Counterculture part 1

“In my youth I wanted freedom. In my mature years I want order.” --Will Durrant

     The motif of defying authority figure is an age-old concept, universal in its application.  From the hill-billy rednecks to the thugs of the inner cities, the lack of understanding of the law which governs us is more and more evident in the people.

     The rebellious nature of man is everywhere-- more rampant than ever.  Abuse of privilege tied sprinkled in with a lack of maturity, a lack of responsibility, and a lack of knowledge makes for an interestingly scary society.

     Legalize drugs!

     Ban theology!

     Power to the people!

     Get that tyrant out of office!

     Away with all the <insert minority non-Protestant religion here>!

     Down with the establishment!

     We see these phrases shouted by all sorts of people, educated or otherwise.  What service do they serve besides to advance their own ideology?  Do they benefit the population at large or is it self-serving?

     "It's the spirit of the law that really matters!"

     I have heard this for the first time, not too long ago.  It puzzles me, quite frankly.  Many a people* hawk for such things in the positions they're in regardless of political party-- much of the world* is becoming more and more polarized.

     If people don't like what they see, they choose to either ignore it or openly rebel against it.  Feelings are hurt and contention is rife.  The world* seems so filled with hateful words said to each other without regard to human frailty rather than the spirit of cooperation and understanding.  It seems as if self-service and copious amounts of criticism reigns supreme in the minds of all those view figures, governments, and other institutions.

     Honestly, I'm an idealist-- the world would be just right if everyone would just get along and pick pansies and frolick on the open meadow.  A society filled with love and understanding-- wouldn't that be nice?  Wouldn't it be just dandy if everyone could say to another, "you are my brother" or "you are my sister" and be done with it?

     Unfortunately, the situation doesn't seem like that and the majority of the world are left in the dust about how others genuinely feel and act, causing a lot of disconnects and problems.  I will explain why I say the things that I do in a later post why I bring up these issues.

     I address this to those who are disillusioned (Ernest Hemingway-style) and those who want to seek something greater in life.

     So the way I see it, laws that govern us (as human beings and not mathematically/scholastically) exist in three different dichotomies:

• Governmental - the set-in-stone laws written by a body of legislators in a government assembly or decreed by some sort of leader/dictator figure.
• Socio-ethical - the tentative, "unspoken" laws set in place by man to dictate what is culturally acceptable or not (e.g. cultural etiquette, common courtesy, manners, faux pas, taboos, &c.)
• Theological - a set of rules found primarily through books of holy writ (e.g. Ten Commandments, Five Pillars); this is where much of today's socio-ethical laws come from.

     Starting off, there are a LOT of rules to follow in today's society.  The world put up standards in which to abide by-- through these three types of laws.  If you put them all together, it's mind-boggling how many rules that we're supposed to follow compared to how many we actually do follow.

     It's definitely overwhelming and many don't succeed in following all of the dictations that have been put into place.  Sometimes, the regulations aren't something we might look favorably upon-- it may go against our intuition, or culture, or our beliefs.  These laws don't quite seem to be as universal as people make them out to be.

     Each person has the ability to choose between what is right and what is wrong.  This is called agency.  When people representing others come together in an assembly to decide what is right or wrong, this is called democracy. When people don't agree with certain facets of law, this is called one of two things: counterculture or apostasy.  When either of these things happen, society changes-- usually for the worst-- now there have been cases where disagreements of certain portions of law turned out to be for the best, but usually, it has let to a lot of material loss and a loosening of a standard set in place before the protest.  Disarray prevails and decorum is almost unobtainable without some kind of compromise.


 *: "the world" and the general term for "people" refers to an assumption to mean citizens of the United States of America.  Much other parts of the world is unknown in the perspective of this peculiar person due to a lack of information, therefore not much argument or support can be backed up for them and their situation.

I may not be as informed as the majority of the American population about current events, but this opinion has arose from what I have seen over the days.