Esoteric Punk Rendition

In the end, you just have to be a punk. Growing up in the American culture, I have come to learn that you are only told so much and what you are told usually has an agenda. Ethics are usually introduced through ones upbringing within a religion. Through religion, both Virtue Ethics and Duty-Based Ethics are employed in order to keep the recipient away from evils, of both this world and others. If one remains faithful to their religion not only will they be accepted into heaven but they will also be considered an award-winning citizen of the society. As I turned fifteen, these things that I had been told did not seem to ever really sink in, and initially, struck with some fear, I thought, “If I do not abide by this religion, then what is truly right or wrong?” It was that moment, as a young fifteen-year-old girl, in middle class suburban America, that I became a punk. I realized then all that had been taught to me about these ethics was rather indirect, as it reflected upon some external authority to reveal the good and the bad, rather than an asking of ones self.

After reading about the Classic Categories, I was still unsure about which is the most sensible position, even after six previous years of experience and internal debate. Most all of them require one to admit to their participation in an external setting – if one wants to reap the benefits of a society, one must feel some type of duty towards the others and the authority within the society, if one wants to reach the gates of heaven one must obey the commandments of god. I am more curious though where one is to look if they do not wish to indirectly reflect upon some external setting. As for my disposition, I have yet to be convinced of any other worlds to which I may wish to travel and I am also quite unsure about just how beneficial this society actually is for me. So here I am, some punk, still asking of myself about these ethics. In the end, I would have to side with some kind of Virtue theory, as I am most concerned with Wisdom rather than anything else. I am convinced through the readings of both Plato and Aristotle that a seeker of wisdom is in some way dependent on a functioning society. If everyone where free to act upon every feverish whim of their twenty-first century soul, this world would implode and if that happens I would no longer be able to communicate with others, or share similar values with others, who are also lovers of wisdom.

My ethics do not revolve around society, a god, or some agenda but rather purely and simply around my self – which luckily, for the rest of society, is mostly concerned with learning, reading, writing, and creating a good character which will continue to enable to highest performance of all such things. So, I am a punk, who disregards most everything for the noble sake of wisdom – if it does not lead me there, I surely have no such use for it.