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See, I would argue

that Johnny Rotten actually has not changed much. He is as anti-authoritarian as ever.

What HAS changed is that now the Left are the stifling authoritarians, the entrenched power. But now the would-be “punkers” are all docile lapdogs eager for a bland and slick synthesized hit. We are without the punkers’ voices, both literally and figuratively.

And THAT was certainly not what punk rock was all about.

Johnny really hasn’t changed much–the article got that wrong. I listened to Johnny Rotten as a teen, and see little difference in him from then to now. The author got so wrapped up in the superficial and shallow that he missed the real story.

The song, he [Lydon] said, was “about a political situation and the demand for obedience to a monarchy I don’t believe in. But she’s a human being and I will sorely miss her as a human being on Planet Earth. It’s not her fault she was born into a gilded cage. Long may she live.”

But, as one who was into that scene in the early 80’s (in the U.S), I can tell you that a HUGE part of it was about revolt against stifling social norms. It was not a “puppy dog following the masses” sort of thing, which is the hallmark of mainstream Leftism today. In fact, if the masses were doing it, punkers certainly were NOT.

Real punkers would simply not be the meekly bleating Leftists of today. And Lydon shows us that.

I got a lot of mileage out of driving an old pickup truck, that my dad bought, with a gun rack to a high school football game while blaring out some punk anthem.

THAT is rebellion, son!

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