America is a great country. On all the metrics we’ve got, it’s the best country that has ever existed. But saying so is boring. It’s what your dad believes. “Good things are bad” is a more interesting sentiment: Capitalism, which lifted 2 billion people out of subsistence poverty and is the greatest engine for human flourishing since we captured fire, is very bad. Wealth is corrupting. Western medicine is racist. The idea of learning is also racist. Going to space will be very, very expensive.

At Arena, we understand that young people want to be cool. And the absolute worst way to be cool is to be boring. So, Arena 002: America Punk gives good things the aesthetic treatment they deserve, the kind of thought and care that usually only goes into defending bad things.

In this issue, we are celebrating the people who do hard things just to do them, the people who “think different,” and the people who stand in front of the status quo and say “stop.” We’re celebrating the people who make America punk.