Posted by
Andrews on Monday, November 17, 2008 11:03:25 AM
A friend sent me a link to the
advertisement Johnny Rotten did for butter, and I have to say the comments are ten times funnier than the ad itself. All manner of aspiring punk types and other counter-cultural hangers on are debating whether he "sold out" or if he is clever in getting paid to promote butter.
And that is, in essence, the problem of the "counter culture". It has become trendy to be against the "mainstream". But when being against the mainstream
IS the mainstream, we run into problems.Because any successful "counter culture" will appeal tot he majority, it will inherently be successful, garner lots of money and attention, and instantly turn into the hated "mainstream". Unless a counter-cultural icon is willing to go the Kurt Cobain route and kill himself before anyone notices his mainstream success, charges of being a "sell out" or a "poser" are inevitable.
Of course, the whole "counter culture" cult is absurd on the face. Simply being opposed to the mainstream is meaningless. One can be opposed to the mainstream and still be worthless. The mainstream despises Hammond organ music and Morris dancing, but does that mean adoring those makes one cool? No, you are only cool if you are counter-cultural int he "right" way. Which is what makes the whole thing absurd. Counter-culture is as much a conformity as anything else.
All of which would be no big deal were the adoration of counter-culture limited to immature children, who had yet to figure out their "rebellion" was as much a fad as the mainstream kids' fixations. But this adoration of "counter culture" has, since the 1960's, become our cultural mainstream, and that simply shows how unimaginative and immature are those who set our cultural agenda. Being deceived into believing any "outsider" is preferable to anything stodgy and classic does not make one cutting edge, it means you have conformed to the new cultural dictates. You aren't a free thinker, you just accepted a different set of rules.
POSTSCRIPT
Please note, this all comes form an ex-punk rocker of the 80's. However, even then, I was well aware we were all conforming to yet another standard, so even as a stupid youth I wasn't under the illusion I was somehow being an "individual" by looking like all the other punk rockers. I was in it for the music, booze and girls, and I admitted as much to anyone who asked. Then again, perhaps honesty like that did make me an individual after all. (Wish I could go back and tell my teen self that, he would have found that realization quite funny.)
What amuses me is how easily people will be convinced that they can become an individual by getting a tattoo,
buying a Mac, or listening to the right music. And not only impressionable and usually foolish teens, but even nominal adults. It is rather sad that we have so venerated rebellion that even those in their sixties feel the need to "rebel". Though, if everyone is rebelling, precisely what is anyone rebelling
against?
I dealt with this topic in the past. Read the following for more details:
In Defense of Dan Quayle
Frightened For Our Future
The Adoration of Youth
I Blame the Romantics
Revisiting an Old Topic
Hopefully, sometime in my lifetime, adults will finally realize that futile rebellion really is best left to the youth, and adults should, for lack of a better term, grow up.
POSTSCRIPT II
Yes, I ended a sentence in a preposition, despite
my grammar nazi posts of the past. In this case, I claim the George Orwell exemption. In "Politics and the English Language" he ended with the admonition to break any of his rules rather than write anything barbarous. I think the need to emphasize the word "against" in the sentence in question allows me to end a sentence in a preposition, especially as the preposition clearly has an object ("what"), the object simply does not immeidately follow the preposition.
So, criticize if you must, even throw out the h-word (hypocrite), but I am well aware of the rule, I simply chose to ignore it. Most who violate rules of grammar don't even know those rules exist. And that worries me more than the occasional knowing violation.