I need to wing out thoughts about Counterculture. When I moved to Pittsburgh in 1991 people I met were talking about how it had either evaporated completely or else changed into something they no longer recognized. I'd say it was mostly because people had been leaving town in droves, and the economy no longer supported people involved in the Counterculture.
Another reason for what the Counterculture became is the rise of tax exempt arts and humanitarian groups. To get 501c3 status people have to claim a humanitarian or social agenda, when the individuals are seeking personal gain, e.g. salaries, real estate, fame, sex and tax deductible cash contributions. The business model lead to an epidemic of fraud and gaslight. For years people have been slandering each other in hope of proving they are doing important social justice work while competitors in this business climate are evil pigs who do terrible things. It's not fun being on the losing end of this. Take it from me. Worse, wealthy elitists are faking humanitarian work to gain status among the super-wealthy donor class.
Most recently there has been the invention of the celebrity dissident. These individuals claim to be persecuted and repressed in their homelands, and in the United States they are used as money magnets for tax exempt businesses. People lie all the time about their backgrounds and experiences, also exaggerate or invent persecution stories. In reality, American artists, writers and activists are ignored, and very few of them gain national attention or remuneration. It's very difficult in the US to land a lucrative book deal, and the celebrity dissident racket provides a system with which to gain national or local attention and unearned status. This is most disgusting in the area of poetry writing. No one cares that the material is garbage, only that there is a martyr story of persecution and rescue by tax exempt saviors.
For a lot of people, the Social Justice movement is a fast track into business, remuneration, special favors or social status, irrespective of validity. The formerly rigorous intellectualism the Left used to engage devolved into a mindless, hostile singularity. Only one way of thinking is tolerated, theirs, unified in their hatred for the political right, and for anyone not fitting their paradigm. People no longer care about free speech and expression, only in sustaining any advantage they have or think they will gain. The Left used to abhor and protest censorship, now it is the leading proponent of it. They have had a putrid effect on literature and on creative people who don't fit in with the Social Justice paradigm.
I plan on writing more on the subject of Counterculture. A new one needs be formed. I suggest it be based in a nonpartisan Universal mode. It shouldn't recognize party affiliation, only an agenda to resist what has become a repressive and oppressive partisan economy and culture. It shouldn't recognize Democrats, Republicans, Capitalism, Socialism or Communism. Partisan politics is a disaster, and best serves the rich and powerful. The poor folks have been reduced to voiceless peons. The new Counterculture needs to be free of greed and ulterior motives. People need to resist corporate/nonprofit/government fascism. I read in news recently that China's new model of Communism is Corporate Communism. Pittsburgh's City/Corporate/Nonprofit partnership appears to be the same thing. I am in fear of this corporate/political fascism, and hope to resist it. A new, nonpartisan Universalist Counterculture is called for.
