Whereas the Punk culture is a free and libertine lifestyle it is very often associated with violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and rightfully so. The issue with anarchism social attitude is the tendency to elevate the behavior to extremes states of mind liberation that often deteriorate ones capacity to properly function.
Of course the problem can be tackled in many different manners, but in a very determined way one man has developed for himself a set of principles that are well structured for the matter, hence the wide popularity of such living style. Ian MacKaye, Minor Threat front man, created what is now called the Straight Edge movement. It started with just s song where MacKaye described his personal view of the life he saw, but eventually it became more than just a mere song and grew to be one of the largest underground movements from Washington DC to the rest of the world.
In an attempt to bring to the ground the violence attitudes related to drug abuse, he has established to himself a free intoxication life where all drugs, such as alcohol marijuana or even tobacco, are banned in the sake of personal evolution. In a pursuit for intoxication free lifestyle, Straight Edge challenges people to take a wide look at the real threats in life and become aware that what is silently can be harmful.
Just recently a book has been published describing the social, cultural and musical interaction of the Straight Edge movement (or sXe). It is called Sober Living For The Revolution: Hardocre Punk, Straight Edge and Radical Politics. In a well arranged book, Gabriel Kuhn, an American anarchist activist, has presented the wide spread of such a lifestyle into all kinds of different people, from homosexuals to women and from colored people to religious ones, all engaged in a challenge for political conscious with sXe principles.
Even though it is not strictly related to Ska culture, the straight edge movement being such a liberated and yet conscious movement, it is worth mentioning.
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