No we weren’t supposed to be. We learnt too much at school… at school while making other plans. Extra-curricular study. Lunch hours spent hiding in the library. Thinking of sex during Maths. Reading the wrong things for History, for Art. Spanish Civil War. Kronstadt. Dada. Anarchy. Punk. Brothers, sisters, can’t you see? The future’s owned by you and me.
Headphones on. Headphones always on. Popular music as self-education. The punk rock alphabet. One liner note leads to one library book which leads to another which leads to another which leads to one’s little suburban universe being blown right open. Portals to another world. Now we can’t help but see that the future that you’ve got mapped out is nothing much to shout about.
So many lost hours dreaming of the revolution. Why think about what you’re going to be when you grow up, when you’re going to change the world? NEVER WORK, they said. And at thirty you find yourself still stuck behind a cash register. Is it worse though, in the end, than believing that your job is who you are? Do you wanna be, do you really wanna be a cop?
Next time you’re at the counter, try to see the shopgirl. She might just be an artist in disguise. Your bus driver is probably an anarchist. And we know more than you ever suspected that we did. We want the things you won’t allow us. We won’t use guns, we won’t use bombs, we’ll use the one thing we’ve got more of – that’s our minds.
Careers In Retail
Dexter Fletcher
6 – 22/7/12