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This might age me, but I have always loved the music of Peter, Paul, and Mary<\/em>.\u00a0 Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey, and Mary Travers began performing together in Grenache Village in the early 1960\u2019s.\u00a0 Their music was traditional American Folk, and they popularized such songs as Lemon Tree<\/em>, 500 Miles<\/em>, and Puff the Magic Dragon<\/em>.\u00a0 They got involved in the American Civil Rights Movement in 1963 and were well known for their renditions of If I Had a Hammer<\/em> and Bob Dylan\u2019s Blowin\u2019 in the Wind<\/em> and The Times They are a-Changin<\/em>.\u00a0 I would listen to their harmonies and lyrics for hours, not realizing at the time that some of these tunes were extremely radical for their day.\u00a0 This was counter-cultural music at its finest.\u00a0 I loved it deeply; it shaped my life.\u00a0 Peter, Paul, and Mary<\/em> broke up in the 1970\u2019s but reunited in 1981 (the year I was married).\u00a0 Their music continued to have a culture-questioning attitude, but also included many \u201cneutral\u201d songs as well.\u00a0 They were a musical team that became famous, but for the most part, they stuck to their counter-cultural values.\u00a0 I admired them for that for I, too, questioned popular culture; I still do much of the time.<\/p>\n One of the Peter, Paul, and Mary songs came back to my mind as I read our text for this week.\u00a0 The name of the song is The Great Mandala<\/em> (The Circle of Life). \u00a0http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xpIh68Kh_-s<\/a><\/p>\n So I told him that he\u2019d better shut his mouth Chorus:<\/em><\/p>\n Take your place on The Great Mandala Tell the jailer not to bother Tell the people they are safe now We are free now, we can kill now, Take your place on The Great Mandala This song speaks to the idea that we all take our individual places in life, like a wheel, that revolves again and again.\u00a0 The Great Mandala<\/em> is a wheel in Buddhist tradition.\u00a0 It represents life as a cycle.\u00a0 What happens today usually returns tomorrow\u2026in time.\u00a0 But what do we do with our lives, with our \u201cbrief moment of time\u201d?\u00a0 What kinds of impact will each of make on the societies and cultures to which we belong as our lives unfold?\u00a0 Will we be dissenters, <\/em>standing up for what is right, or social deviants,<\/em> who destroy society for the sake of creating radical change to the existing \u201csystem.\u201d<\/p>\n In their interesting book, Nation of Rebels[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter argue that counter-cultural movements often join the consumer culture and actually contribute to the very system against which they are rebelling.\u00a0 Using a variety of examples from History and popular culture (particularly films), the authors paint a picture that does not embrace the \u201cmyth\u201d that counter-cultural movements are successful in their attempts to influence mainstream culture as they intend.\u00a0 Heath and Potter state, \u201cThe countercultural critique\u2026is so vast and all-encompassing that it is difficult to imagine what could possible count as \u2018fixing things.\u2019\u00a0 What limits our freedom, according to this view, is not some specific set of institutions, but rather, the institutions in general.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 As a result of this mindset, many movements have attacked mainstream culture and politics.\u00a0 So what would a society look like without law, without social norms?\u00a0 Obviously, reason the authors, there would be chaos and cacophony.\u00a0 According to the authors, \u201cEveryone can benefit from having some rules, even those who are doing their utmost to break the rules of society.\u201d[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Heath and Potter continue, making a valuable point about the difference between dissent and deviance:<\/p>\n Some kind of social control is required in order to maintain the system that generates the mutual benefits [to society] \u2013 hence the punishments for disobedience.\u00a0 Yet this does not mean that all social norms are tyrannical or coercive, and it does not mean that those who obey are simply conformists or cowards.\u00a0 They are known as \u201cgood citizens.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Thus it is important to draw a distinction between acts of rebellion that challenge senseless or outdated conventions and those that violate legitimate social norms.\u00a0 We must distinguish, in other words, between dissent<\/em> and deviance<\/em>.\u00a0 Dissent is like civil disobedience.\u00a0 It occurs when people are willing in principle to play by the rules but have genuine, good-faith objections to the specific content of the prevailing set of rules.\u00a0 They disobey despite<\/em> the consequences that these actions may incur.\u00a0 Deviance, on the other hand, occurs when people disobey the rules for self-interested reasons.\u00a0 The two can be very difficult to tell apart, partly because people will often try to justify deviant conduct as a form of dissent, but also because of the powers of self-delusion.\u00a0 Many people who are engaged in deviant conduct genuinely believe that what they are doing is a form of dissent.[4]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Our text makes clear distinctions between behaviors that are self-centered and behaviors that are other-centered.\u00a0 The authors have a simple and thoughtful test for discovering the difference between deviance and dissent.\u00a0 This test comes in the form of a question: \u201cWhat if everyone did that\u2014would it make the world a better place to live<\/em>?\u201d[5]<\/a>\u00a0 This is a great question.\u00a0 Here is another great question:\u00a0 \u201cWhat is normal?\u201d\u00a0 How do we measure \u201cnormal\u201d from one culture to another, from one society to another, from one generation to another?\u00a0 What are the cultural norms?\u00a0 Are they good or bad, right or wrong?\u00a0 Is a person a fool who breaks his or her cultural norms?\u00a0 Heath and Potter point out that \u201cbeing normal\u201d reduces cultural strain.\u00a0 Anything outside the normal rules or responses causes a person to be culturally stressed.<\/p>\n I lived in Egypt for two years in the early 1990\u2019s where I taught English to 74 fifth-grade Egyptian students in \u201cUpper Egypt.\u201d\u00a0 At first everything was exotic and fun: donkeys braying in the streets, the Muslim call to prayer, the Arabic language, the music, and especially the people.\u00a0 But then the realities of living in a different culture set in.\u00a0 What I had appreciated early on now annoyed me: the noise, the heat, the crowded streets, the lack of understanding of language, the lack of social cue awareness, and all the inconveniences.\u00a0 In my journal I wrote such entries as, \u201cEgyptians are stupid; they are all stupid!\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI can\u2019t stand the Arabic language; I will never get this culture.\u201d\u00a0 On went 400 pages of frustration, cursing, and self-pity.\u00a0 It was pathetic.\u00a0 I wanted to come home where everything was familiar, where they spoke English, and where I was \u201cnormal.\u201d\u00a0 I studied this in grad school for goodness sake!\u00a0 I was a missionary!\u00a0 I should have known what to do, but I was slowly consumed by culture stress.\u00a0 Heath and Potter nail it when they say, \u201cLife without culture, in other words, would be a state of permanent culture shock.\u201d[6]<\/a>\u00a0 They are spot on when it comes to needing one\u2019s own culture \u2013 which we always take for granted.\u00a0 By the way, I finally did adjust to the Egyptian culture, but it took well over a year.\u00a0 In fact, I cried the day we left and I still miss being there.<\/p>\n If one does not like the culture, does one need to reject it?\u00a0 According to our text, when someone decides to start a counter-cultural movement, that movement, or at least the symbols that represent the movement, are often swallowed up and incorporated into \u201cthe system\u201d anyway.\u00a0 Think about the hippie and punk rock sub-cultures.\u00a0 As radical as these movements seemed in their infancies, so much of what they valued has now been assimilated into mainstream culture.\u00a0 Heath and Potter give a long list of things that were at one time considered subversive but that now are a part of popular culture.\u00a0 Here are a few examples from their list: long hair for men, short hair for women, beards, miniskirts, jazz music, punk music, rap music, tattoos, surfing, piercings, homosexuality, torn clothing, marijuana, afros (which I had in the 70\u2019s), plaid pants (which I might have in the next decade), organic vegetables, army boots.\u00a0 I can add a lot of other items to this list; we all could.\u00a0 This brings us back to our big question:\u00a0 What if everyone did that\u2014would it make the world a better place to live<\/em>?\u00a0 This is an important question that we all need to consider.\u00a0 What do I do in life that influences others?\u00a0 Am I making the world a better place to live, or am I simply contributing to a list of items that has merely become a part of our consumeristic culture?\u00a0 What if everyone did what I do?\u00a0 What would the world look like then?<\/p>\n About 20 years ago I accomplished one of my life goals.\u00a0 I saw in the paper that Peter, Paul, and Mary<\/em> were coming to town, so I immediately purchased tickets.\u00a0 I was surrounded by hundreds of other graying middle-aged men and women in downtown Portland who also loved the music of the 60\u2019s.\u00a0 It was a rousing three hours.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want it to stop.\u00a0 And what was their last song?\u00a0 You guessed it\u2026<\/p>\n Take your place on The Great Mandala
\n<\/em>So I told him that he\u2019d better shut his mouth
\n<\/em>And do his job like a man.
\n<\/em>And he answered \u201cListen, Father,
\n<\/em>I will never kill another.\u201d
\n<\/em>He thinks he\u2019s better
\n<\/em>than his brother that died
\n<\/em>What the hell does he think he\u2019s doing
\n<\/em>To his father who brought him up right?<\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/strong>As it moves through your brief moment of time.
\n<\/strong>Win or lose now you must choose now
\n<\/strong>And if you lose you\u2019re only losing your life.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nWith his meal of bread and water today.
\nHe is fasting \u2018til the killing\u2019s over
\nHe\u2019s a martyr, he thinks he\u2019s a prophet.
\nBut he\u2019s a coward, he\u2019s just playing a game
\nHe can\u2019t do it, he can\u2019t change it
\nIt\u2019s been going on for ten thousand years<\/em><\/p>\n
\nHunger stopped him, he lies still in his cell.
\nDeath has gagged his accusations<\/em><\/p>\n
\nWe can hate now, now we can end the world
\nWe\u2019re not guilty, he was crazy
\nAnd it\u2019s been going on for ten thousand years!<\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/em><\/strong>As it moves through your brief moment of time.
\n<\/strong>Win or lose now you must choose now
\n<\/strong>And if you lose you\u2019ve only wasted your life.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nAs it moves through your brief moment of time.
\nWin or lose now you must choose now
\nAnd if you lose you\u2019ve only wasted your life.<\/em><\/p>\n