No quotes today folks. Just some thoughts on the old counter culture and what happened to it. In a nutshell, a lot of it was misunderstood, and much of it went mainstream. There were many parts to the counterculture, though, and to say that it all died or went mainstream would be incorrect.
When I think of counterculture, I think of the hippies. Not all hippies were the same though. There were anti-war rallies, acid heads, free love advocates and those who just reveled in the music and the lifestyle. Nowadays, my daughter is teasingly called a hippy, because she prefers natural cures for medical problems rather than pharmaceuticals. That really makes me laugh because it is so obvious that her friends really don't know much about hippies. In fact, the term hippy was usually used as a derogatory to label someone who traveled outside of usual societal norms. Overtime, many of those distinctions were embraced by the popular culture so that they were absorbed by it. Here are a few "hippy" ideas that are not part of the mainstream. Now, I am not saying whether any of these things are good or bad, just that they were at one time fringe hippy ideals (and keep in mind, not ideals for all hippies) that are now part of the popular culture.
To me, the loss of freedom is the one that bothers me most. It is unbelievable how many rules and regulations restricting our freedoms have been enacted just in the past decade alone. Parents have been charged with child neglect just for allowing their children to walk home from school! Others receive tickets if their child rides a bike without a helmet. Adults receive tickets in most states if they do not wear a seat belt. Thank God I live in New Hampshire, the one state in the nation that doesn't enforce that law. Now, don't try to justify it... "well it saves lives" it is still a taking of our freedoms. I wonder what the founding fathers would think of our current society? I think they would cry! They would cry about the sacrifices they made for our freedoms... not fighting in some made-up corporate war, but fighting their own government to free the people from oppression. Now, their prodigy embrace the loss of their freedom and actually cheer it on! Finally, hypocrisy has always been a part of the mainstream culture and it still is. Again below are areas where I see hypocrisy. I am not saying whether the underlying ideal is good or bad, just that the way it is being legislated is hypocritical.
In the end, I guess the counterculture was absorbed by the mainstream. There are still some bastions of counter left in the counter culture. It is just hidden away now. To me, we are all a little bit hippy now. Some more, others less. Just remember, "hippy" wasn't about the dress, or the music, the drugs or the war. It was a label that people used to point out what they were afraid of. Now, the hippies run the show, and things are no better. So be a hippy, it's chic now. As for the counter culture, some of it is mainstream now. Unfortunately, the parts that were interesting are not, and likely never will be. So take it from an old hippy wanna be: live in peace, Do unto others as you would want done to yourself, and make happiness, not discord. I'd use the old adage make love not war, but I am 50 and single and making love has been missing for about three years now, so make happiness not discord will have to do for now.
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