I just added a new picture at the bottom of the blog and it is getting me thinking.
I like to think of myself as being a bit counter culture or, at least, as being aware of the absurdity of our culture but this picture makes me wonder. I know that, by living in a major Western city, buying name brand goods, and being in the upper class, I am just a cog in this whole system. The question for me is how big of a cog am I?
This graffiti makes me think that I am a pretty big one. It exposes the fact that, while I do speak out against a lot of our cultural practices, I am still totally a part of this culture. While there is nothing inherently wrong with that it is still a little disconcerting. Could I be more of my own person? Could I lead a life outside of this culture's boundaries? Why do I follow so many of this culture's rules? Has this culture co-opted/stifled my creativity? These are all questions that worry me because I know the answers to most of them and I don't really like them.
Quite honestly, this makes me want to get up tomorrow morning and do something different. Do something that is mine and not theirs. I want to stop worrying about things like grad school, my appearance, and money and start worrying about things that influence my true happiness, not the happiness that I have been taught to experience inside the contexts of this culture. I mean really, whose life am I leading; my own or the one that I have been taught to lead? Right now I am pretty sure that I am leading the one that I have been taught to lead but I feel as though it is well within my power to lead my own life.
I am not entirely sure what this all means for me so all that I can really hope is that I continue to look behind the reasoning for the decisions that I make. For it is there that the grip this culture has on me hides and it is also there that the grip can be broken.
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I find this whole blog extremely thought-provoking and worthy of regular reading. Particularly at my age (55), it reminds me of many of the questions I used to pose when I was younger, and it makes me muse about WHY I don't still struggle with them as much. When I saw the graffiti at the end of the april 6th post, I realized WHY--I have become a part of mainstream culture at a certain level in the class structure--i.e., "comfortable upper middle class". One of the greatest challenges for me is to stay true to some of my "younger," critical values--back when I fancied myself a Marxist--and strive to speak out--at home, at work, in the community, on this blog, etc.--and continue to advocate for progressive change and human justice. One of the old struggles on the Left has always been whether to promote PROGRESS, which may only result in patching an unfair system--thus sustaining the status quo, versus promoting radical or even revolutionary change--but that involves a willingness to sacrifice creature comforts to which one has become accustomed, if one is lucky enough (read: wealthy enough, or politically powerful enough, etc.) to have
ReplyDeletebeen able to achieve those comforts...