Punk is the way.

Though I know the answer already, my mind sometimes wanders and then wonders if the world is ever going to feel normal again. And the answer is always "nope." There's simply too much change happening all at once and there's no way we're coming out of this with a reset button. That's like making soup and then trying to deconstruct it back to ingredients. But this doesn't mean we're all fully cooked, unless we allow that to happen. Now is not the time to wait to see how things turn out before getting started. Otherwise we're only delaying our own future.

It's easy to wait and hope that someone will come or something will happen to clear the way. The convenience of that excuse is often too easy to grab. So, why not? Even easier is to place the blame for our current position onto others, even when that claim is not defensible under the smallest amount of scrutiny. Blame shifting.

Hoping and praying. Shifting the blame. These moves will not change our situation or status, and if used too long become part of our character. If they haven't already. It does not take long for the convenience of deferring action to turn into doctrine—a permanent blocker. Dreams smashed. Ideas killed. A door slammed on the future.

If you find yourself wishing there was cake at the pity party, then might I suggest taking a cue from punk rock.

Punk is grounded in refusal. It said no to the gatekeepers and the gospel of what's required or even normal. This is where we start. The first move isn't optimism, it's just deciding to stop hoping, blaming, hiding, or making excuses. Move, even if it's ugly. Especially if it's ugly! That's the signal we're doing the thing. Don't seek to make big moves. Don't learn karate, learn wax on, wax off. And then learn paint the fence or that sweet crane move.

In 1977 a British fanzine called Sideburns ran a hand-drawn diagram of three guitar chords with a caption underneath: "This is a chord. This is another. This is a third. Now form a band." That's the punk manifesto we all need right now. The point wasn't that incompetence was a virtue. The point is that the bar to start is always lower than we realize. Thanks, shitty societal indoctrination and corporate gatekeepers.

We don't need permission or a producer to move. We just need our version of three chords, a guitar, and the willingness to play them badly—like, really bad—in front of strangers. Then we build from there. Punk bands played in basements because clubs wouldn't book them. Labels ran out of bedrooms because the majors wouldn't sign them. Zines were born because the press wouldn't cover them. None of it scaled and none of it had to, just as it does not have to now.

The systems we keep hoping and waiting on, the employers and institutions and platforms and governments, are not going to save us. Not one finger will be lifted in support because they were never built to. Punk's answer in the '70s was to start building something parallel without permission. For most of us today that means stop wasting time, energy, and emotions inside the gigantic, vacant '80s malls all social networks have become.

The only reliable way through all of today's bullshit is punk. Move, make shit, and put it out there. Pick up your "three chords" and bang out a song. Ditch the network and find a tribe. Create your own venues and distribute your own zines. We've got to rewire our brains. Yesterday isn't coming back, and we don't need it to.