Punk Rock, Thoreau, and Learning

My favorite Punk band of all time is Bad Religion. They are always blunt and forward with their social and political critiques and always attempt to provoke their listeners in an intelligent fashion. In their song, "21st Century Digital Boy," their lead singer, Greg Graffin, sings, "I'm a 21st century digital boy/ I don't know how to read but I've got a lot of toys." The underlying sentiment of these lines mirrors precisely what Thoreau gets across when he states the following: "As with our colleges, so with a hundred 'modern improvements,' there is an illusion about them... Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention away from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end." Thoreau is again commenting on misplaced priorities in society. Engagement with the natural world and all it has to offer for our self betterment become more and more distant in a society which is becoming increasingly concerned with materialism and artificial advancements. His comment about colleges touches upon how education started to become more and more standardized, as with most things in a capitalist society, leading to personalized approaches to happiness becoming more distant. He is aware of the fact that society offers too many petty distractions from our quests of self improvement; the Bad Religion song reflects this awareness as well. Today's climate exacerbates these social ailments when we have flashing billboards encouraging useless consumption; countless influences glittered with gaudy lights beg us mercilessly for our attention so we will fail to look inward, instead, at the emptiness which will one day present itself to us.