Just to clarify...

Apologies if remarks made in the post "I can haz stimulating ecumenical debate?" offended people. I did not mean to imply a stereotype, I know that not all jews circumcise their kids, that not all christians bomb abortion clinics and not all muslims blow up buildings.

They were used in a humorous fashion. I'm not anti semetic or anti muslim.

So there.

Holier-Than-Thou: When "Selling Out" is more important than ethics

sell out

1. 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