Ideology of the Masses

I love the Counter Culture. I think it is one of my favorite things on the planet. I love websites like Disinformation, Evolver, Reality Sandwich, Right where you are sitting now, and a number of other ones. There is a strong trend in the counter culture that I have been thinking about a lot lately; a lot of people will tell you all about how wrong some belief systems are, or how right their belief systems are. I think this is a problem.

You can’t take people out of ideology with more ideology. This is what too much of the counter culture represents, Ideology. I see so many comments, blogs, and rants in different random sites that are essentially no better than preaching. I think that we need to learn from our past. We have had ideological movements before that sought to bring down the government, to change the world. The hippies were trying to do this, candy kids in raves wanted this to happen, and now new agers are trying to do this. I fear that the new age movement is making a lot of the same mistakes that Hippies and Raver’s made; they are ignoring the idea of negative in the world.

When you say things like all that there is is spirit, or all that matters is love, these are dogmatic beliefs that don’t stand up to scrutiny any more than Catholicism, Fascism, or Communism. Hitler has no place in a world view of a single spirit or where all that matters is love. What about the millions that are starving in third world countries, try telling them there is one spirit that is going to take care of all of us if only we would make contact with it. Now I am by no means being negative about this, I am actually incredibly happy and I love the shit out of the Universe. It takes wonderful care of me and has given me the girl of my dreams a job a love and a life that I totally love. I don’t think that anyone should be Cynical or negative about the state of the world, there are things that can be done and they are being done. What I am pointing out is that I feel like a lot of counter culture is driven by the belief in a spirit or love and not how believing those things make you feel. I think that this is a problem.

The counter culture loses in a battle of ideologies; it just does that’s how it is. We can try to sell our belief systems to as many people as we want but there will still be millions more that will still believe in Jesus, Yahweh, America and the United nations. I don’t have a multibillion dollar enterprise selling my belief system. Do you? I’m sure that most of the people that read this will understand how I have felt when I am arguing with someone about how wrong Wal-Mart is, or how millions of people have been killed in the name of God and it’s just not right. People won’t listen to this stuff if in the end you are just trying to sell them another ideology. A lot of people have the group mentality, that’s why most of us in the counter culture feel like no one understands us.

It’s not as simple as them not understanding us; we also can’t understand the group mentality. The way that their minds work and they make decisions unfortunately a lot of the time is not thinking for themselves, it’s by letting others do the thinking for them. They look at the societal landscape of ideas and then follow what’s easiest.

Many adults have not had mystical experiences, or out of body experiences. If these people have never had a reason to believe in one great spirit and the only people that talk about it are the hippies and weirdo’s they are going to stick with the masses ideology’s, it’s just easier that way. Their beliefs are more secure. It’s a lot easier to believe something that doesn’t make a lot of sense when millions of others also believe it, as opposed to thousands siding with you. We are the minority of the belief system landscape.

I think a different approach needs to be taken to help change people’s minds. Put yourself into someone else’s belief system, really put yourself there, try to understand, and try to believe it. Then after you after created the solid foundation of the belief system in your mind try to think about why it doesn’t make sense. Think of reasons that it logically doesn’t make sense, reason’s to question it, that have nothing to do with another belief system. Really try to think about why people think and believe what they think and believe. Then after you have done that try to point out the reasons why someone should question the belief system. If you can start to get people to question their belief systems, that leads to people to start thinking for themselves.

More important than anyone prescribing to any belief is for them to think for themselves. If you can truly and objectively start thinking for yourself and thinking about your belief system and why you believe the things you believe, it will change your belief system. Something happens after that change, you go looking for another belief system; but then when you question that belief system and think it through you realize something else, it doesn’t make sense either. This leads to two different things. One is the people that start searching frantically for an answer. They will search and search and search. Sometimes people think they have found and answer, when this happens it is because someone stopped thinking their belief system through. Whenever you think you have things figured out all that means is that you’ve stopped thinking. The second thing that comes about when you start to think your belief system through is you start to recognize it as only a belief system. Then you will come to the realization that maybe there isn’t an answer, that there are just belief systems.

This is where I have come to and for me it has been a wonderful place. I prescribe to a belief system as long as I can get some happiness out of it, but I always remember that it is just a belief system that is in itself a flawed system. One analogy that occurs to me is that a belief system is like a clothing style. People buy clothes because they like them. Some people identify themselves with their sense of style, for instance they are Goth so they wear all black all the time. Or they are punk rockers and they wear leather jackets and have Mohawks and Identify with themselves by their style. These people are like people that have prescribed to controversial belief systems. Or more specifically someone who identifies themselves as a new ager, Wiccan or something to this effect.

Sometimes your friend shows up out of nowhere dressed like a Goth because that’s now what he’s decided he wants his style to be, but you don’t see it happen all the time. Then there are the majority of the people who wear current trends. They go shop at Macy’s or Abercrombie and Fitch. They buy clothes because they saw them in a magazine or on a TV show and they liked them. These people are like the people who are Christians or Muslims, Democrats or Republicans, etc... Goth’s and Punk’s dress how they dress because they were looking for something else outside of popular culture to Identify with. General public wears the clothes and brands they wear because that’s what they have been fed by media and the masses.

There is one more category, people that buy clothes because they like them as an individual. They have diverse wardrobes that don’t fit into one style. These people are also often times the trend setters. This would be the person that has belief systems as long as they like them then doesn’t throw them away but puts them in the closet and then wears another one the next day. The trend setters appeal to the masses far more than the Goth’s or Punk’s. Trend setting isn’t restricted by styles because it’s making the styles. Sometimes people like these new styles and want to try it out for themselves. Then maybe if it goes well they will start to think about other styles they could possibly try out if this one worked out, and then maybe, just maybe they might start some trends. My point being that Goth and Punk are style ideologies that could have been chosen when one was developing their sense of style. Just as Wicca and New age are belief systems that could have been chosen when they were developing their belief systems.

Popular clothes are the easy safe choice that will make you fit in. Just as Christianity and Democracy are the easy safe choices for belief systems that will help you fit in. Trend setters don’t wear clothes because they believe in them, want to identify with that style, they wear them because they like them and it’s something new that they enjoy doing. Just as someone not restricting themselves to one belief system believes them as long as they like to believe them. The masses feed on trends and then turn them into styles, then look for the next trend. We have a real opportunity to sell some new trends, but it’s not with the same old styles.

The next time you are having a debate with someone about their belief system try to put yourself into it. Think about the positive emotional and mental gain there is to be had in their system, and then compare it to your belief system. You might find that their belief system has something to offer you if you open up to it; but if you still feel there are more positive emotions and state of being’s to be had from yours try relaying that to them. Tell them about the feeling it gives you to be grounded in your beliefs. Don’t tell them about your beliefs.

I do believe it feels good to believe there is one spirit that is there to take care of us, that love is the driving force of the Universe; but these beliefs have nothing to do with any ideology or dogma and everything to do with how they make me feel. If you can portray a little of how it makes you feel it might catch their attention, then if they ask, sure tell them something about your beliefs; but always remember the belief is not the important part, the feeling is.