I was talking to a devoted member of the congregation the other day and the question came up, where has the counter culture-in this time and space-gone?
The generality is that it firmly resides in the hands of the youth, the poor, the artists, activists, the dis-enfranchised, and the folks who yearn for power, but don’t have it yet.
They are the ones that foment revolution, they are the ones who define the bleeding edge of what we think is art and modern day thought. They are the ones that push the black market into profit.
But it’s not so, in today’s American world. The instantaneous co-opting of ideas by the media does not allow the counter culture to flourish. Before there is even a whisper of a movement, there is some product being sold to the public, using those self same concepts and ideologies. The inherent nature of the new media means that all things are in the public domain and because of that, belong to the public. It sadly makes it mainstream.
The youth ARE the culture. All popular music’s are designed for them; all clothes are produced for them to buy, games, phones, computers, tablets and toys marketed directly to them. (This is not any different from the past few generations) but the kicker is that, the predominant monies earned now, are from the new tech generation. The i-poders, the googlers, the twits, and the assbooks. These are the folks who determine what our modern culture tastes like, because they are the ones who produce these products and then market them back to themselves in one large hipster corporate cluster-fuck that runs around masquerading as a pseudo revolutionary movement. And they have no desire to go backwards. They like being taste makers. They like being rich. They like all of the perks that being mainstream gives them.
They like playing Vegas!
So I ask again, where is the counter culture?
We found it, but it was hiding!
Hiding amidst the most unbelievable group you could imagine. They do not generally stick out in the crowd. They do not look different from each other. They are not trying to do anything but survive an existence that has become harder and harder to achieve.
The middle aged-middle class.
That’s right. These are the new disenfranchised, the new powerless, the new jobless group that has taken over the mantle of the counter culture. They work under the table and outside the box because they have been replaced with younger better versions of themselves. They are not hooked up 24/7 media stream know as culture.
Che Guevera now looks like your 3rd grade school teacher. (Maybe that’s too close to the truth..)
But these are the folks that have nowhere to go to but the edge, because they have no choice. The companies that are hiring, don’t want what they have to offer and when they do, they don’t want to pay what they’re worth. These are the folks who occupy the unemployment lines, who occupy the town squares, who occupy the trenches.
They live below the media grid, a zit on mass cultures ass, with not enough “likes” to make a difference.
We are the counter culture and it’s time for revolution.
Selah
The rev
The Reverend LordRifa 