Happy Monday everyone! As always, thanks to Stephen Hall for today’s article. Hope everyone has a great day and a fabulous week!
The true detriment of a divided culture, more specifically the emergence of counter-cultures within a multi-cultural agenda, is the undermining of traditional values and societal norms.
For those without a sociology background, a little terminology may be in order so that the terms needed for this post do not get lost. Following the advice of John Locke, it is best that we agree upon the meaning of the words we are using so that we do not misunderstand the meaning which we are attempting to convey.
This is distinguished from a subculture which while generally agreeing with the values and beliefs of the general culture will have practices, behaviors, and priorities which differ from the general group but are common within the smaller subgroup.
And this is opposed by a counter-culture which is a subculture with values and beliefs which are diametrically opposed to the dominant or general culture along with practices and behaviors which are designed to separate and distinguish the counter-culture members from the general populace.
Recognizable subcultures include southerners, yankees, appalachian, mid-westerners, among others; some sociologists have broken America up into as many as twenty different regional subcultures. Of course, it is easy to forget that cultures are often associated with periods of time as well as geography, generally identified in terms of eras or generations.
Easily identified counter-cultures include hippies, bikers, feminists, and what one might label an urban street or rap culture. Progressives, by whatever name they choose at any given moment, are also a type of counter-culture and identify themselves through their opposition to the traditional American culture.
In America today, the left is no longer merely an amalgamation of single issue voters into a catch-all opposition party, but those single issue groups have evolved, or devolved, into distinct counter-cultural groups mutually dependent upon one another for their political sustenance.
When talking to several young people subscribing to that urban street counter-culture, and trying to persuade them that their behavior and mode of speech and dress needed to be more aspirational if they are wanting to succeed in business, they are dismissive in countering such a discussion with, “It depends on what you are aspiring to.”
Naturally, to understand another person’s perspective you have to understand their cultural frame of reference and the values their particular subculture adhere. To understand a groups values is to understand its currency, its measure of wealth and success.
It is not financial success or wealth which many counter-cultural groups value, which can make trying to communicate with them very frustrating. It can be frustrating to try to communicate with any other group which has a different concept of wealth, different values, and different goals.
If a person’s measure of worth is in their street reputation, then their behaviors are designed around that currency which increases their wealth in accumulated reputation. Most people look as sagging pants, tank top shirts, baggy clothes, and the awkward clumsy gate that accompanies it as a measure of stupidity and ignorance; however, to them it is a signal of their street wealth.
It is a core value of such counter-cultures to reject the trappings of the general culture, and to wear proper fitting clothing of a style more generally acceptable is a rejection of the countrer-culture. It is worse than some normal person who was never “street” because it represents a rejection, a betrayal of the group, a cultural apostasy.
Intellectually, academically, and even verbally, such counter-cultural groups have become increasingly separatist from the dominant culture. A young man or woman who tries to succeed in school in the black urban culture, is “acting white”. We are seeing articles of people actually accusing science and reason itself as tools of “white supremacy” in open rebellion against the traditional American culture.
Speech patterns where a person enunciates properly, employs the proper syntax and definitions, are dismissed as acting elitist. Young people openly laugh at people for knowing the meanings of words, or being able to do math, or being competent with technology.
But it is not this single counter-culture, or any single counter-culture which threatens the traditional American culture; it is the alliance of counter-cultures including feminists trying to displace men and traditional women; anti-capitalist environmentalists, socialists, and entitlement groups; several different anti-white groups not merely the black urban street, but Hispanic groups, and middle-eastern immigrants; anti-Christian groups of Atheists, Muslims, and even Satanists; and let us not forget the ever present perversion groups of the multi-random letter varieties.
Not everyone in such identifiable predominantly counter-cultural groups are uniformly counter-cultural in their outlook, but it is the collective counter-cultural nature of such groups which concerns us.
In times past, such groups were not actually counter-cultural but were more subcultural in nature. When you ask what has changed, and it has changed very dramatically over the last thirty or forty years, it is the transformation of these groups from the state of being subcultures to being counter-cultures.
There was a time when feminists wanted to be part of society, to join the workplace, to aspire to show they could compete in the parts of society traditionally dominated by men. Now they want not to join but to displace, to kick men out of their positions.
There was a time when poor black people wanted a job so they could raise their family, buy their own home, and take part in the American dream. Now many poor black youth aspire to baser desires of sex, drugs, and hedonism.
There was a time when immigrants wanted to be part of the American dream, to learn English and integrate into their new society. Lately, immigrants are wanting to import and impose their home culture on their new country, to import their laws, customs, and culture.
We could keep going down the list, but the story remains the same for every group, they have become convinced that the ideal is not to be part of society, a subculture of the American society, but to impose their values upon society, to overthrow the American culture. This is what turns them all into counter-cultures, opposed to the dominant culture which is the American culture, to be anti-American.
America is not alone, the same thing is happening in many nations across the world, in Europe especially, but also in South Africa. In many places in the middle-east they are purging minority cultures entirely.
Imagine a nation where they succeeded. It is not the blissful utopia they all envision it would be. We recognize that a Muslim population would not tolerate a subculture of homosexuality, but none of the other groups would tolerate one another for any length of time. Can you imaging the feminists demanding their rights from the highly misogynist urban street culture? Territorial disputes between the urban street, Hispanic gangs, and the no-go Muslim enclaves.
A society composed of nothing but counter-cultures would become quickly a chaos of violence, poverty, and mayhem. Let us hope that these people never learn the adage “be careful what you wish for” the hard way.
