Do You Consider Yourself A Counter-Culturist?

I have hippie sympathies but don't subscribe to the whole deal because my life is pretty sharp and I have a degree of directed hate and anger.Anarchy appeals as a kind if lifestyle option and sub-cultural group with which to identify but I am unconvinced as to how it could work in practice.Taking drugs,dropping out and entertaining outlandish beliefs are a big fuck you to the system but what effect are we actually having to change the system.They have the status quo strongly under control,through law enforcement agencies,cyber control,ideological state apparatus and a mass media agenda whose interest is mostly aimed at supressing large scale dissent.

Groups like Anonymous and WikiLeaks seem to be an effect of positive dissent,but I don't see them having the large scale impact we need to effect.

Do we want to just try and live slightly under the radar,enjoying are at times illegal pleasures,engaging with the system as we must to survive,comprising our freedom and just enjoying the fugue states of our limited freedoms in some strange fugue state of the mind,or are we prepared to unite as peoples of all colours and strengthen our resolve through forthright communications that pointedly try to crash the agenda with all our conflicting truths in a way,perhaps using potentially dangerous situationist techniques of societal normality that the majority might find uncomfortable to accept.

The next point which really incenses me is the Police state's continual and increasingly strident Government backed repealing of our right to demonstrate and declaim en masse our right to occupy social space and shout out against this new social order which is being enacted against the common man/woman,stealing our money,imposing a quasi-fascist futurity which is in fact a dictatorship of instrumentalized hegemony of power that poses as democracy and freedom.

People however seem in general to rather tolerate a false consciousness system,for as long as the majority are given there basic commodities and freedom to engage in the hypnagogic entertainments that seek to pacify and supress the real joys of a possible revolution of everyday life where creativity flows as free expression of life,free of comparison,self-censorship and fear of realizing the ever more yet increasingly suppressed humanity we hold so tightly and fearfully inside.

Personally I am making a decision to be braver,more politically engaged and find a way to penetrate the seemingly locked structure and focal points of power.I am ready to demonstrate publically with others,and shout and engage in non-violent expression of my inability to tolerate this attack on what should be the wholly integrated sensorium of my mind,which as software is continually under duress that I will no longer tolerate.

 

Sorry for The textual mistakes but the edit function on my phone is fucked.

 

Yes!

 

I'm not entirely sure what counter-culturist exactly means.

 

Counter to current mass culture...usually referring to western consumerist culture/ unabated capitalism

 

Is that the same as a non conformist?....as i have never been a conformer....

 

It's probably about time to drop the cookie-cutter image of 'hippies' and perhaps the hippie term all together. The only real hippies left are older than me by a generation, approaching their late 60's and early 70's. The rest are 'neo-hippies' which can mean just about anything from a simple fashion statement to ethnogen abusing dough-heads. The latter of which tend to annoy me in general, but because I prefer to experience people as individuals, I apologize for generalizations, in general, lol

I don't necessarily consider myself a counter-culturalist...not everyday anyway, lol

 

Not exactly, but non-conformist's are a'ight too...doing your own thing!

 

For example I really want to voice my anger at the possibility of the US arming Kiev against the Russian separatists,as many hawks in Washington seem to want to do,as I think it would be a very dangerous and hot-headed move,but I see no demos advertised.Back in the 90's there were many more demos.Nato wants to appear relevant and certain factions in Washington want to see Russia further demeaned.I can't believe this isn't a bigger story.This could amount to a proxy war between US and Russia.This is really quite serious.

 

I love culture and to emerge myself in it so in that way it seems not fitting me. Even when I do dislike mass media culture in general I couldn't call myself a counter culturist. In some ways perhaps, in others not. So I guess nonconformist fits me better, as I do neither conform to mass media culture or counter-whatever.

 

With all due respect I call bullshit on the only the older generation bullshit. You forget that they had kids and grandkids that actually listened and paid attention to their parents and grandparents and continue to live with those values. From there the internet allows for more rapid desimination of information and keeps the whole thing going.

C/S,
Rev J

 

Why don't you just describe those values for us Rev? I mean, those particular values exclusive to "hippies" :beatnik:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_hippie

 

Bro. You are asking about a counter culture, but instead you are all going on about organized anti-war protests.

These are two different things.

Anyone can protest a war, and yet not be a part of a counter culture.


So I sez, "If ya want organized anti-war protests then get off of yer ass and start one." Get on-line about it. Start a webspace. Paint a protest sign. Go out and make it happen. Take to the streets.

The only real reason that there are no organized anti-war protests is because everybody now-a-days is just like you. NO DOERS. Everybody is sitting on their hands. You make it happen. That's how the world works. NOT I'm gonna sit around and wait for somebody else to do it and then they send me a note about it.



And Rev J is absolutely correct. There are still young and old real hippies who are around. It is a myth that everything magically ended right after Woodstock and right after the Altamont free concert. I can't believe that people are stupid enough to believe that line of Bull. That's like stating that after the Altamont free concert ended the half million people came home from the concert and killed themselves the next day. Why would anybody believe what the press myth is? "The end of hippie." The counter culture just kept rolling along. Totally alive today. Right here. Right now.

Climb on board.

 

My hippie Mum took me on CND marches (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) when I was a kid and we also had a lot of anarchist connections.I see it as all part of one big thing.

If someone tells me they're a hippie I just take it as read and accept them as that,no questions.

I just think the anti war movement should be a vital and active part of it all.Of course some people just have no time for getting involved and they are free to do that.Peace has to be taken and rightfully assumed.People matter and need to be heard.

 

not in the sense of the common idiom.

however, I am am different from most people I feel, the things most people think are cool I could not give two fucks about. I despise consumerism, and strive for knowledge. if you're not learning, your just surviving I think.

so I guess I'm somewhat counter to the status quo.

 

You can call yourself hippies if you want to but you're completely missed my point.

Counter-culture movements did not begin and will not end with "hippies"

Y'all too stuck on labels and exclusivity.

I will ask again, what are those hippie values the are so exclusively hippie?

 

The hippie values don't have to be exclusive to hippies I think. They're considered typical for hippies, but these values can be present in other subcultures or people too of course. Especially now that certain values that were typical 'hippie' have become pretty mainstream and accepted. Maybe some of those values were exclusive to hippies in the 60's but the times have changed. Which makes me think I agree with you about the hippie term could indeed be dropped. That's just me (for a long time) though, if others see more use in keeping it alive and kicking that's fine too.

 

I don't see anything inherently wrong with identifying yourself as hippie, but I do think it's a dis-service to ones self and others to believe they are all cut from the same mold. Pot smoking drop outs, etc...

I think it's funny that many so called hippies use the term 'hipster' derogatorily, when it actually pre-dates 'hippie' and meant basically the same thing, Folks that are 'hip'.

All these terms and phrases; cool, hip, groove, get down, lay back, dig it, etc, originated with Jazz musicians anyway. :beatnik:

 

I can only speak for myself.

My dad got out of the Navy in 75 the same year I was born and was a back to the lander. So I grew up on an organic farm knowing where my food came from. I was allowed to play with war toys and toy guns but was also taught how bullshit war was. I learned that it is important to help people and now I work helping disabled people lead productive lives. I have a lot of disdain for the way the game is played so I don't play it. No bank account, no credit card, very low cost of living, very low debt. I eat as healthy as I can afford and I try to eschew status symbols.

C/S,
Rev J

 

I'm sure there's some sort of culture growing on my counters....