Enchanting Cats

Punk Cat is dead.

Punk Cat is not dead.

Depending on what box you put him in.

You’ve probably heard of Schrödinger’s Cat- a super fun thought experiment about locking a hypothetical cat in a box and poisoning it to death while you sit around wondering if the cat is dead yet or not. I’m not going to pretend that I completely understand all the science-y stuff that this experiment is meant to explore. As an ill-educated onlooker who likes to generalize things in ways that I find applicable to me, I interpret the experiment as a example of how something as objective as a cat being either alive or dead can be muddled up into a confusing mess when we can’t agree on how to properly define things.

Have you ever been trapped in an argument where you keep going around in circles, only to realize later that you were really talking about two different things the whole time? This is how I see punk cat can be definitely dead, and definitely not dead at the same time; because punk is a genre that can be narrowly placed musically and historically, but at its core is the universal idea of resistance and change. People seem to have really strong opinions about music, especially when it comes to being judgy about genres- what belongs in them and out of them and which genres are just better than others.  As if musicians, before they create, sit down and agree that they will conform to a certain set of genre standards and that only people who dress a certain way should be allowed to enjoy their songs. When really these labels are only supposed to be a signal to like-minded individuals that you may share their tastes and interests.

There seems to be a common argument that when you were young and very emotional and open to new experiences and ideas, music was definitely more authentic and just better than during any other point in history. And this argument is always true.

For the record, I think punk cat is alive and well. And he doesn’t particularly care for boxes, so don’t put him in one.