Old Anarchists & Punks: Aging in Youthful Subcultures & Countercultures

Both anarchism and punk have experienced impressive longevity, across multiple generations. What has been the impact of this aging? While anarchism's continuity since its mid-nineteenth-century origins is longer than punk's from the mid 1970s, considerable persistence marks both. Famous (and less-famous) anarchists spent entire lifetimes committed to their ideal (for example Emma Goldman, Peter Kropotkin, Errico Malatesta) as did many inspired by punk's early waves. Problematically for longevity, both punk and anarchism are associated, especially in the public mind, with youth in general and youthful rebellion in particular. This perception embodies numerous stereotyped tropes: passion, energy, and earnestness, but also naïvety, flaunting of tradition, foolishness, volatility, and impermanence. Presumably, both publicly 'act-out', performing dramatically to establish independence from parents and adults. Using interviews from two interview projects – with sociologists knowledgeable about anarchism and with long-term radical organizers (mostly anarchists) – this chapter explores the struggles with, and adaptations to, aging in punk and anarchist communities. Older bodies find it harder (but not impossible) to participate in the physical roughness of punk or the dangers of anarchist militancy. Ritualization results from stagnation wherein beliefs, practices, and priorities do not adapt or evolve, and instead participants 'go through the motions', uncritically. And, centrifugal social forces act upon these communities, pulling participants away from their former passions into more 'legitimate aging', especially with the requirements of family obligations and economic stability. Punk and anarchist communities have also found ways for the thoughtful and impactful participation of their aging comrades: they've supported youth through movement infrastructures, adopted different roles for participation, and struggled to modify the stereotypes of youthful rebellion to legitimize participation of all ages.