“Punk is the remedy for my sickness,” states Dolly Zilhan during the documentary The Punks Are Alright. Dolly works in a factory in Indonesia producing wires for a meager salary of only a couple of dollars an hour. His wires then are used to produce electronics and other items sold at incredibly higher prices than that which Dolly actually receives. Here in America, we are blinded by living on the good end of capitalism. People living overseas, in places like Indonesia where large corporations often find cheap labor, truly feel the brunt of capitalism. There are no labor laws, therefore the people are not treated fairly, leading to their feeling of inability to escape economically-strained lives. However, Dolly found a release through a punk album that reached him from Brazil, which in turn was inspired by a punk band in Canada. Punk provides an emotional escape for the Indonesians as well as other oppressed people. Punk is an ideology that cannot be strictly defined in terms of a genre of music, but rather must be seen as a lifestyle for those who wish to rebel against capitalism and fundamentalism.

     Dolly Zilhan and Henrike Baliv both feel the frustration of living in inescapable poverty and both find a fleeting sense of empowerment through punk. Henrike Baliv lives in Brazil where, similar to Dolly and other Indonesians, the natives face extreme economic hardship. The economic struggle for people in these areas often stems from capitalism: people from the first world taking advantage of the needs of the people from the third world in order to satisfy their own wants. Henrike used to teach in a school in Sao Paulo, where the kids and the parents both were welcome to come and learn in order to make their lives better. Henrike taught kids from troubled households with pasts haunted by drugs and rape. Henrike used punk music to save those kids. If the kids were playing music, then they were not on the streets. Participating in punk music kept them alive by giving them something else to do with their lives besides trafficking drugs. Henrike discovered punk music secondhand from a Canadian band known as the Forgotten Rebels, forming his own band known as the Blind Pigs. The cycle then repeated itself when Dolly discovered the Blind Pigs’s music, writing to Henrike and receiving a copy of their album through the mail. Punk united these people through the outlet it provided to fully express their angst and frustration of living oppressed lives.

     Not only do these people live economically-stressed lives, they also face the struggle of living in limbo between the Western and fundamentalist worlds. Both Brazil and Indonesia are extremely religious countries: one being largely Catholic and the other being largely Muslim. They live in fear every day, unsure of what violent occurrence might take place next, unsure if a bomb might explode over their house. They are unable to participate in the ideals of Western culture for fear of what may come if they stray away from fundamentalist beliefs. They hold on to their religion because it is all that they have left, but at the same time it seems to be what creates the most conflict in their societies. It is interesting to see how two communities, whose religious beliefs make them seem vastly different, are united by punk and the collective anger it expresses.

     Another thing I found so interesting is how such an in-your-face kind of lifestyle and genre of music has such an open and welcoming following. These three different punk bands represented in the movie all felt connected to each other from miles away. They all found comfort and understanding through the punk bonds they shared. They tried to do things to repay the others for helping them discover this emotional outlet. And when we discussed mosh pit at a punk concert, it was fascinating to hear that every person looks out for each other. Punks are not interested in bringing people down. They are interested in mutual acceptance, mutual understanding, and the meeting of mutual need. As confrontational as punk may seem, it is just as good at bringing up other people in similar situations.

     This documentary gave me a completely new perspective on punk music and the lifestyle in general. I have never really been a fan of punk music; I do not enjoy the screaming of lyrics, the chaotic and violent sounds of the music. But after watching this movie and discussing this topic in class, I see how punk music really serves a purpose to those who feel powerless and feel without control over their own lives. I have never experienced anything like the people in Brazil or Indonesia, and I may never experience anything like that for the rest of my life. Living in America, I have religious freedom, I have political freedom, and I have the ability to make my life better if I choose to work hard. But no matter how hard the people of these third world countries work, no matter how closely they abide by the laws and guidelines of their nations and societies, they still live in fear and they still live in oppression. I have been through tough situations in my life, but what these people go through, day in and day out, completely surpasses any hardship I could ever face. And on top of that, I support this system that suppresses them every time I spend a dollar on some mass-produced good. The reason I am able to get such a good price on something is essentially due to the fact that people like Dolly are getting paid less and less. But then that brings the question to mind that if I did not spend my money on these items, how would they earn a salary at all? Capitalism is a difficult situation for me to understand, and one that would take an immensely large amount of time, cooperation, and patience from all around the world to fix. And right now, progress and collective, global action in favor of the third world seems to be nonexistent. But after discussing punk, I have a new appreciation and admiration for the music and the lifestyle in light of how it empowers the people lowest on Earth’s totem pole.