What makes you think this hasn't already happened? Crust/gutter punks focus on living at the fringes of capitalism by means of squatting, dumpster diving, busking, shoplifting, trainhopping and hitchhiking. Even the visual paraphernalia used to identify one as a member of the culture are anti-consumerist by nature of being DIY and semi-permanent: tattoos and piercings can be done at home, and don't require any upkeep. "Punk" clothing is made from just about any clothing, sourced from anywhere, with designs sprayed or patched on, perhaps repaired or retailored. A lot of them even use made-up names, and throw away their old ID. Pretty much the only reliable way to identify street people like that is to fingerprint them.I have long posited that a future punk movement will revolve around off-the-grid identities. ATM, punk is dead.
Well, I wouldn't say these folk aren't punks, but I am speaking more in terms of a movement with undeniable cultural force. Ever since the "drop out and tune in" of the 60's, there have been people living like this. I've known plenty. When I speak of punk being dead, I am referring to a voice as well, one that breaks through with clarity. IMHO we are in some sort of doldrums coincident with a loss of sincerity. Shit, there's so little sincerity, there's even a counter-culture sincerity movement which IMO has failed miserably. It might not be a loss of sincerity, actually. It might be a hyper-context-awareness, that I am talking about. I think punk said: "Fuck you and fuck the reasons you do shit you stupid fuck." :) I should try to get these thoughts in order. EDIT: You know, on reflection, it might not be a lack of sincerity. It might just be that the time isn't ripe for it. The punk I am talking about wouldn't clash with much these days. Plenty of people are off the grid for a variety of reasons. Maybe they are laying groundwork.
Aye and for this reason punk isn't dead. The group of people I associate with the most at college are exactly this kind of crowd. The difference is that we don't go off the grid, quite the contrary. A lot of us have been moving up the ranks in some organizations at university and have, if anything, been challenging the administration and ourselves to change the way things work. It's not the most "punk" way to do things, in fact, I'm not really how that would be defined. But we tend to align ourselves more with the remnants of punk than other identities."Fuck you and fuck the reasons you do shit you stupid fuck." :)
I think the reason it hasn't become a "movement with undeniable cultural force" is that the tactic of excluding oneself from everything is necessarily disempowering. It has a lot of romantic appeal, and feels personally liberating, so a lot of people choose to live that way, but in the end social isolation makes it difficult to effect social change. Among anarchists there's criticism of what's known as "lifestyle anarchism" from social anarchists that essentially typifies this.