The 1960's produced the counter culture, a generation of free spirits opposing main line Americana. Going against tradition takes guts, especially in the areas of sex, drugs, women's rights, and civil rights for blacks. Social tolerance was elevated, there was renewed attention to environmental problems, other historical religious impulses were integrated into the culture through music and philosophy. Chains were loosened, personal empowerment was heightened, the whole effort made a new claim for humanity, that it was resistant to mechanization and machine-thought. I'm glad they took the red pill. Young people are offered again to take the red pill and advance the political barriers placed in front of humanity.
The cultural shift that occurred was largely led by young people but older social activists also helped out. What is needed now is a political shift producing the same type of concrete changes, and we can't settle for less. Marijuana legislation is part of it, so is reinstating multiple parties, freeing the public airwaves and restricting further corporate power over freedom of speech, also electoral reform, disabling the CIA-FBI-DEA-NSA network and their private counterparts, and the list goes on. We can succeed because our fathers and mothers were themselves revolutionaries. Were not going against a previous generation like they had to, but against an economic-political system that has few supporters.
This politically-conscious generation is going to create a discounter culture. What I mean by that is we are discounting the corporate media and not giving consideration to old political lobbies, and the traditional powerful players. We're not even considering the opinions of 'official experts' since most of them are compromised and are not serving the public interest. We will shape the political future the same way the younger generation shaped consumer spending and advertising back in the 60's. Counting us out is not an option, and the corporate-hijacked parties won't even get that option because were selling our support to new parties at a discount.
Commentators wrongly assumed that young people are creating an over the counter culture, but most of those counters are going bust. Say goodbye to the counter. Everything in the market is going out at a discount. The inflated prices couldn't last. Even the price of a politician was too high. Imagine old industry brokers from the 1920's waking up in the 90's and being told that a bribe for a top-level politician had gone up 3x more than the price of milk, eggs, and bread combined. Once upon a time businessmen could sway a politician's vote over a fancy meal, or in the back of a concert hall. Those were the good old days, when private jets didn't exist and the price of whores went down with them.
The sixties generation expanded the world, giving us the opportunity to demand more from it for everyone in it. What were missing is not the raw passion that they were seized with for days on end. I saw that passion when young people burned federal reserve notes at Ron Paul's rally in Michigan. What were missing are genuine leaders younger than 40, to organize political rallies and lead marches in Washington.
Vietnam and Watergate ended the War boomers' innocence but were fortunate to live in a world that we already know is corrupt. Innocence is overrated, being awake to the animal kingdom of evil will make us more capable to fight them off once a member of the kingdom approaches us. In our world, the American government doesn't fight fascists overseas, they are the fascists overseas.
And when I use the word discount I'm not referring to retail prices, shopping, or the cost of things. Ellen Ruppel has written about the unmarked consequences of discount prices, saying that "there is an absolute imperative for American culture that we keep costs down. To do that, we have to keep wages and benefits down." Instead of getting more for less, we need to start getting more from less. Making do with less, as Gearld Celente says, is the slogan for the post-consumer age. It doesn't mean that high prices are a good thing because they show the true cost of a product but chances are, if something is good it costs money. In the cheap, throw-away era appreciation for human civilization was lacking. The discount culture by staying true to its aim, discounts discount. Paying a just price, rather than shopping the world over for a bargain, is the moral thing to do.
Being consumer-friendly is a clever marketing way to cover up that you're acting as an enemy to the safety, comfort, and dignity of human beings. Plus, the whole thing is a process of further collectivization. I'm not against buying, having nice things, eating good food, I just don't want it all to come from the same place. I'm only against artificial low prices, that discount the cost of environmental effects, wages, and health and safety standards. The consumer religion wastes human and natural resources. We are consumed by it, because the process of homogenization in products and everything else in life leads us to a state where everything is taken from the real culture, is processed, and then sold back at a discount. Kierkegaard who is a prophet if there ever was one said that individuality is consumed in the process."Our contemporary age," he wrote, "is constantly striving in its levelling and tyrannizing to change everything into homogeneity, so that all become mere numbers, specimens."
