Punk Rock Manifesto: Like most people I’m pissed off

Like most people I’m pissed off. But not in the entitled, tea-bagger-kind-of-way with the infantile idea that we should all be free to do what the hell we like just cause we were born in the 40s, did drugs, lost Vietnam, carry a gun, went to Church and then made a shitload of money riding the coat-tail of 80’s liberalism and 90’s deregulation.

Nah, I’m pissed off at how easily we bought into a life of standardized, production-line like brainwashed education, corporate serfdom, industrial fast-food, packaged brainless vacations and TV reality shows. How quickly we gave up critical thinking, questioning authority, looking for the truth and standing up for ourselves in exchange for a few dimes, being socially accepted and God-fearing folks.

Here are my top 12 personal actions to turn the wheels on the governmental-military-corporate-food-work-life complex:

Stop consuming average products and services. Demand the best. Price doesn’t define quality. You define quality. Even better, stop consuming all this crap that we are fed through mindless advertising and social contagion.
Keep it simple, stupid (KISS)! You don’t need all this shit to be happy. Your kids don’t need all this shit to be happy. They need one thing: a present and engaged YOU!
Buy local from real people that are passionate at what they do and not just the next earnings call. Don’t look for average, look for extraordinary.
Park your car or even better sell it. Walking is good for you. Use public transportation. No, it’s not for the poor but for the smart.
Look for startups to disrupt for you before you choose the products and services from a public company. They tend to value your business much more and actually responds to your feedback.
Cook your own real food - from scratch. It feels good, is creative, healthy, cheaper and a taste 100x better than any restaurant food. Invite friends over and start a revolution.
Peer-to-peer anything to bypass the current system. Leverage the Internet to lend and borrow anything. Think like a hacker; use BitTorrent, Kickstarter, BankSimple et cetera.
Work for yourself. Find what you are passionate about and make that your living. Sure, it’s hard but you need to rethink what matters to you: being accepted by the top of the bell curve or following your own path.
Eat more vegetables and real fish, less meat. No - you don’t deserve a steak every night - that’s just marketing. The only thing you deserve is not getting fat or turning stupid.
Engage in the global conversation - you have the tools so use them. Get on Twitter, Facebook and blog about what matters to you. Bring back humanity.
Unplug from the machine: TV, mainstream news, unsolicited mail, email mailing-lists, newspapers, magazines et cetera and spend that cognitive surplus to smarten up. Tune out to tune in.
Pay cash. Stay out of debt.

Do I live by all the above? Well, I really try to. What really matters to me is what also Seneca valued the highest: friends, food and thought. In the end of the day, what makes us happy are the small things: a blue sky, our kids, eating home-baked Ciabatta, staying healthy, spending time together, laughing for no rational reason, feeling we are making a real contribution et cetera.

But no, I’m not a hippie. I’m not looking for mankind to return to the Middle Ages. I do think we could be much more prosperous moving forward by side-stepping our current hyper-capitalism and by reconnecting with real humanity.

Corporations aren’t end all be all to human progress and growth. They are just a blip in the evolution of mankind, a vehicle - for the good and bad. The next step is about us - the people. Let’s not get sidetracked.

[I wrote this inspired by “Henry Rollins: Why I’m A Very Angry Person”.]