The monotony of every day life is based on a very rigid social-dogma, that seems to be very inevitable, but yet so disappointing. The social environment around us discourages the idea of free thought and put us into this stream that most people feel suitable to abide by. But some of us, the daring and the crazy ones find this a substandard belief and feel there needs to be an alternate path or options to reach the ultimate purpose of our existence. There are various ways to look at this, some of it very radical and absurd, but in the end it is the essence of ones mind(very complicated and highly underestimated with certain individuals) that needs to make the right decision in choosing the right path to enlightenment. This idea forms the basis of a concept that was born in the 70s called counterculture, or you might just refer to it as the hippie culture.
Let me introduce you to a peculiar word the the western world came up with called idiosyncrasy. It is the belief of a certain individuals habits to be unusual or contradicting to widespread social beliefs and acceptance. This concept has struck a lot of thought into me and I will delve into more detail about this later. So counterculture is all about breaking the mundane and encourage free thought to the prisoned mind which our social-dogma has put us into. "The People who invented the 21st century were pot-smoking, sandle-wearing hippies from the west coast like Steve, because they saw things differently" -Bono(for those of you who dont know him, he is the lead singer of the band U2). Yes the Steve in the quote refers to the late Steve Jobs, one of the co-founders of Apple. Some of you might be stunned, and some might have seen this coming. Jobs was indeed a product of the counterculture or the hippie era. The social movement of the 70s allowed and encouraged freedom to a very large extent, which gave creativity a new meaning and redefined the way we look at things. It allowed individuals to follow their mind and heart to what they believed as a "greater calling". People were not afraid to experiment new things, and were not discouraged from breaking away from the almost nonexistent "social-norms"(This has become a very well established structure today). The whole idea was to break free, and to counterbalance the hatred and the war torn world. The numbers might overwhelm you, in the sense that the people who were part of the counterculture movement were not many, but they did make an overwhelming presence of themselves today, and impact the products we use in a very significant way.
The world as we know it today(peaceful and harmonious as it is, for the moment) is based on a very rigid moral system, where widespread belief amongst people seem to dominate the path of the future. In other words today's society is bound by a universal understanding of the social-norms which is the greater good for mankind. So to understand what counterculture is, we specify a bounded system or a set of norms, which obstructs the natural flow of energy or hinders the ability of people to choose their willful paths. Counterculture is more like an unbounded system where entropy(or randomness) is tending towards infinity. The choices you make are more in sync with that of a rebel. You define your own social norms which you abide by that is very different from the mundane. You embrace the negative energy cycles to turn it into a beacon of positive radiating energy. I am pretty sure you understand by now what I am talking about, and to reinforce the whole concept I will allow Morphius to share a few words.
Counterculture is a very diverse concept and it can mean practically anything which is contradicting widespread social norms. In the 70s when the concept was born there was a strong urge by the people to experiment on new things. Some of these things lead people to believe there is an alternate universe which is parallel to the ones they existed on. This lead to a lot of spiritual discoveries and, and the drive for human kind to reach the ultimate state of wisdom, the enlightened mind. One of the pioneers of this movement was Timothy Leary who lead the "League of Spiritual Discovery(LSD)" movement. "Like every great religion of the past we seek to find the divinity within...These ancient goals we define in the metaphor of the present-turn on, tune in, drop out." This lead to a lot of followers and who embraced a society of free thought and broke from the shackles of every day life. LSD or Lysergic acid diethylamide or better known as acid is a psychedelic drug, which people seemed to resort to as a way of escaping reality or creating this alternate universe of existence by transforming into a pseudo-environment created by the effects of LSD on the mind. Scientists have not come up with any adverse effects of LSD on the body, nor have they found out any addictive nature of the drug. Yet the drug is illegal because of its supernatural transformation of the mind making it believe things that do not exist in reality.(Which is understandable, cause you don't want a whole bunch of acid heads roaming the streets). Some might consider acid as the enlightenment drug, as Jobs explains it "Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life. LSD shows you that there's another side to the coin, and you can't remember it when it wears off, but you know it. It reinforced my sense of what was important creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could." So you can imagine the roots of counterculture and the impact it has had in our society today. Taking LSD in most parts of the world is considered as a serous offence. It is also a taboo in most parts, and is looked down upon. But considering the accomplishments of Apple in today's world which was a brain child of Steve Jobs, shows us that great things are not only invented by people who excel in the competitive world, but also by the people who dare to think different.
Ok so a lot of things might be running through your head by now. So let me break it down for you here. Counterculture which is synonymous with free thought is basically the idea of being different and mainly thinking different. There are a lot of different ways of doing that, resorting to drugs is not the only way(If this whole article might have sounded like I am convincing you to try some weed or trip on acid, I am not, just giving you my opinion). If you strongly believe in something, it is best to fight for it as most wise men would say. So break free from the shackles of social-dogma and embrace your mind to achieve things that normal everyday people are afraid to achieve. So here is to the crazy ones!!!
Let me introduce you to a peculiar word the the western world came up with called idiosyncrasy. It is the belief of a certain individuals habits to be unusual or contradicting to widespread social beliefs and acceptance. This concept has struck a lot of thought into me and I will delve into more detail about this later. So counterculture is all about breaking the mundane and encourage free thought to the prisoned mind which our social-dogma has put us into. "The People who invented the 21st century were pot-smoking, sandle-wearing hippies from the west coast like Steve, because they saw things differently" -Bono(for those of you who dont know him, he is the lead singer of the band U2). Yes the Steve in the quote refers to the late Steve Jobs, one of the co-founders of Apple. Some of you might be stunned, and some might have seen this coming. Jobs was indeed a product of the counterculture or the hippie era. The social movement of the 70s allowed and encouraged freedom to a very large extent, which gave creativity a new meaning and redefined the way we look at things. It allowed individuals to follow their mind and heart to what they believed as a "greater calling". People were not afraid to experiment new things, and were not discouraged from breaking away from the almost nonexistent "social-norms"(This has become a very well established structure today). The whole idea was to break free, and to counterbalance the hatred and the war torn world. The numbers might overwhelm you, in the sense that the people who were part of the counterculture movement were not many, but they did make an overwhelming presence of themselves today, and impact the products we use in a very significant way.
The world as we know it today(peaceful and harmonious as it is, for the moment) is based on a very rigid moral system, where widespread belief amongst people seem to dominate the path of the future. In other words today's society is bound by a universal understanding of the social-norms which is the greater good for mankind. So to understand what counterculture is, we specify a bounded system or a set of norms, which obstructs the natural flow of energy or hinders the ability of people to choose their willful paths. Counterculture is more like an unbounded system where entropy(or randomness) is tending towards infinity. The choices you make are more in sync with that of a rebel. You define your own social norms which you abide by that is very different from the mundane. You embrace the negative energy cycles to turn it into a beacon of positive radiating energy. I am pretty sure you understand by now what I am talking about, and to reinforce the whole concept I will allow Morphius to share a few words.
Counterculture is a very diverse concept and it can mean practically anything which is contradicting widespread social norms. In the 70s when the concept was born there was a strong urge by the people to experiment on new things. Some of these things lead people to believe there is an alternate universe which is parallel to the ones they existed on. This lead to a lot of spiritual discoveries and, and the drive for human kind to reach the ultimate state of wisdom, the enlightened mind. One of the pioneers of this movement was Timothy Leary who lead the "League of Spiritual Discovery(LSD)" movement. "Like every great religion of the past we seek to find the divinity within...These ancient goals we define in the metaphor of the present-turn on, tune in, drop out." This lead to a lot of followers and who embraced a society of free thought and broke from the shackles of every day life. LSD or Lysergic acid diethylamide or better known as acid is a psychedelic drug, which people seemed to resort to as a way of escaping reality or creating this alternate universe of existence by transforming into a pseudo-environment created by the effects of LSD on the mind. Scientists have not come up with any adverse effects of LSD on the body, nor have they found out any addictive nature of the drug. Yet the drug is illegal because of its supernatural transformation of the mind making it believe things that do not exist in reality.(Which is understandable, cause you don't want a whole bunch of acid heads roaming the streets). Some might consider acid as the enlightenment drug, as Jobs explains it "Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life. LSD shows you that there's another side to the coin, and you can't remember it when it wears off, but you know it. It reinforced my sense of what was important creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and of human consciousness as much as I could." So you can imagine the roots of counterculture and the impact it has had in our society today. Taking LSD in most parts of the world is considered as a serous offence. It is also a taboo in most parts, and is looked down upon. But considering the accomplishments of Apple in today's world which was a brain child of Steve Jobs, shows us that great things are not only invented by people who excel in the competitive world, but also by the people who dare to think different.
Ok so a lot of things might be running through your head by now. So let me break it down for you here. Counterculture which is synonymous with free thought is basically the idea of being different and mainly thinking different. There are a lot of different ways of doing that, resorting to drugs is not the only way(If this whole article might have sounded like I am convincing you to try some weed or trip on acid, I am not, just giving you my opinion). If you strongly believe in something, it is best to fight for it as most wise men would say. So break free from the shackles of social-dogma and embrace your mind to achieve things that normal everyday people are afraid to achieve. So here is to the crazy ones!!!
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