ABSTRACT
A style is part of an extensive system of signs, symbols, and references for social orientation: it is expression, instrument, and result of social orientation. A style must be represented—an attitude lived, at least ideally. In other words, representatives of an attitude that expresses itself in stylization must stage the style in such a way that the style refers to more than itself, that it refers to a background which legitimizes the style itself. Punk style is the consciously arranged and, regarding the aesthetic pleasure involved, playful reversal of that conditio humana that Helmuth Plessner called natural artificiality. Style as specific presentation marks and manifests the individual's belonging not only to a group or community, but also to a specific demeanor and form of life which these groups or communities feel compelled to maintain. In contradistinction to everyday typification, every style has, in addition, an aesthetic component—an aestheticizing superelevation of the everyday.
