Subcultures

Revised and Clarified in Italic

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Thank you for visiting my site. 'Subcultures' has been, over many years, my most referenced essay. The 'Subcultures' essay has had thousands of hits, and is the most valuable work on this site. It was written in late 2001, post 9/11, and the original text in many ways, reflects my own temporary patriotic defense of my countries imagined societal goodness. I feel this work of mine must be revised, but I will not change the original text at all, except for obvious spelling errors. I believe the original text lends itself to the validity of the revision.

With the decline of family values, the rise of divorce, and mothers working; many children today look for family outside the home. What they are finding is America's wide variety of subcultures. A subculture is a cultural subgroup differentiated by status, ethnic background, residence, religion, or other factors that functionally unify the group and act collectively on each member. (Webster's II, University Dictionary 84') In these groups children are being misdirected and rebelling against society.

First of all I wrote the original 'Subcultures' when I was twenty. That fact lends itself to the understaning of my shortsighted views, and the poor punctuation, which I'm most ashamed of. I am revising this document for two reasons; one: because it's regularly used as a reference and two, because it's wholey incomplete. A statement I disagree with now and find myself disgusted I ever wrote, is the last of paragraph one. Rebelling against society is perfectly OK; today especialy, "I encourage it". Another correction, of paragraph one, is that single working moms are NOT to blame for their kids joining subcultures. That was written as a total cop-out for my own actions as a teen. My mom was great to me, even when I was in trouble, and still spoils me rotten to this day.

Countless problems encompass the globe, scandals in our government, and famine in foreign countries. While infants starve to death half way around the world, parents give their teenagers twenty bucks, and tell them to be home by two in the morning. Parents today have already excepted their child's rebellion, and forgiven them for their sins, before it ever begins. To turn the other cheek in the wake of youthful defiance, and enact a don't ask, don't tell policy is now the norm.

Paragraph 2 is written well; from a young man's prospective. It's not all true, but I think it reflects an important believe system of young men. When reading it, five years after conception, I recognize the thought pattern of, "I can do NO wrong." Paragraph 1 and 2, are both examples of this thought; I'm sure the rest of this document will prove the same. To reread this now, I can see more than I ever have, the beauty of being young.

If parents don't say "enough's enough" then children won't know when to stop. If parents give no objection to rebellion from their youth, then the child will bore quickly of challenging parental ideals, and progress unchecked into rebelling against society in general. The youth will probably be excepted into a subculture, and there the youth's rebellion will progress rapidly. At this point some parents then intervene but usually this is futile.

I don't like this paragraph. First of all, "I don't know a fucking thing about raising kids!" Second, I question once again the morality of attacking society. Also, I don't think a parent's intervention is ever futile, even if it all it does is lend itself to their own peace of mind.

Our society has damned itself by not taking the role of the parent that failed and condemning the behavior of the public youth rebellion. Subcultures are now commercialized, and widely tolerated. The toleration of subcultures stems from the ideals of "political correctness", which make you feel guilty and ignorant for condemning any group, no matter what their message. "Political Correctness" was an idea born out of a subculture think-tank in the eighties. Some subcultures that might be worth mentioning are: street gangs, skaters, skinheads, punkrockers, gutterpunks, wanna-be hippies, and of course anarchist.

The first sentence is a half truth; the community rather than soicety, should play a bigger role in the guidence of youth. To say society has "damned itself" for not condemning youth rebellion is ridiculous, because the participants of youth rebellion grow into the very fabric that makes this country tolerable and great. I don't think the toleration of subcultures stems from the idea of political correctness; as I grow older and meet more people I realize that the entire idea of "Political Correctness" is actually a myth.

When these groups first started their ranks were thin but they were stronger than they are now. Subculture's ranks have been beefed up in the nineties, but by kids who only join for attention, or social status. You can tell who the new ones are, because they have a since of doing nothing wrong. This innocence is carried from home, were failing parents refused to condemn earlier behavior. This innocence manifests itself within the child's mind, so that any act of rebellion is acceptable because mom and dad said it was. The new recruits push the ideas of their group upon others with no conviction, or confidence. After this goes on for awhile, the group as a whole, will fall out of sync, and collapse.

The "hippies" are a good example of a subculture that had became polluted, and lost an incredible amount of support and influence. The hippies were derived from the "beatniks", of the fifties. They arose in California, and were fueled by pro-active students. They were brought together by protests, and the common goal of world peace. In the beginning their ranks were filled with collage educated radicals, they were very smart and had good advisors, left over from the civil rights movement.

After a few years this group of radical protesters began to make a difference, and with that came commercialization. Only at this point did they get the name "hippy". Their ranks became flooded with kids looking for the persona of the hippie; free love, drugs, and revolution with positive energy. The hippies welcomed them, because of the need of large numbers for large outcome in protest. These new recruits lacked everything the founders had and were there for the wrong reasons. It started to become obvious that there was a problem with the subculture in the early seventies. But since the group was so widely spread and had no leaders, there was no one to correct the problems that it had internally and it dissolved. The hippies left a great legacy of social reform that overshadowed there collapse.

Some subcultures have existed long periods of time, with relatively no change in size or political views. Skinheads are a good example of a subculture that has survived the test of time. Skinheads are as worldwide as the hippies where, but they survive in tight nit cells, or gangs. To become a hippy it meant dressing the part and sharing the same views, but to become a skinhead means that your views are put to the test. Skinheads keep their ranks pure by an extreme pro-active initiation process. Youths who want to belong to this group undergo constant law breaking, and fighting. While they commit acts against others they are watched carefully by other members, to assure their loyalty. Unlike the hippie's acts of free love and acceptance, skinheads are the opposite.

Most of the fighting that skinheads undergo is with other members of the subculture. Small infractions upon the "code of conduct of skinheads" means infighting, and/or expulsion of status of the member in question. With these strict rules, and expectations the skinhead subculture has survived since the sixties. They also have kept their ranks to a minimum. One interesting thing about this subculture is their length of existence and their relative obscurity within the mind of many Americans.

Almost all subcultures today have their own music and dress code. Punkrockers could be thought of as having the richest culture of all. Punk is a form of music that is so popular with youths that the fans of this music have become their own subculture. With a contempt for modern living, and the law, this group has sustained itself for many decades. The punkrock subculture as a whole has no political views, or social reforms to protest, they are not tight nit groups. What brings this group together is their music, and their loyalty as fans.

The most commercialized subculture of all is the streetgang. Consisting mostly of minorities from poor communities, streetgangs make up the largest of all subcultures, and have been around for many decades. Their impact upon society has been so great that it pushes the limit to refer to them as a subculture at all. These gangs of youths, and middle aged Americans rule their domains with great violence, and intimidation. For one group to trespass upon another's territory means violent reactions from both sides. Streetgangs within the inner-city act as surrogate families for their members. Members attack their foes with blind loyalty for their comrades, and with no fear from law enforcement.

These gangs capitalize in the drug market within their neighborhoods or territory. Many popular music makers today came from streetgangs, and write countless songs which glamorize the lifestyles of violence, and loyalty. The music written about streetgangs, and the violence that surrounds them is extremely popular with young folk in this country, and feeds the gangs with thousands of new recruits each year. These gangs are truly the hardest to become a member of and stay alive in out of any other subculture. Initiation usually consist of murder, or attempted murder upon rivals, and then a severe beating by fellow gang members, that is intended to show strength and loyalty.

Streetgangs keep their ranks pure by murder, and intimidation. They are the largest, and most violent subculture. Thousands of youths in America each year fall victim to murder committed by gang members. Truly the most violent of all subcultures, streetgangs convince their members to die for a color on a rag, or a rock of cocaine.

Subcultures in America have taken part in defining our nation. With the exception of a few, most subcultures trace their roots to violence, and public defiance. With an attractiveness to young people that hope to prolong their rebellion, these groups have grown in size over the last ten years. A child's urge to be loved is what fuels the violence of these groups.

It is my believe that parents need not find alternatives to subcultures for their youth, but need to be the alternative. Teenagers today need to be told what is expected of them, and afterwards need to be held to that degree of self-respect. It's not fun being well behaved all the time, but it's less fun to find yourself in a violent subculture. Parents need to teach their children self respect, and upon doing so the child will develop individualism. With the gift of individualism the child will no longer have a need to belong to something, and then will begin the natural separation from parents that we see in the late teens.

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