The Sex Pistols and Buddhism

Tonight we here at Blogagaard watched "The Filth and the Fury: A Sex Pistols Film" (released in 2000 I think). I like this documentary title for several reasons:

A) It is taken from an actual Sex Pistols British tabloid headline
B) It implies there is an entire sea of Sex Pistols fims, a veritable cornucopia of rage punk angst multimedia coverage. It may be one of many, many films that will cover ever facet of the Sex Pistols story.
C)It is a play on words, whether intentional or not, of The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner. Would Faulkner like the Pistols? I think so. Faulkner wrote like a harbringer of change, did he not? Someone should write a science fiction time travel story wherein "Sid vicious"travels back in time to party with Faulkner on his cotton plantation. Do it, Nerd Boy!

Okay, I'm getting distracted. My argument:

The Sex Pistols were unintentionally revolutionary in their despair. So was "Sid" Buddha. While the Pistols took stock of the political economic situation and found reason to be angered by the marginilization of the Britt middle and lower classes, Buddha took stock of man's plight in the universe, the eventuality of physical decay and the loss of everything and everyone you love, and found reason to reject his rich, materialist existence. Both the Pistols and Buddha rejected everything that came before them and proceeded to act, in a very real and visceral way, to reclaim the world as they believed the world should be. The Sex Pistols spit on people and swore a lot and, on at least one occasion, even used a bass guitar to bash a crazed fan's head. They tore up stuffy, 1976 British society like no one had before them, not even the wild and crazy Beetles (ha ha ha), and lo, they reaped the rewards. Meanwhile "Sid" Buddha, taking a calmer approach, actually rejected anger and went into the wild, where he sat under a tree for a long, long time, until he reached some mutherfuckin enlightenment. "Sid" Buddha rejected his own attachment to things, to the devils of Lust and Anger and the Rich Man's Gold. He became a simple man. A really, really simple man. Not much fun at parties. But a good man, just the same. Honest.

Maybe Johnny Rotten was a Zen Buddhist at heart. He really was the style, and brains, and whatever, behind the Pistols. Vicious was a just a bad bass player, a pretty boy who joined late and somehow stole the show. If this was GNR, he was like a successful, heroin OD'd Dizzy Reed to Rotten's Axel Rose. I know this sounds like heresy, but fuck you, watch the movie, and disagree then. Rotten was the insecure bastard who took his demons and turned them into the trappings of a cutting edge rock frontman. Rotten was rotten, and he made this anti-cool, anti-attractive, anti-Sting mentality so fucking cool. Rotten made getting hit with a shoe thrown by an angry crowd such a fantastic moment, a moment of Zen.

What the Pistols did in the short span of two productive years "Sid" Buddha would surely have approved of. How does one shed the Self? Throw the Self into a whirlwind. Tell the self, "Fuck you. I can do better than you. I can shed you, like a snake shedding its slimy, corporate ridden skin."

Only then does one began to work towards something new. Something that has been created, not reprocessed, and sold for 10% off.