DMB Digest: I'm not counter that culture.
aka "Counter this, culture."
How about another entry in my unofficial efforts to champion the cause of lingual abuse? Well, not that I’m a champion of abusing words… Hmmm. That did’t come out right. I suppose I mean championing the fight against lingual abuse. Championing the cause of clear communication? The cause of being a modern day vocabulary super hero? Sure, let’s stick with that last one.
This week I’ve been confronted with the expression “countercultural.” Ho-boy. I gotta admit, I’m still a little shaken up by the encounter. Who among us doesn’t love being a little countercultural, right? I mean, have you met anyone these days who openly endorses “culture?” When was the last time you said something like, “Oh yeah, I totally love our culture. I think it’s hardy and healthy and headed in the right direction,” or “Hooray culture! Yippee!”
Ridiculous, right? No matter what end of the spectrum you are on, culture sucks. Culture is the problem. Culture these days, it’s like death eating a cracker. It’s as fishy as an extended warranty on consumer electronics. On one thing, we can all agree; Culture is going to hell in a hand basket. So why wouldn’t we be “countercultural?” Who wants to be pro-culture when that means whole-heartedly endorsing everything from sexual and gender oppression to predating on the poor and killing babies?
Culture is nothing less than a malevolent, life-draining entity out to kill us all! Or at least, that’s what I’ve been told. Now that I think about it, that doesn’t seem quite right. Hmmm. And there lies the crux of the matter. What exactly is culture? And why has everyone been telling us for so long we should be mightily weary of it? To answer the second question first, it seems culture has fallen victim (like so many things these days) to partisan B.S.
As we all know by now, vote panderers (under the guise of politicians) rely on engendering passion among their partisan supporters (the base) to win elections. The typical strategy for doing so involves oversimplifying everything, creating the face of the enemy (anti-tribalism), and then a healthy dose of war language (because everything is life or death, black or white, kill or be killed, polemic in war. I say these individuals are no longer politicians because they no longer seem to care about or do any politicking (solving issues of public governance). But they are hella good at campaigning and winning elections.
Anywho, it is my theory that we are so awash with all this constant campaign dreck that we’ve come to believe culture to be the enemy, whatever your enemy happens to be. Depending on your partisan leaning, culture can be promiscuous and lascivious or culture can be rigid and dogmatic. Either way, culture is this homogeneous, evil entity to be resisted at all cost. Thus the popular lure of being countercultural. I’m not like the rest of this messed up culture. I’m one of the good guys!
But is that correct? Is that the proper definition of culture? Or have we been duped into abusing the definition of culture by partisan con-artists and their media minions?
Wikipedia says: Culture is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.
Oxford says: the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group.
See the problem yet? I had to stare at it for a while. I found this quote from Lee Camp to be helpful: “In being countercultural are we to be opposed to speaking English? To Americana music? To banjos or electric guitars or iPads? To William Faulkner or Max Lucado or Johnny Cash?” Camp goes on to say in regards to being countercultural, “Such a posture would be akin to someone sharply opposed to profanity insisting we must be opposed to language, that we must be counterlanguage.”
Basically, when we reduce culture into a singular amorphous blob of evil, we lose all conciseness and clarity of argument. Thus effectiveness. What’s the point in being countercultural if the very term means something entirely different to everyone else? The only point remaining is the contrarian one. We are simply counter everything. Again, The Simpsons nailed the matter when they depicted the contemporary activist carrying a sign saying, “Stop it.”
Don’t get me wrong. I love being countercultural. The lure is strong in me. But I’m starting to recognize how lazy the term is. Whenever I use the word “countercultural” I have a more specific meaning. Something like counter Hollywood sentimentalism or counter unfettered capitalism or counter human predation. If I really want people to understand my meaning in the way I’m presenting it, I should be more specific. In actuality, I’m not counterculture. Of course, strictly speaking, that would be ridiculous. How can anyone possibly be counter every aspect and/or element of their own culture and still experience any kind of meaningful social interaction?
In parting, allow me to quote Lee Camp and his book, Scandalous Witness: A Little Political Manifesto for Christians, once again: “There in the cultural water will be a great variety of particular realities floating about. Some of these we will celebrate, some we will reject, some we will want to see transformed into a redemptive human practice. But there will be no celebrating, withdrawing from, or transforming the water of culture as a whole.”
From the Desk of DMB
Oh man. This has been a rough week. It ended up being an orchestra of one-off appointments and distractions that eroded my writing time down to a scant few sessions of mere minutes. I got in a little strategic thinking during the wee hours of the morning, so that will help as I move the story forward next week, but this week yielded very little fruit. Although I am growing increasingly suspicious that the story may culminate in a rather sudden climax and conclusion. I’m not sure if that is due to me getting bored of myself, or if it will be a matter of the story truly expressing itself. I suppose the next couple of weeks will tell. At the very least, I know I have at least a couple weeks left of necessary foreshadowing. But foreshadowing when discovery writing can be testy at best.
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