Living Counter Cultural… Again!

In the 1960s my ideas were shaped and defined by the music and I embraced a new exciting counterculture emerging in our world. These new ideas gave me meaning, significance, power, peace and freedom, or so I thought…

I was born in 1952 on a farm in NZ but grew up counter cultural. As a young teenager I was already rebellious, standing against authority, the status quo and joining the voice to be different.

These new ideas said if it feels good, just do it. Break the rules as rules are made to be broken, “whatever turns you on”.

Blindly I accepted these new truths which were actually lies and deception and were the foundations of the chaotic culture we live in now.

The New Age?

During the  1960s we ushered in the Age of Aquarius, the New Age which was the beginning of the chaos of socialism, globalization, one world government etc we now have.  This has always been a evil, orchestrated plan which has marched through our culture, our families, our schools, our universities, our media, our governments, our arts in fact every mountain of influence in our society today

Now, what started as a counter culture movement back in the 1950 -70s is threatening to become our “mainstream culture”.

Dictionary Definition of Counter Culture

“a way of life and a set of ideas that are completely different from those accepted by most of society, or the group of people who live this way”. – dictionary.cambridge

It is time to speak now. It is time to act now.

It is time to speak now, to stand strong with a completely different set of ideas, accepted by the cultures of most of our society.

We must be a part of the new counter culture. The counter culture that speaks truth according to Kingdom Culture.

Kingdom Culture.

My blog will now refocus and talk about “learning how to live counter culturally”. A completely different culture from what is accepted by most of society.  I lived counter culturally in the 60s and 70s as a hippy girl, deceived and naïve but… I was so much younger then, I’m so much older now… and a little wiser! It’s time for Kingdom culture to challenge the status quo.

A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.^[1][2]

A countercultural movement expresses the ethos and aspirations of a specific population during a well-defined era.

When oppositional forces reach critical mass, countercultures can trigger dramatic cultural changes.  – wikipedia – Counterculture of the 1960s

(I don’t usually quote Wiki but thought this article was relevant for our discussion)

 Brief discussion: how what started as counter culture is now

“mainstream society” .

During this well defined era of the new millennium, ie 2000 -2020 we have seen oppositional forces reach a critical mass, resulting in dramatic cultural changes to our societies and cultures, throughout the entire world. We must express our own ethos and aspirations which are diametrically opposed to these new mainstream cultural mores. Time to speak NOW !

In the United States, the counterculture of the 1960s became identified with the rejection of conventional social norms of the 1950s. Counterculture youth rejected the cultural standards of their parents, especially with respect to racial segregation and initial widespread support for the Vietnam War,^[2][57] and, less directly, the Cold War—with many young people fearing that America’s nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union, coupled with its involvement in Vietnam, would lead to a nuclear holocaust.

In the United States, widespread tensions developed in the 1960s in American society that tended to flow along generational lines regarding the war in Vietnam, race relations, sexual mores, women’s rights, traditional modes of authority, and a materialist interpretation of the American Dream. White, middle class youth—who made up the bulk of the counterculture in western countries—had sufficient leisure time, thanks to widespread economic prosperity, to turn their attention to social issues.^[58] These social issues included support for civil rights, women’s rights, and gay rights movements, and a rejection of the Vietnam War. The counterculture also had access to a media which was eager to present their concerns to a wider public. Demonstrations for social justice created far-reaching changes affecting many aspects of society. Hippies became the largest countercultural group in the United States.^[15]

“The 60s were a leap in human consciousness. Mahatma Gandhi, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Che Guevara, Mother Teresa, they led a revolution of conscience. The Beatles, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix created revolution and evolution themes. The music was like Dalí, with many colors and revolutionary ways. The youth of today must go there to find themselves.”— Carlos Santana^[59]

Rejection of mainstream culture was best embodied in the new genres of psychedelic rock music, pop-art and new explorations in spirituality. Musicians who exemplified this era in the United Kingdom and United States included The Beatles, John Lennon,  Neil Young, Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Frank Zappa, The Rolling Stones, Velvet Underground, Janis Joplin, The Who, Joni Mitchell, The Kinks, Sly and the Family Stone^[60] and, in their early years, Chicago. New forms of musical presentation also played a key role in spreading the counterculture, with large outdoor rock festivals being the most noteworthy. The climactic live statement on this occurred from August 15–18, 1969, with the Woodstock Music Festival held in Bethel, New York—with 32 of rock‘s and psychedelic rock‘s most popular acts performing live outdoors during the sometimes rainy weekend to an audience of half a million people. (Michael Lang stated 400,000 attended, half of which did not have a ticket.)^[61] It is widely regarded as a pivotal moment in popular music history—with Rolling Stone calling it one of the 50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock and Roll.^[62] According to Bill Mankin, “It seems fitting… that one of the most enduring labels for the entire generation of that era was derived from a rock festival: the ‘Woodstock Generation’.”^{[63] – wikipedia – Counterculture of the 1960s}

We can start walking counter culture AGAIN together…..

Together we can be the oppositional forces who reach critical mass, and this counterculture can trigger dramatic cultural changes in our society today.

Let’s just do it, it feels really good and it does break all the politically correct rules!!!

Reference

^{– wikipedia –}

dictionary.cambridge