Nazi Iconography in Non-Skinhead Punk Rock

One of the most troubling aspects of punk rock was its preoccupation with Nazi symbolism and iconography. The trouble stems from the fact that most people, even back in the 1970s, confused irony with coincidence or something else entirely. (I recently read someone describe the birth of that child on 8-8-08 at 8:08 who weighed 8 pounds and 8 ounces as "ironic." Unbelievable. Of course, that utterly incoherent and incomprehensible use of irony pales in comparison to the time I actually heard someone on National Public Radio suggest that it was ironic that a little girl who wanted to grow up to become a dancer actually did grow up to become a dancer. Huh?) There are some people who resisted and denounced punk rock, and I'm not talking about the skinhead faction of punk rockers who are all worthless pieces of Nazi slime, because of the Nazi imagery in such songs as the Sex Pistol' "Holidays in the Sun" or the name chosen by Joy Division, or the plethora of swastikas on album covers and on the outfits of punk rockers.

What these people are missing is that the adoption of Nazi symbols and icons was intended to fulfill the real meaning of irony. Forget everything you think you know about irony, beginning with Alanis Morrisette's song. Here's the deal: rain on your wedding day is certainly a major league bummer (and I ought to know) but it is in no way ironic. On the other hand, standing up on stage and screaming out that you are anarchy while your buddy on the bass wears a swastika on his T-shirt is the very essence of irony. Because, you see, there is nothing more ironic that the suggestion that you can be both in favor of an anarchic breakdown in authority and in favor of fascist repression. Punk rock, except for the skinhead variety I must state once again, was an expression of outrage against authority of all kinds and there is simply no authority more oppressive than fascism.

Which leads us to the second level of irony involved in this situation. When Johnny Rotten sang about taking a holiday in the sun to a concentration camp in Germany he wasn't really addressing the issue of German Nazi fascism from which he was separated by a generation and thirty years. The adoption of Nazi iconography by British punk rockers was not just to appear ironic by wearing it and sporting it on their music, but also to make the point that England had moved more and more to a fascistic state of mind. The great irony here is that post-war England had become the poster boy for the socialist welfare state. And yet despite socialized health care and other adoptions of a liberal state, the government had increasingly been moving toward the Right even before old blue rinse herself, Margaret Thatcher, came into power and set to doing to England what George W. Bush has done to America. The fascism against which the punk rockers who fully understood irony far better than the vast majority of Americans do now, was, ironically, nothing compared to the fascism that came into being after punk rock had essentially been sweetened into the corporate controlled and tamed down New Wave.

Another bit of irony is that as America has moved further and further toward adopting that very same fascist authority, American music has not only failed to produce a punk movement in response, it has actually joined forces to become one of the foremost propagators of fascist ideology. The ultimate irony as far as America is concerned is that rap music, allegedly the most uncontrollable and outlaw of all musical forms, is the single most conservative proponent of the pluto-fascist socio-political movement that has been driving America for the past seven years. All that bling and all those big luxury SUVs and all that fascination with the things money can buy...rap music stars are no different from the big business executives that run the Republican Party and, by extension, run America.

Where are you when we need you, Johnny Rotten?