Facilitating dialogue to promote open and multi-faceted discussion and awareness

Indie is mainstream. Many of you have heard me say it before and rolled your eyes, but, I really mean something much deeper than just that statement. What it actually says is that counter-cultural movements become mainstream and this is potentially perilous. This is just a common trend in macrosocial behavior. We can see these movements taking root and flourishing in contemporary 20somethings all across America – look at our present “indie/hipster” sub-culture, for example. We see this in religion. We see this in national identity and international economies. It’s all horribly complex. We see constant encouragement and repression of cultural influences (they transcend and are restricted by certain mainstream social boundaries) that are intrinsically tied to the purpose and desire behind these movements.

It’s easy to see how macrosocial trends such as mainstream “Western culture” influence the world in things like capitalistic democracy, Starbucks, and music. However, first, we need to figure out how this happens and to do this we need to zoom in on the “micro” – the individual motivators.

Identity, belonging, and change – these things are the desires and driving forces behind cultural developments.

The quest for personal identity and belonging is blatantly apparent during adolescence. One glance back along memory lane to our high school days reminds us of the “clic” system. We had our goths, our preps, jocks, skaters, and whatsoever bonding together under mutual identity in an effort to belong. Even the desire for change was present, though comparitively immature, in the teenage rebellion against parental authority. We see these drives become even more sophisticated as we fast-forward into the 20something age group.

The key behind all human social development is empathy. Cultures take shape as human beings empathize with others of similar identity. These new cultures tend to be different in various degrees from the prevailing mainstream culture. Some are even aggresively counter-cultural. This is no surprise.

The purpose for these counter-cultural movements is change – eating organic to benefit the enviornment; only drinking fair-trade sourced coffee, riding your bike to work – all things geared towards change. Hopefully, the new changes made in culture lead to progress. Inevitably there is a trend that these counter-cultures replace the mainstream culture only to become complacent and support the status quo rather than challenge it; though, differences are maintained in superficial levels. This kind of “progress” hasn’t changed anything. The big problems remain the same.

That’s not to say that things haven’t changed for the better. The poorest people in the developed world now live much longer, eat more, are better educated, and have greater social mobility than they did a century ago. This is some measure of progress, yet the problem of us becoming like our parents, so to speak, remains.

The point is that counter-culturalism should aim to affect real and lasting change – progressive positive change. We see this in the ministry of Jesus and in the goals of humanitarianism. For the first time in human history, we are, as a species, fairly educated, globally connected, resource rich, and tragically aware of our plight. There is no longer any such thing as woeful ignorance; only willful.

Here is what I’m driving at: we have the chance to call for the formation of a new culture of change; an empathetic counter-culture; a lasting progress; a culture greater than the tribe, the State, the faith.

We now have the chance to do something real. If we don’t become a globally empathetic world then I don’t see how we can make it. If you doubt it is possible, note Margaret Mead when she says, “Never doubt that a small group of dedicated citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that has.”

Sources

Rifkin, Jeremy. “The Empathic Civilisation.” Royal Society of the Arts. United Kingdom, London. Lecture.
“Empathy.” Wkipedia. Sources, et al.

I am just a layman and student. If I’m wrong on any given viewpoint feel free to correct me or join the discussion. I’m always willing to learn a new thing.