Mental Hardcore Health Newsletter #11 - Hardcore Techno as a community of rejects

[A personal account]

Today I want to talk about what Hardcore Techno means to me, from the bottom of my heart. Not just the music - the movement, the scene, everything.

Part 1 - The world we live in

So, let's begin. The thing is, in our oh-so civilized world, there is a certain impression that is spread around. Which is that we would live in a society that cares about the well-being of its members. That 'basic humans needs' are taken care of. Unlike that "bad, evil" world "outside the west", where people could die of starvation, or civil war rages, or they rot in prisons.

And this is just not true. Maybe it's true for the majority of people. Maybe it's true for some people. Maybe it's even true for no-one. But I know one thing. For a lot of people, in "well-civilized" Europe, Northern America, Australia, elsewhere, "life" is a daily fight for survival. They don't know if they are still alive next week. They don't know how to get by. They stared into the abyss all their life. And no-one takes care of them. No-one even cares. And that's how society is. That's the world we live in.

And, most harrowingly, this is highly effecting children and childhood in general.
Kids might be subjected to bullying in schools; and i don't mean taunting or name-calling, I mean being confronted with bullies that have knifes, guns, or other weapons and that might snuff them out within a few seconds. having to face them each day at school, and not knowing if they are still alive in the evening.
Or they have physically abusive parents, drug, alcohol addicts, a father (or mother) that might bludgeon them to death in an angry fit one day.
They might have teachers that harm them. They might be in institutions and facilities that are a danger to them. They might be homeless.

There are countless other examples of very bad situations that you can find yourself in when you are young.
And in these cases, *no one* will come to help you or rescue you. Society does not care. You are on your own - and you are left for dead.

Yes, maybe, someone somewhere got helped by "understanding adults", just like in these cheesy silly movies.
But the reality in most cases is that society spits on you and hopes that you die and fade away quickly.

Part 2 - The underground family

And this is where Hardcore Techno came in; not just Hardcore Techno, of course.
These "dead end kids" eventually formed youth cultures; rock'n'roll in the 50s, rock in the 60s, rap, punk, metal, mods, northern soul... and then Hardcore and Gabber, too. These youth sub-cultures led to communities of rejects. If no one else cares.... at least *we* do care about our own kind, right?

One of the most marvelous things about being in the HC scene was meeting other people who went through the same shit - or even worse stuff - as me, connected by the common interest in this very unique form of music, and then trying to help and support each other.
Even simply knowing that you are not the only one who was treated like a stain of excrement by everyone else in life can already be a quite helpful event.

That's the spirit of Hardcore for me, and the feelings and experiences of violence, trauma, rage, hatred, rejection, can be heard in the vocals and lyrics of the original Gabber tracks and the sentiments of their sounds.

Part 3 - Hope for the future

i hope that the new generation that enters the hardcore movement in the future will gain the same beneficial reactions - and that all of us will still be bound by a sense of unity.

and maybe, maybe, some time in the future, even the people of the "civilized western world" will start to care for other humans, too, instead of putting innocent lives in danger.

For other editions of the Mental Hardcore Health Newsletter, check here:
https://thehardcoreoverdogs.blogspot.com/p/the-mental-hardcore-health-newsletter.html