I never thought that at the age of 35 I would be a part of the counter culture, but I haven’t left the culture, it’s left me. We are living in age where free speech has become hateful, where personal ‘truth’ is more important than factual discourse and where zealotry has morphed from the religious to the ideological. This really came to the fore for me this week, when I heard that a certain book considered counter cultural when it was released, then so mainstream it it became ubiquitous for a certain generations, has now come full circled and back in the sites of the mainstream cultural elites.
If it’s not to my taste
I’m old enough to remember when the people that were outraged about a little book called Harry Potter and it’s author J K Rowling were conservative Christians. When Harry Potter (which I have never read, nor am I particularly interested now that I’m no longer a sweaty teenager) was first released there was a lot of hand wringing and anger from the ‘won’t someone think of the children’ milksops.
At the time there was a moral outrage culture that was a hangover from the late 80s – early 90s suburban satanist, video games kill and rap music turns kids into ‘gangstaz’ conspiracies. Many parents, particularly in conservative Christian communities, were concerned that witchcraft and occultism were on the rise. Harry Potter was a bit of a provocation to these people, not only was this book about magic and fantasy but it was aimed at (dun, dun, dun), THE CHILDREN! JK Rowling became a persona non grata for many, which rather ironically just helped to sell more books. Looking back it’s kind of amusing to think that a fantastical story about boy who can’t keep his wand in his pants would so enrage a group of boring cultural Luddites. These people were quite rightly lampooned by the counter culture as ridiculous, over anxious killjoys.
Different doofus’, same zealotry
But that’s all finished with right? The world is a different place, we no longer have groups of hand wringing wowsers concerned that any creation, or concept outside of the agreed normalised view will infect the minds of THE CHILDREN or even worse endanger their lives… Right?
The idea that university students need protecting from a story about a child that lives in a closet and plays with his wand a little too much is beyond ridiculous. Seriously what is the point of going to university if you’re not going to be triggered at some stage or another? Surely any umiversity worth a damn should have the warning over the gates, with a big note uderneath…
The subjects taught at this university may be challenging. SO STRAP ON A PAIR!
The inane excuse of ‘harm’ doesn’t fly because we’ve seen this sort of thing before, back in the 90s and 00s it was ridiculous before, it is ridiculous now. The same goes for the excuse that thes e simpletons are trying to provide context and enable dialogue It’s garbage, take away the author and there is no need for ‘context‘, it’s a story about a kid who goes to magic school, not fecking Mien Kampf.
What’s your point?
The increasing absence of religious nutters from public discourse hasn’t improved the state of the discourse, to the contrary, the vacuum has been filled by weird ideologues that emerged hand in trousers from the dark corners of the internet (from tumblr, these people are from tumblr) . These people have become the acolytes of a new religion which has become the default worship for the purveyors of culture in the West.
This gross ideology/religion (as yet undefined) is anti-enlightenment and it is anti-reason but it isn’t new. It’s the exact same bullshit that we had to put up with in the 90s, the same sanctimonious harping zealotry and the same gangrenous intolerance only this time the protest placards don’t have crucifixes, they have rainbows.
Tighearnan John Kelly 
A very accurate and insightful observation. I think it’s safe to state that we’ll always find people with such a nature in history. And certainly a balance seems always occur to cycle through extremists which suit the antithetical minority of socially accepted. They are just much more prevalent today because of the increased access to several communication platforms with global exposure.
Humans, as a collective community, are creatures of habit and predictability driven by fear of different. I imagine what you describe continuing to happen for the rest of our existence on this planet, but there’ll always be those grounded that counter *ahem* their presence in society. The wheel of time does happens in the generational aspect as much as the concept for the cosmic scale.
Also….. tumblr still exists after the great 2018 purge????
Thanks very much! Tumblr does still exist, but I would say that the fringe ideas it was known for began seeping off that platform and in to mainstream discourse back in 00s and early 10s. You are right, it’s good to remind oneself that culture is cyclical, my one concern is that technology is short circuiting the ordinary cycle, but I could be wrong!