COUNTACULTURE

(or the emergence of (anti)civilisation)

 

Hippy? Punk? Beatnik? Goth? Zippy? Rasta? Crusty Raver?

'There is only one Counterculture and it's a Dionysian Movement' Jack Kerouac,
when asked about the relation between the Beat Generation and the Hippies.

 

Jack Kerouac probably learnt that line from William Burroughs, who introduced
him to the notion of the Dionysian (see theory page), Burroughs of course can
also be regarded as the father of modern counterculture, at least as a strategy.

 

It's hard to pin a date on the start of counterculture, there have always been dropouts, bohemians and outsiders (Colin Wilson catalogs the most recent in his
classic book with the latter title). Likewise people have attempted to create
alternative Utopias since the days of Pythagoras. Occassionally the two have
come together for brief moments. But these have always been marginal, with
little hope, or often even desire, for universalisation. Thus these have always at
best been 'subcultures', rather than 'countercultures' out to 'change the world'.

Perhaps the first real 'counterculture' of any lasting influence emerged in
Continental Europe at the beginning of the 20th Century. Here three crucial strands
came together at the right time. The first was the original 'New Age' movement, a
utopian mystical trend influenced by Theosophy, 'neo-paganism' and past religious
heresies, that sought freedom, peace, spiritual harmony and healthy living within
self sufficient communes (a movement that in isolation eventually degenerated into
the Nazi volkish cults). The second was the very different Bohemian subculture
born from the decadent womb of dens such as the Hashashin Club of Paris, with its
nihilistic hedonism and sex and drug culture. The third was the sometimes fanatical
revolutionary anarchism sweeping Europe at the time, with its idealistic crusade to
transform political society. The three were unlikely bedfellows but when brought
together by the bohemian anarchist Otto Gross, who became a psycho-analytical
'guru' within German 'New Age' communes, the mixture was explosive and the
rebellious 'counterculture' that emerged was both the scandal and envy of Europe.
It was not the first time this had happened, a similar synthesis of decadent
bohemianism, occultism and revolutionary politics had occured at the time of the
French Revolution in the Parisian 'autonomous zone' known as the Palais Royal
(the haunt of the last of the Bavarian Illuminati and other radicals), from where the mob that stormed the Bastille and triggered the Revolution was raised. Some writers
say a similar, if less radical, enclave known as The Liberty existed even in Medieval
Southwark of Old London (a possible link with the Palais Royal being the stories of those naughty Templars and 'Neo-Templars' associated with both). But despite
leaving a lasting mark on history such places were transitory. The 'counterculture'
of Germany would likewise eventually fade into an escapist subculture for wealthy
dropouts and their artist friends, but as the apex of a growing counter current
it would have a lasting effect far beyond its origins. The main reason being its strong
influence on the French avant garde and their links with exiled Americans in Paris.


The American connection was two-fold. Firstly a generation of middle class American
writers had become tired of the artificiality and banality of bourgeois society as long
ago as the 1920s, and under the influence of the great American nature mystics,
like Thoreau, Emerson and Whitman, as well as popular orientalism (a particular influence on exiled Englishman James Hilton, author of Lost Horizon), became cultural dissidents, and 'dropped out' in varying degrees. This phenomena was also found at a grassroots level with local mavericks coming under the influence of similar sources, some attempting to revive 'New Ageism' in 20's America (the most famous is George Adamski's Royal Order of Tibet, which spawned the basic tenants of the mythic Ufology of the fifties). Many of this 'Lost Generation' left America completely and ended up living in bohemian districts of Paris (a trend beginning with Ernest Hemmingway and ending with Henry Miller). Here they came into contact with the last of the Parisian avant garde community that had been greatly influenced by the counterculturalism and ideas of Otto Gross. These ideas were assimilated by some of the Americans (particularly Miller) and held as an ideal, even if never actually fully
put into practise. Secondly, American society itself underwent a radical change.
From around 1923 a rebellious 'youth culture' emerged, a cultural shift seeing
revolutions in style, Afro-Euro fusions and trends typical of today's pop culture.

Music became the lifeblood of this alternative subculture. Urban Jazz, Rural Blues
and later hybrids (such as Jive) shaping its modes. More than just a new stylistic,
trends such as outlaw culture, radical politics and flapper feminism also became
popular in an age of prosperity and revolution in moral and sexual codes. Though it
also later became an age of disillusion and cynicism, when such youths grew up and
were faced with the harsher realities of the Great Depression. While not the most
radical of Lost Generation writers F. Scott Fitzgerald became the chronicler of this
period, which became known as the Jazz Age (from the style of music named after
promiscuous sex). In doing so he catalysed a link between this subculture and the
ideas and experiences of the Lost Generation writers. However this still fell short of
a counterculture as its ethos still remained 'dropping out' or 'finding a niche'.

It was not until the late forties and fiftes that things began to change. The grim
'realities' of this grey age moved many to look again at the idea of an 'alternative
society'. At the fore of this were writers such as William Burroughs, who had been
part of the latter days of the Lost Generation, but who saw that times had changed.
Observing the growing drifter culture of the Depression and Post-War years (a
new phase in an American 'drop out' culture that had existed since colonial times),
as well as a still evolving youth subculture, Burroughs applied a radical 'Spenglerian'
analysis and projected a Dionysian subculture that could become the springboard
for wider social change. Influenced by linguistic theory Burroughs realised that changes in language and culture could revolutionize society (see theory section).
It mattered not if these changes were limited to small subcultures, prone to 'sell
outs', Burroughs suggests, because general culture was built from what we now
call 'memes', and change would spread with these memes like a virus, eventually
outpacing any innevitable recuperation. But it took more than analysis, or memes,
to create an awareness of counterculture, and a more existential input came
through his contacts with those who had actally lived this alternative life. Herbert Huncke, Burroughs' drug dealer, was the first point of contact. An 'American Jean Genet', he was a drifter from what he refered to as the Harlem Renaissance (the
'carnivalesque alternative scene of the 30s', a world of drugs and criminal glamour),
Huncke was another living bridge between the Jazz Age, the Lost Generation and the Beats. But it was in another contact that the counterculture was to find its
most eloquent voice. Burroughs became the guru like mentor to Kerouac shortly
before he wrote his seminal 'On The Road', the archetypal text for what became
known as the Beat Generation. In this work Kerouac recounts his friendship with
Neal Cassidy, the poetic drifter, and 'rebel without a cause' (some say) who typified
what Spengler had called the 'Urban Dionysian' (though Kerouac and later Beats
would prefer the name 'Fellaheen', Spengler's term for his primitive, instinctual types, 'in tune with the Cosmos'). An existential concept through which the Beats sought a universal solidarity, particularly with the dispossesed peasants of Mexico (but one criticised by 'Beat feminists' as often retaining elements of male machismo)

Surprisingly, the modern academic Clive Bush describes Cassidy best (or Dean Moriarty as he is known in the novel), 'the holy fool and angel, perhaps most of all
the scapegoat. As well as being the embodiment of social and individual energy in Dionysian form, close to the ecstasy of the jazz rhythms...'. The exchange between the working class drifter, Cassidy, and the college boy poet, Kerouac, enhanced both, with the latter supplying the former with new literary and philosophical sources for his own writing (Proust being an obvious primary influence, but also Santayana, Dostoevsky and Nietzsche were favoured), and the former introducing the latter to their existential reality. Cassidy had more than a few similarities to Huncke, both being the last embodiments of a counter current launched by the Lost Generation, but Cassidy was also something new. This new element would be the defining character shared by the Beats. Most succinctly described as 'an ambition to recover a sense of self which married a visionary tradition to a recovery of individual worth which challenged the tacit norms and values of postwar America'. Though of course it was a lot more too, it was an attempted subversion of 'the apparent consensus of the suburban American dream'. Drawing on a variety of eclectic sources (partly from the Lost Generation's library, but also from texts introduced by others, Burroughs mainly, who, to name a few, brought them Rimbaud, Apollinaire, Breton, Tzara, Artaud, Genet, Kafka, Reich, Cocteau, Spengler, Huncke and most importantly W C Fields), the Beat poets created free style Proustian poetic that inspired a new generation of the dissatisfied. Perhaps most importantly it was also another attempt to create a spiritual metaphysic with which to underwrite their 'personal authenticity'. A factor taken to extremes by camp followers and fellow travellers who would launch the forerunners of todays religious (and Ufological) cults. Even Cassidy later became a devout disciple of the psychism of Edgar Cayce
and other pop mystics. Though like other more critical Beat visionaries he also came
under the influence of genuine mystics, such as Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (as the
well as the required Orientalism that had been a staple diet of malcontents since
1923). A whole new literary genre of Beat poetry emerged from all this (physically
focused on new Bohemian districts of New York and the San Francisco bookshop
'City Lights' of anarchist poet and Beat convert Lawrence Ferlinghetti). One of the
greatest examplars of this new genre, Allen Ginsberg, intensified the mystical
strand, and in particular its message of love, inspired by William Blake (much to the
dismay of William Burroughs, Ginsberg's early mentor, and an arch mystical nihilist,
in the tradition of his 'hero' the legendary Hassan Sabah, master of the Hashassin).


However in terms of emerging counterculture it was not so much the Beat literary
elite that was interesting, but the subculture that coalesced around them, the
'beatniks' as the mass media would call them. And it is to these we now turn.

Firstly it should be observed that the 'beatnik' counterculture was not simply a fan
club for a handful of radical poets, or a fashion craze for goatees, berets and black
polonecks, though neither was it a completely separate socio-cultural development.
It was an evolution of the youth culture that began in the 20s, or perhaps more
accurately an intellectual faction of it (influenced by those Lost Generation writers
who chose to comment on it). It was also fed from the 'drop out' culture and the
contemporary 'drifters' who instantiated it then. It that sence it is best understood
sociologically from a genealogical perspective, one that includes material conditions
(Marxists were never completely stupid) and socio-psychological ones. However it
remains the case that this evolving subculture was very much shaped by the writings
of the Beat Generation, which were themselves partly commentaries on this social
reality. It might be said that there was a creative dialectic or feedback loop between
the bottom up sociological reality and the top down ideological form. And this has
been the case for countercultural evolution ever since. It was from these first real
counterculturalists that what we call the counterculture emerged. Many had fully
taken onboard Burroughs' definition of them as catalysts for change, though this
was not universally accepted by any means. Many others saw the 'movement' as
just a youthful escapism in which they 'lived for kicks' (though the two visions are
not necessarily incompatable). Both views would deny an overt plan to 'change the
world' as naive and missing the point. The point being to start to live for real. A
sharper difference was the problem of engagement. Many beatniks (and Beats)
promoted a Buddhist like detachment from the world (the very term 'beat' was said
to have a double meaning, on the one hand those that were 'beat' in their hopes
for social reform or a better life on society's margins, hopes inspired by the early
Lost Generation writers, and experienced a world wearyness typical of their age;
and on the other a Catholic 'beat-itude', the spiritual serenity before Sainthood!).
Not surprisingly this led to pessimistic and cynical views on politics. Others, more
politically conscious, or justice orientated, called instead for a greater engagement
with the world, rather than adopting an irresponsible opt out, a view championed by
anarchistic radical Ferlinghetti with his slogan 'only the dead are disengaged' (who
redefined 'beat' in terms of rhythm and entunement). All these splits were to remain
as counterculture evolved (and still do). As Beatnik culture itself evolved the effects
predicted by Burroughs emerged. The virus spread into the mainstream and a broad
spectrum of cultural forms evolved. Ranging from extreme beatnik dropouts at one
extreme (such as Bukowski, who was always a true Beat despite denials), to a new
'cool' liberalism amongst the middle classes at the other (and of course all points in
between). Some critics have argued this demontrated the watering down of radical
minority subcultures (who perhaps merely served as the avant garde of bourgeois
liberalism), more thoughtful observers have pointed out that history is not over yet!

The rich eclecticism of the Beat Generation gave birth to a diverse and pluralistic
early sixties counterculture that evolved from the beatniks, the arrival of Rock & Roll
being one of the few commonalities between diverging sects. While the engaged 'conscious' sector were unified by new psychological and environmental concerns.
However a dominant form was to soon emerge. The key event of which was
the encounter of the Beats with a then eminent psychologist called Timothy Leary.
This development is so well known that little needs to be said about the use of
psycho-active drugs within the counterculture. Drugs were not new within
counterculture, the beatniks were devout hash users, and many experimented with
heavier narcotics and stimulants; anarchist Otto Gross (the 'great grandfather of
counterculture') was a heavy drug user, and the fin de siecle which influenced him
was an age of drugs of all kinds (ranging from Absinthe to Opium); even the
'ancestors', such as those esoteric French revolutionaries in the Palais Royal, were
renowned for their drug dens; all of which obviously originated with the ancients,
particular in the Mysteries of Dionysos (which specialised in all active intoxicants, not
just wine!), and of course their Shamanic precursors. But ironically it took a modern
scientist to reintroduce 'hallucinogens' to the culture, and the Psychedelic Age was
born. It is not hard to see the attractions of the Beats for a drug that stimulated the
imagination, broke habitual psychological patterns, opened doors to the unconscious
and liberated fixed thought patterns into a free flowing mode of consciousness. Nor
to predict the effect this would have on the cultures evolution. With some finding
adventure in the 'deep space' of pure psychedelia (a diverse company ranging from Ken Kesey's 'Merry Pranksters' to the Discordians of Kerry Thornley and co, made (in)famous by the seminal writings of Robert Anton Wilson); others just self
'reprogrammed' into newer, experimental 'mindsets'. The principle examples of the
latter type would become known as the 'hippys', a reworking of the Afro slang term
hip, meaning 'in tune'. Hippy culture was primarily influenced by Allen Ginsberg's
perception of the world and expanded (partly through initial popularity and partly
due to media hype) to become the dominant mode of counterculture of the late
sixties and early seventies. It is recent and well known enough not to need much
more comment in this introduction. Its defining features being a deep mysticism, a pacific, 'flower power' ethos, and an intensification of the Beat's concept of 'free sex' into, an often more platonic, 'free love'. It was an ethos of passive radicalism.


Not all aspects of sixties counterculture were hippy though by any means, while
'hippy' became a derogatory term for all sixties counterculture, it still remained a
diverse and pluralistic phenomenon. One counter example to the the real hippies
was the wider movement around the anarcho-socialist, agit-prop, surrealist group
known as the 'Diggers'. While as fashionably esoteric and psychedelic as the hippies,
the Diggers mysticism was far darker and more occult, being influenced more by
Burrough's (still a cult figure) than Ginsberg. They were also shamelessly 'active'
and 'disruptive', vitalising the emerging sixties protest movement. In many ways
they manifested the truely Dionysian. They would also have a great influence
through their inspiration on others, such as Abby Hoffman and his pranksterish
'Yippies', and the darker psychedelic terrorism of the Weathermen. Darker elements
still were found amongst the Digger's 'friends' in the 'Hell's Angels' and other
emerging biker cults. The pathological repercussions of these darker aspects, in
the mentally unstable, would influence (and be influenced by) socalled 'acid fascism'
and the likes of Charles Manson. Perhaps, in the main, it was fortunate that the
hippies remained the dominant force throughout all this (until Altamont)!



One important development of sixties counterculture was its internationalism. While
the Beats had become internationally famous and inspired similarly trends overseas,
it was not until the sixties that counterculture caught on in any big way beyond the
boundaries of the United States. Today it is almost everywhere and constitutes a
true internationalism. Of course each countries counterculture reflects its own
culture. Britain took up the counterculture with particular enthusiasm, and would be
its second home when America took a more reactionary stance. We shall return here
later, but first another country becomes important as we return again to France.


Being the origination point for much of American Counterculture it is not surprising to
find France being very receptive to its reimportation. Of course with its own avant
garde history France would not simply adopt the new culture, but would absorb it
into its own traditions and generate its own Counterculture. This was largely a post-
surrealist tradition, that had been influenced by the 'foreign exiles' of Paris and also
immigrant artists from North Africa who had touched base with the Beats in Algiers.


The most facinating figure in this French scene in the 50's was without doubt Ivan
Chtcheglov / Gilles Ivain, a teenage Russian artist who joined the Paris based
Lettrist International, developing the practise that became known as the 'derive'
(a 'psycho-geographical' spontaneous 'drift', through the archetectural and social
labyrinth of the modern urban environment, attracting surreal random encounters).
Parallel to which he also developed what he called a 'catalytic language of symbols',
that would attempt to 'subvert' the meaning of archetypal or stereotypical images
(particularly of consumer adverts), an idea resonant with Burroughs' virus theory.
The Lettrists were a socio-political, post-surrealist group, that preceeded the even
more influencial Situationist International, and Chtcheglov was to become one of
their leading lights. One of the first avant garde groups to be influenced by the
emerging Counterculture, many Lettrists (like their predecessors, Andre Breton and
the Surrealists) desirous of more 'concrete' and goal orientated cultural projects
(rather than individual 'mystical' experience), attempted to combine the traditional
'avant garde' approach not only with the new Americana, but also with a then
fashionable libertarian Marxism, so as to make it more 'politically relevant'. One of
the chief architects of this policy was Chtcheglov's friend and early derive partner,
Guy Debord. However Chtcheglov had little interest in such intellectual gameplaying,
and like his American counterparts thought ideal plans to 'change the world' naive
at best. The real Revolution he recognised was existential. Guy Debord initially
sympathised with this view, but as time went on became impatient with his friend's
'mindless' mysticism and occultism (like the Americans, Chtcheglov was steeped in
Hermeticism, neo-paganism and Orientalism). Soon after, Chtchelov was suddenly
and dramatically expelled from the Lettrist International for 'lack of revolutionary
consciousness', 'mythomania' and 'delirium'. Ending his life in an asylum following
his subsequent breakdown. Debord never forgot Chtchelov though, making him an
absent member of his new 'Situationist International', took his ideas and reworked
them into a 'situationist' revolutionary paradigm based on libertarian Marxism, now
informed by the Dionysian theories of Theodore Adorno and the Frankfurt School,
as well as other late Marxist ideas. Becoming ever more the Communist vanguardist
however, Debord expelled many Situationists who disagreed with him, particularly
those who flirted with occult ideas, such as AsgerJorn. Some of the Situationists
retained a more libertarian spirit, closer to Chtcheglov's, notably Raoul Vaneigem.
But even these were careful to disassociate themselves from 'mysticism' and
'mythomania', thus avoiding expulsion, until the S.I finally collapsed following the failure of the Situ inspired 1968 uprising, and Debord's increasing dogmatism (for
more on the SI see politics section). Towards the end of this period American and
British exiles brought a purer version of Counterculture to France, but alas the
increasingly leftist Situationists shunned them as 'decadent bourgeois' with no
'Revolutionary consciousness'. In turn the 'Hippies' dismissed the Marxist SI as
'authoritarian' and 'nothing but talk about Revolution, political, social and sexual'
while they 'lived it ' in all its forms. One SI member who bucked this trend (before
being expelled) was the Scottish Situationist Alexander Trocchi. Trocchi went on to
become a major influence on international Counterculture. One still relevent today.





UNFINISHED PAGE

 

 

construction/writing notes

influence on counterculture

The Doors and Hendrix

Secret State Reaction

Cultural Reaction

Patti Smith and the Rebels

PUNK (and black counter culture)

POST-Punk

RAVE

Zippy Culture

The future

assessment of counterculture to date

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

'Release the virus into the system.' William Burroughs.

 

 

 

WAR OR PEACE?

 

'An eye for an eye and the whole world is blind' Ghandi

 

'Anger is an energy' John Lydon

 

NO PEACE WITHOUT JUSTICE!