of the masses has always existed. It’s only when they are severely pushed that they react or speak up, such as the draft during the Vietnam War. If the masses have bread in their stomach and an illusion of opportunity, they don’t mind the feeding these vampires do on their mindless carcass. Knowledge does not presuppose a higher conscious human being. Money and knowledge go hand-in-hand, it is ethics, morality and convictions that are stronger.
Since the late 80s the media has put the message across to the general public that the skinhead culture is inherently racist. From Geraldo Rivera onward, media has long equated skinheads with bigotry and racial violence, and all but overlooked the fact that the traditional skinhead movement is rooted in Jamaican and English culture. What do you believe is the reason the media focuses solely on racist skinheads, telling only one side of the story while refusing to shed more light on the other?
It’s obvious to me, especially since I studied the media closely in graduate school, that they are an extension of the propaganda machine the wealthy have in place. When current news, actors, and advertisers are mixed together, the result for the uneducated, which are predominantly working class people and poor, are deadly. People tend not to be able to distinguish between the three. It amazes me sometimes when I hear people hum an advertiser’s jingle or they bring their kids to indoctrinating camps like Disney World. The Nazi and Soviet propaganda machine pales in comparison to our modern propaganda behemoth. So, to go back to the question of why the media popularizes the racist skinhead culture or religious suicide bombers for that matter, we have to ask who gains when the working classes divide? As you know, I am no proponent of racism or religion, but I can tell you that the wealthy, through the media, create these radical extremists in the working class. If the rich didn’t exist, there would be no need for such radicalism, because the resources that are concentrated in the environment would be evenly distributed. Fundamentally, all these groups are fighting to control a limited amount of resources in the environment. We know the statistics of the concentration of wealth as I gave earlier.
You were in the audience on the Geraldo Rivera show, for the purpose of informing people that not all skinheads are racists. Do you feel your appearance made a difference on how people views the skinhead culture? From your point of view, what took place during the brawl that broke out in the studio? What happened during the aftermath when they cut to commercial?
I was an Eighteen year-old idiot from the streets that was being used to entertain the masses and fill the pockets of Geraldo and his corporation. My appearance made no difference other than to show the world that we make enemies of ourselves. This class divide that has existed from the moment man gained consciousness a couple of million years-ago, is the cause to all the other divisions that exist today. As our primitive ancestor used the first tools and ushered in the great awakening, his second conscious thought carried from its ape ancestor, must have been how I can use it to subjugate or kill my enemy. Modern man eventually evolved from this with a hierarchical system. When the few couldn’t subjugate the masses, they were killed or like we see with the extinction of Neanderthal man, completely eradicated off the face of the Earth. When I hear of all the working class division that exists, I know its historic roots and understand only one true division exists.
As far as the brawl, I went there to support my friends and the racist skinheads threw a chair at Geraldo and his panelists, not us. I wasn’t defending some corporation. I guess we were there to tell the world or at least New York City that we weren’t racist. At that time the city went through some tough racial problems and we were branded with a racist label that just wasn’t true.
Anti-Heroes sued New Line Cinema because “American History X” featured a racist skinhead with a tattoo of their name. According to the Internet Movie Database, they didn’t want to be associated even with fictional racists. They even recorded the song "NLC" about the studio. Should this point out skinheads are not intrinsically linked with race hatred? Is assuming so simply another form of prejudice? After all, the Bad Brains are considered one of hardcore’s most influential bands ever.
Absolutely, but let’s put skinheads into context. Just because they weren’t racist doesn’t mean they weren’t violent. There are many skinhead factions and I don’t understand any of them that aren’t politically motivated and rooted in a working class anarchist or even socialist ideology. Skinheads are a working class movement that is actively against the system. They shouldn’t just want to drink and fight like rowdy cowboys or sports fans as most of them are known to do in Europe and the US.
Daniel Schweizer’s 2003 documentary Skinhead Attitude explores skinhead’s true origins in Jamaican culture. Which books or movies would you recommend to people who want to discover the traditional non-racist skinhead movement?
I don’t know. I have always relied on word of mouth and OI bands like the business.
The eviction of CBGB by the Bowery Residents’ Committee is viewed as the loss of a club that not only revolutionized New York culture but revolutionized world culture for years to follow. Wetlands and Coney Island High are no longer in existence. Continental no longer features live bands. All these clubs hosted underground punk, hardcore and metal band. Also, Long Island’s Empire Records has closed, and Slipped Disc is to close. The reasons are often financial. Do you see this as part of the gentrification of New York that’s gone on the last few years? How much have punk and hardcore been affected by this?
I am not sure if it is because of a gentrification of New York as much as it is from the music becoming main stream. There are many places in shitty towns on Long Island and NYC that still have punk and hardcore shows and might be breeding a new type of underground music. Older people, especially from my generation, tend to get nostalgic with CBGB’s and other clubs that showcased underground music, but the heart of the scene has never been in those walls or even with the bands. It has been with the people that meet and find common view. Playing in a garage or hip hoping on a corner has always been and will always be where the underground meet.
The attempted eviction of the punk club/art house/activist center ABC No Rio was stopped following legal battles that began in 1994 as the city revoked its lease to sell the building to another activist group. Wikipedia. org says, “…Attempting to divide non-profit community groups had been used many times to split groups that the city approves of from more confrontational ones was used frequently against Lower East Side squatters throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.” The fight for the club was eventually won when a renovation deal was struck. Does this present a hope that some clubs can survive gentrification?
If the people are behind it they could survive a war.
How important would you consider the projects ABC No Rio is still involved in (i.e. hardcore/punk matinees, art shows and the Book Through Bars, Food Not Bombs & the Lower East Side Biography programs) as far as giving people of like minds to associate and spread knowledge of what is happening in the world?
In the context of educating, ABC No Rio is extremely important for people of like minds to gather. Places like this serve as a networking center.
In his movie America: Freedom To Fascism, director Aaron Russo (The Rose, Trading Places) says America was originally founded not as a democracy, but as a constitutional republic. Russo said democracy was made to sound good as a word but it is the worst form of government that can exist since it favors majority rule and offers the minority no protection. Would you agree or disagree with this point. Please explain your reasons.
Absolutely agree. We don’t have a Democracy and never did. I mean, the ancient Greeks never even had a Democracy when women, slaves and non land owners could not even vote. We don’t even have a constitutional republic when people of money and power manipulate the law and the system for their benefit. What we have is a global Aristocracy that transfer’s wealth from within small groups throughout history. They fight wars, they conquer each other, and they make agreements and packs while the working classes remain the same and these wealthy groups shift wealth around. The labels are to divide the working class. If you can’t see the proof of this right in front of your eyes, then you never will. For over twenty years and out of 300 million people in the United States we have only been able to find 2 families that can lead this nation? It should be an outright crime to have a presidential line up of Vice President Bush, then President Clinton, then President Bush and now we are looking at President Clinton again? Even if she doesn’t get elected, she is an influence within the system. And there is another Bush in the background as the Governor of Florida waiting his turn. The joke is on us.
What books and/or authors would you most highly recommend to those who have read A Rebel Life?
So many authors have influenced me from a variety of fields from philosophy to the hard sciences. I quoted a bunch in the book so I would start with them I guess. I have been mostly influenced by old philosophers like Nietzsche, Darwin and Marx and modern theorists like Dawkins, Dennett, and Kurzwell.
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.
Ear Damage Magazine
June 2007
(Alabama, USA)
So many people who
grew up poor really don’t really realize how poor they actually were until they
get older and look back on it. What do you think it was that made you realize
you were poor as you were coming of age?
There are so many levels and distinctions of being poor. I remember my mother pointing out the “poorer” kids on the block as we were growing up. She would try to convince us that we were different. Economically, I guess we were lower middle class, but mentally, we were as poor as everyone else in the neighborhood.
Unfortunately I was poor because my diet contained a high amount of sugar and fat and I didn’t even care and TV was religiously consumed even more. There were hardly any books around except maybe the Bible, and that was cherry picked to death. My friends parents were usually laborers of some sort and my friends themselves had the same aspirations. As children we couldn’t go out at night to play. As young adults, fights were more than two jocks fighting in a High School parking lot. We were taught to hate our neighbors because of their skin color or religion, but never make a distinction of class. We were always under the illusion that opportunity existed equally for all. People were getting killed, murdered, and addicted to hard core drugs and doing serious time in prison. I looked up to gangster and street thugs and everybody was obsessed with only their primitive emotions – eating, shitting and fucking.
I marked off a quite few
pages in the book you sent me, but there was one paragraph that struck me close
to home in particular, about the immaculately clean dining room in your parents’
house, fine china used just on special occasions, and plastic covers on the
couches. You go on to say, “This house isn’t for the living or real…in
Absolutely, but there should be only one investment a person coming from nothing should make and that is to the total destruction of the system that keeps the rest behind. The race shouldn’t be who gets to the top, but who destroys it when they get there. Unfortunately, in this country, lately, when someone from the working class steps into class privilege and power, getting there all along on the backs of their brothers and sisters, the repayment is either a spit in the face to those left behind or worse, charity. We need role models that unite the working class around the world and know where they came from and aren’t attached and affected by symbols of the rich.
Before we chastise these “agents” of the wealthy class in Hollywood and the music industry, we need to wake each other up first to our shared culture that is deeply rooted in a rich man’s ideals. A culture that makes idols out of people because of trivial skills.
In your book, you
state that you grew in
I do not like what, where and how I was. There was a lot of wasted potential. It was not me, it was them. Today I am more me.
Now for me to regret the drugs and violence I would have to admit that I consciously directed the “individual” that I am today toward those paths and this is just not true. I didn’t have the same mental capacity to analyze my environment as I do today. My awareness back then, if you can even call it that, was simply mindless responses to my immediate environment, like any animal. It is well documented in the hard and social sciences that most people just react to their environments as opposed to logically thinking every move through.
A counter-culture has existed from the moment cultural artifacts popped into the heads of our deep ancestors. This is how evolution works on culture and moves ideas through the minds of people like echoes in a valley or waves in the sea. Specifically, this 20th century youth counter-culture was just another way for radical ideas to challenge established ideas and its syntheses is what it is – waiting for another counter-culture. I agree that these youth movements encourage the youth, maybe negatively, but the encouragement is to go against the sheep mind, to challenge established norms and that is needed if a society is to advance to a higher state of consciousness. The problem is not with the antithesis to the original culture, but with the direct manipulation by a few to the resulting new ideas that always seem to come back to a herd mind.
Simple example is punk rock or hip hop. They both came from the streets talking about revolution and rebellion in the beginning and the establishment (the few) has transformed it now as another tool to pacify the masses. Every one of these counter-cultures have not been radical enough to remain radical and change what they intended to change.
I once saw a stand up
show where a comic said, “
I never understood how New York was a melting pot. We were not only divided among the major things like race, nationality, religion and culture, but within our little Greek, Italian or Black neighborhoods we divided ourselves even further. We had specific blocks gathering together, styles of clothes, music, and even areas of the countries our family came from. The best was when we were divided within our enclaves along class. It is insane to see people who have crumbs divide themselves between the more and less crumbs.
You were briefly in a
hardcore band in your teen/young adult years? How big were you into the music
aspect of the punk scene back then?
I found a home with the punk rockers when I first ran away from home. I was an oddball back on the block, for some reason not able to conform to the wannabe gangsters or the hard working school kids. I knew there was something wrong with it all, but I was too stupid to articulate what the problem was, so punk rock was the perfect place for me.
As far as hardcore music goes, that heart is not with the musicians or the fans, but with the equals that make up the scene. The actual music is a byproduct of this gathering.
February 2007
More Punk Than You Zine:Cheers Peter.How are you?
Peter:I’m good brother
First of all, congratulations for “A rebel life;murder by the rich”.Are you satisfied with how it came out?
Thanks, and my satisfaction will only come when the working classes of the world would Wake up, Unite, and fight their real enemies.
In the book, you’re talking about the street life in the early ’80 s.How hard was for you to hold on?
Street kids, I mean ones that are fully invested in the streets, don’t really “hold on.” They live hard, they bleed and they die. That is what society wants and the idiots that we are, we give it whole heartedly. I fought my own kind many times and never once thought to fight the enemy that has his boot to my neck. Holding on for me back then was waiting to see how I would die. I was convinced it was inevitable.
What do you think about the ones that have a good, wealthy social condition but they are trying to get over this aspect just to get the impression that they’re “cool”?
This sounds like drama kid shit reminiscent of the hardcore scene growing up. I am against the wealthy. I’m not against the wealthy who understand the unfair cause of their advantage and use this advantage to destroy that system.
Recently I’ve been watching (again) the NYHC documentary from 1995.All the groups,starting with Warzone,25 Ta Life, Agnostic Front (and the list may continue),became legends.How do you see the bans from the new wave and wich ones do you like?
I know some of these bands personally, but the problem that has always been with hardcore is that the kids tend to make the bands out to be more than they are. In other words, what attracted me to HC music is that I can be part of a scene of equals. I don’t know about the rest of the world, but in NYC, the bands and the HC kids were no different. No one looked up to anyone else because they put out a few albums and toured the world. I guess what I’m leading up to is that these bands weren’t legends, because they weren’t idols or rock stars. We were and are all the same, now that is NY hardcore. They played music to unite kids of the working class like I write this book. The message is what we should focus on and not anyone’s personality.
Today my taste in music varies and it usually is political, anti system, and working class from hardcore, punk rock to OI.
What do you think about the bands that promote,on one hand, messages concerning a fight against the system, but on the other hand,they sign contracts with major labels?don’t you think this is a contradiction? (on a secondthought,since when does it matter? You know that saying : “money is power”)
It’s a contradiction when the outcome of these fruits brings selfishness. If these bands or anyone that make it out of the streets do not give back in some way then they are the lowest of the low. The revolution has to be paid for and the poor are writing bad checks. The only way to fight this system is to make it within the system, BUT don’t sell out – so yes “money is power” and should be used to destroy the system.
What made you decide to go back in school? How important is education nowadays?
Popular belief is that we are responsible for our actions and since most of my actions growing up were deviant, I was lead to believe they were from my own choosing. But this didn’t seem right, because how could someone who has grown up ignorant to “the right way to be” his entire life choose correctly? I went back to school to understand why I and others around me grew up ignorant. Who gains from our ignorance? I refused to believe my actions were from MY choosing when it is clear to me today that not only I, but everyone that I came in contact with was manipulated to be a certain way. This leads to the book. My brother died of a heroin overdose and everyone says it was his choosing, but I say that if he was in his “right” mind he would have never chosen to die. If we could go all the way back to that moment in time where my brother could have chosen the streets or school and shown him the outcome of the streets, he would not have chosen the streets. It goes against all our biology to head down the direction of suicide. But my brother did – because he was manipulated.
Do you have any material prepared for the near future? Are you working on any project?
I don’t know, maybe.
Thank you for your time and good luck with your work.if you have anything to add,you may do this now.
Be true to where you came from
Hardcore for life
Thanks to Peter
Interview by:Mircea