sell out1. To put all of one's goods or possessions up for sale.2. Slang To betray one's cause or colleagues: He sold out to the other side.
From the online dictionary
Anybody who is vaguely familiar with punk slang will know of the term "sell-out". Heck, even if you're not familiar with the punk scene, you oughta know of the term, as it's spilled over onto the mainstream language scene.
Anyways, it's a term that's been banded around a lot within the past decade, especially with the 'more hardcore than thou' punks. But is it actually possible to "sell out" without breaching your punk ethics?
Now, I don't really consider myself to be a very devoted punk. While I agree with the majority of the viewpoints and ethics (and I listen to the music, too), I don't really do much in the way of activism, except blogging. And for me, I don't really consider blogging to be very effective compared to marches and other forms of activism. Then again, I don't really hang about the activist sort of people.
Anyhow, just how does someone sell out? Well, it could be that they give up their ethics or ideologies for money *cough* GREEN DAY *cough* or that they simply abandoned their ideologies for a varying number of trivial reasons.
But is it possible to sell out without breaching your ethics?
Bring your ethics with you. Say if you were employed by Levis who have a terrible sweatshop reputation; get a job in human resources and try to improve worker conditions. It's that simple.
Till next time,
James
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