Just a week or so after natural-rights oriented anarcho-capitalist blog no-treason.com went down [UPDATE: It is now back up], a recent favorite of mine, the non-cognitivist/positivist/contractarian market-anarchist site againstpolitics.com, disappeared down the memory hole. I set up a tripod site at teageegeepea.tripod.com/AgainstPolitics/ where I intend to host all the files that were there and fix up links, but I haven’t gotten much done so far.
I noticed the site was down after reading Keith Preston’s latest at Lew Rockwell and deciding to refresh my memory on his writings at the now-defunct site only to find it was gone. For curious readers of his LR article, I asked if he was referring to this when he made his remark about 1 out of 4 people working in security, and he replied that the article he was referencing was this one. I also told him he should get a blog, but for now you can just visit his site.
In this same issue, and having just about nothing to do with LR’s usual fare (it’s not Billy Beck’s site), Vivian Britton laments the decline and fall of the Guitar Hero (archetype, not game). Being of the opinion that music without instruments (drum machines and synths don’t count) is all crap, I am largely in agreement. Where we part ways is her anger at grunge, typified by Nirvana. I’m a fan of both that style and the punk and garage-rock genres that preceded it, even at their most amateurish. I think rock is at its best when it combines the uninhibited energy and expression of the punk family with the composition and musicianship of the more proggy metal gods that Vivian worships (that’s why I wouldn’t be quoting any Iron Maiden made after Number of the Beast if I were writing such an article). Blues and folk/country elements can be nice but are optional.
And now for something Vivian would hate
Entitled to an Opinion 
December 24, 2007 at 4:53 am
“Blues and folk/country elements can be nice but are optional.”
If we’re talking about rock music, the blues is anything *but* “optional”. The essential difference between the early/mid-60’s and the late-70’s “punks” is not in energy but quality of performance. And what’s most important about that is the fact that the earlier players understood the blues roots of the music. Almost nobody understood that anymore by the time punk came along. (This is why Stevie Ray Vaughan and Robert Cray hit the market like life-preservers when they did.) The point here is that the very existence of the earlier music proves that “energy” isn’t all there it to it, and also that “energy” and blues roots are not mutually exclusive.
“Grunge”? {spit} We’re talking about the essential aesthetic of the 50’s Beats crossed with lame-ass folkies before their world got exploded at Monterey, but now turned up to 10 only because their forebears had already blown-up every garage in the land.
“Punks” were musical nobodies — regardless of the success that gave lie to their whole schtick — and they still are, and “grunge” is nothing *but* punks in the classic sense of the word.
This whole issue is about people who could actually play and sing, and people who can’t. I’m not going to slam anyone who has a taste for the latter, but at least the history of this stuff begs fidelity to the facts.
December 24, 2007 at 12:12 pm
When we’re talking aesthetics, there aren’t any facts. As an emotivist, I go further with subjectivism than most, but when it comes to taste there are a lot more people who agree there’s no accounting for it.
It’s not just punk that ditched blues. The neoclassical and NWOBHM artists that Vivian thinks were the shit can be distinguished from their forebears primarily through the removal of blues influence.
December 24, 2007 at 8:13 pm
No Treason will soon be restored. We’re pretty busy but we’ll try to generate some unconsionable posing as time allows.
December 24, 2007 at 8:35 pm
That’s good, because I have a lot of stuff there.
So does lung.
December 24, 2007 at 10:28 pm
A synth is certainly an instrument.
The Orb is beautiful and “the window in the sky is divine.”
December 25, 2007 at 1:59 pm
December 25, 2007 at 5:34 pm
I guess “completely defunct” isn’t what it used to be.
“Punks” were musical nobodies…
Seems to be a pretty broad brush to be tarring with. Fact of the matter is that according to any aesthetic standard that matters (hint: there’s only one that matters) some punk music is enjoyable.
December 28, 2007 at 7:03 am
A poorly written piece, in general, but I can’t let this slide: For curious reader’s of his LR article... Plurals don’t require apostrophes.
December 29, 2007 at 7:22 pm
JSabotta, I don’t hate to break it to you, but your youtube link sucked.
Thanks, Jules. Perhaps I should read over what I wrote before posting, but it’s not like I get paid for this. WordPress won’t even let me put up ads!
John Lopez:
I guess “completely defunct” isn’t what it used to be.
I don’t know what you’re getting at there.
Seems to be a pretty broad brush to be tarring with. Fact of the matter is that according to any aesthetic standard that matters (hint: there’s only one that matters) some punk music is enjoyable.
A good emotivist, I think the only standard that matters is one’s own subjective enjoyment, and it’s entirely possible that our Billy does not and would not enjoy any punk music, not on a plane or in a train.
January 6, 2008 at 6:49 pm
“And now for something Vivian would hate”
You’re right, I hate it! Cool blog you’ve got here; I’ll have to check back often….
January 6, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Glad you hate the song and like the blog, Vivian. I don’t update that frequently and I’ve prohibited myself from making another post until I get started (I was about to say “finish”, but first things first) on a piece of writing I’ve procrastinated on. I think after that my next post will be on why I am not in favor of caste.
February 24, 2008 at 6:05 am
This motivation we won’t rapture iced feelings. Will you say yes? Well…
February 24, 2008 at 11:35 pm
What the hell are you on about?