| OCR Text |
Show ' ,?; "FORBETTER ' ; v By BoHixorT- CROSSFIRE Living the life style of the counter culture can be an unsettling experience. The mind is constantly grappling with stress-producing situations. situa-tions. Among these are two especially troublesome circumstances: one an irony, the other a dilemma. First the dilemma. When a person first finds himself toying with the ideas of the subculture, he notices a parallel rise in the conflicts between himself and his environment. Take his job environment, for example. Suddenly he finds himself challenging the traditional views held by his more conservative co-workers. No longer does he let a careless generalization go by without revision. No longer does he accept the cliches and platitudes tossed around so freely during a debate on politics or the war. What this all leads to is a new-found source of uneasiness for the would be free thinker. For the first time he notices that he is different. He notices that he is skeptical and critical of the thinking Patterns of the majority around him. Slowly but surely he is remaking himself. With his circle of life-long friends and family he also sees a change. He may not argue with them ke he does with those at work, but he finds himself outside their circles of interest. Where they are interested in family talk, the neighbors, and he next vacation, he is possessed by thoughts of social events, school, and peace. His interests are simply not in the same ballpark. As a result, he either becomes reticent and less involved in conversation con-versation or he becomes agitated and a source of cnflict in conversation. The dilemma for such a black sheep in the family Solves around the overall phenomenon of his J way of thinking-not the particular incidents his life. That is, he's not bothered by the fact at he nw detests the hawkish beliefs of his jnds on the job. He's bothered by the simple : rareness that he thinks differently than they do. eFr fhe first time in his life he is voluntarily of r"h8 3 minority Position in society. The effects ucn a change can only be appreciated by those who know. . .by those who have tried it. . .by those who are not in the majority. The rebel now begins to feel the pains of insecurity, insecu-rity, aloneness, and doubt He feels alone because he has left the majority behind him. He feels insecure because he is exploring a whole new lifestyle that he's not quite sure how to handle. He doubts himself simply because a loner is deprived of the reinforcement enjoyed by one who has the crowd to reassure him. In short, the rebel has jumped his niche. He is now a free thinker. He has abandoned the behavior pattern of "nichism." Most people find the security they need in life by sliding into a special groove they feel comfortable in. There are many niches: religious, political, social, occupational, fraternal, academic, esthetic. What particular groove they choose is immaterial. But once in it, they are free from doubt and free from worry. Niche-philosophy is designed to comfort com-fort its followers. They have a consistent rationale to fall back on. Most niches provide handy, ready-made answers for the problems of its occupants. occu-pants. The rebel, however, enjoys a few of the comforts provided by a niche. As each and every new experience touches his life he doesn't look back to a groove-philosophy for instructions. He undertakes under-takes instead, the exciting challenge to discover a new answer. Shackled by none of the myths and dogmas of the niche man, he strikes out to resolve each experience anew. It is from the above characterization that the dilemma of the rebel arises. The one time groove man, having jumped his groove, must resolve the conflict between the comfortable consistency and reinforcement of his old life and the insecurity and aloneness of the new. Only one thought secures him. He can never go back. What he has found is too much better than what he left. (Next time: the irony.) |
