Liveblogging the Straight Edge Documentary and Final Thoughts

7:08 PM - Arrived home late to find that the documentary already in progress, on commercial
7:12 PM - A sociologist wearing a "POSI" shirt? mega-lawlz.
7:15 PM - FSU. Loving violence. Awesome. This is the death of the middle class. I love that the guy that started FSU moved to Hollywood away from violence.
7:22 PM - Going into the second commercial break, it seems apparent that the only thing Thurston's going to be talking about is people dying, extremism and Salt Lake City. I really don't know what I was expecting, considering the fact that they couldn't get anyone "from the inside" to narrate the documentary. I don't quite understand the connection between Sonic Youth and Straight Edge.
7:27 PM - THERE'S A BATTLE IN SALT LAKE CITY GOING ON BETWEEN INSANE CLOWN POSSE JUGGALOS AND STRAIGHT EDGE GANGS! OMFG! I LOVE CITIES LIKE THAT!
7:30 PM - Straight Edge gangs kill 15 year old with a springbilly?
7:32 PM - YES POSI-SOCIOLOGIST! KEEP IT POSI! DEFEND THOSE KIDS!
7:37 PM - I love that Reno is the focus.
7:43 PM - I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE LIVEBLOGGING.
7:46 PM - "White Suburban Terrorists"! And since when is Nevada the most dangerous state? I mean, four years, but seriously? How is it not California? It must be calculated per capita or something.
7:51 PM - The problem here is that this is a documentary maker's idea of "non-biased," however every single straight edge comment on the blog has to do with "the way the movement has been mischaracterized" or whatever. The thing about an issue like this is that there has to be a bias when portraying it. It's impossible to tackle such a huge issue in 43 minutes and not present some sort of bias; something will always be left out an someone will always be dissatisfied.
7:57 PM - EIGHTH GRADERS?



As someone who used to claim edge, I didn't find the documentary to be overly offensive. More often than not, I feel awkward in social situations where my beliefs are discussed. I still abstain from drugs, alcohol, smoking, etc., however I don't claim edge anymore, which is strange to me. I lived through some of my most formative years thinking that resisting was the only way, that it was us versus them. Today, I follow the school of thought perpetuated by the Revolution Summer crowd, the idea that change is inevitable and we should only work together for something loftier than what's right in front of us, be it drugs, gangs, self-interest, whatever. If it so happens that, like in my case, this involves living a clean lifestyle, then so be it, but this is not the contingent part. In the end, as everyone else says, it's about personal choice. What most straight edgers don't talk about is the fact that personal choice to follow isn't quite as "personal" as it should be.

ps. The image is sort of funny. I used to have this picture of Morrissey laying down in front of the Capital Building with a SSDecontrol 12", but I lost it. I tried to look for it on google image search, but I found that instead, which is an egregious misappropriation of "How Soon is Now?"