Do Something Countercultural
Or just pursue a dumb idea that makes you smile
The death of the counterculture idea has been bouncing around the (sorry) culture lately. I doubt it was Cory Doctorow who first articulated it but it's present here.
Myspace's ugliness was an anti-cooption force-field, because corporate designers and art-directors would, by and large, rather break their fingers and gouge out their eyes than produce pages that looked like that.
He starts by talking about Myspace and ends by talking about AI, but his point holds across every medium: the counterculture is the weird shit on the edges that usually looks and sounds terrible, that's made by passionate & (often) untrained people. When it has time to stay on the edges, to ferment, to grow guided only by its own interests and not by the hopes of going viral, that's when it becomes a rich vein of personal, honest expression.
Communities – especially countercultural ones – are where our society's creative ferment starts.
Counter culture, here called "pop culture", factors into the (now very old in internet years) Patton Oswald essay on how hard it was to be a geek in the 80s.
I want to say up-front that I'm not super into Oswald's tone. It's pretty whiny, a bit too "we walked both ways to school - IN THE SNOW", and too resentful of having lost something that made him feel special. Is it MAGA for nerds? That's taking it too far, but it's not the wrong direction.
The part of his argument that I'm focussing on is that what was once counterculture (nerd culture) is now pop culture. It’s noticing that a counterculture changes when it becomes a mainstream culture, and these changes are driven by a different audience than the one responsible for the subculture’s growth.
Ted Gioia, who I'm a big fan of but is definitely sounding very "doomer" lately, recently published a newsletter with 14 signs we may be living in a society without a counterculture.
Following aren’t the 14 signs, but a list of indicators that one might be living in a culture without a counterculture:
A sense of sameness pervades the creative world
The dominant themes feel static and repetitive, not dynamic and impactful
Imitation of the conventional is rewarded
Movies, music, and other creative pursuits are increasingly evaluated on financial and corporate metrics, with all other considerations having little influence
Alternative voices exist—in fact, they are everywhere—but are rarely heard, and their cultural impact is negligible
Every year the same stories are retold, and this sameness is considered a plus
Creative work is increasingly embedded in genres that feel rigid, not flexible
Even avant-garde work often feels like a rehash of 50-60 years ago
Etc. etc. etc.
On first blush I’m persuaded but…
These gloom and doom articles about the death of the counterculture were all written by white men over 40, which also describes me. At this point it might be good to ask, would any of us know if the counterculture was happening? Where we'd even look?
The thing is, we've all grown up knowing about past countercultures. In high school and collage I was super into the Beats and the NYC expressionist art scene. I loved punk rock. I was late to all of these movements. I knew about them as things that had already happened, stories of outsiders doing what they loved and changing culture because they had no other choice. Their not being mainstream was a core part of their story and their appeal.
I was too late to experience these movements in their moments, but in the same way that Patton Oswald describes finding D&D, I was able to discover them largely on my own.1 I read what felt like obscure books and listened records & cassettes that were harder to find than the top-40 records that were everywhere. Unfortunately I never bought any undiscovered Jackson Pollocks at a yard sale, but I did relish enjoying art that many people found terrible. Maybe these weren't my countercultures, but I did get to dive into them simply because they spoke to me, and in doing so I felt like I was zigging where so much of culture was zagging.
I knew where to find things that could reasonably be called countercultural. But now? Now where do I even look?
That's the rub.
Counterculture is probably happening around the corner from me. But I'm not there and actively seeking it out. I'm out of touch. I’m out of touch for all the reasons that many “grown-ups” are and maybe that's what's changed. Maybe it's not that there's no longer a counter culture, but that I’m no longer "in the know".
Case in point, this part of Kyle's recent newsletter:
"It is these little videos, this growing catalog of catalogs by no-name people, who are just like you and me in that they are born to create but forced to work, to consume, to dream of the electric sheep that they will only ever catch glimpses of on their small televisions. These edits — so weighed with the banality and commonality of these times — grow flowers from nothing, creating _beauty_ and _emotion_ in juxtaposition: curation, the edit, becomes actor, director, an entire universe."
I love Kyle’s newsletter, because 80% of the time I have no idea what he’s writing about, meaning I get to learn something every issue.
I also think about this article Sean wrote. When there are countercultures behind the cryptobros, where else are there countercultures that we’re ignoring, mocking, or simply just not noticing?
I don’t have a great wrap-up to this thought, other than that it might be a better use of my time to look more curiously at what’s happening around me. Maybe there’s something there.
The other thing I wanted to share are these three record albums I recently discovered.
Astronauts & Caravan Drivers, Planetariums of my Youth, and Stars Washed up inside small shoes.
Seminal records. Cult classics. Not many listened to them. Even fewer bought them. But those that did went on to start their own bands that, mostly, no one remembers. Even so, their influence can be felt today, decades after their release.
At least that's how I'd like to think about them. A different origin story for them might go like this: I've been drawing on the iPad a lot lately, playing around with a new set of Fresco brushes. I've also ditched Instagram for Are.na and finding things that remind of Them Thangs, the best image blog ever.
http://www.them-thangs.com/
I'm excited to take this idea and run with it for bit, coming up with more information about these largely forgotten bands and records, and sharing them with the world.
Not counterculture, but a dumb idea that makes me smile. I'm considering that nearly as valuable.
What countercultural thing is happening that I should know about? Drop it in the comments :)
Long-time D&D player and DM here :) The game is a big part of both my past and present.