h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well i disagree here. In many ways punks central force was nihilism, it was a call to arms to the angry yes, but also (and mainly) to the bored, the alieneated and the disaffected. The Hyperactivity of punk was there yes (so much pent up creativity and agression) but the extroverted lifestyle was something of a media invention and popular misconception. Punk was an 'outsider' movement, and movement of the estranged - and i don't think goth was that different, certainly in its early days.

It's interesting to note that Goth's roots as a movement come in the rejection of the depressive and nihilistic slump of the post-punk new wave period - and was initially dubbed "Positive Punk" (bands like Southern Death Cult / Sisters of Mercy / UK Decay. But largely i think Goth came about from a rejection of the comercialising of punk, the reducing of it to its lowest common denominator, and in abandoning was had become punks cliches it became something different - but more in the sence of the mirror image of punks pre commercial days.

The notable exception being the abandoning of Punks' political agenda by the following. Though the bands were all quite hardcorse leftists the goth groundtroops were apathetic, which is why they became such easy prey for the right wing elements which have taken over in the last ten years.