“Fuckin’ Hippie!”: Thoughts on the Urgency of a Critical Society

We live in a society that abhors freethinking.  Thinking that challenges the status quo is immediately marginalized by the mainstreamers of society.  Critical thinkers are dismissed as fanatics, hippies, communists, etc.  Quick labels that sweep confrontation under the rug at the first sign of disobedience.  Individualism it seems has been designated to the fetishized wonderland of consumer spaces.  (Spaces which have crept into every facet of our daily lives).  Only then do we seek to peacock ourselves over the crowd and screech our consumer chorus: “Buy me!”

The version of reality that people develop through their lives is extremely resilient to change.  The mind employs a number of defense mechanisms which attempt to maintain and reproduce its conception of the real.  To question widely accepted ‘truths’ creates a distressing degree of discomfort.  This discomfort leads to shame, shame to anger and anger to an irrational, fear-based refusal to contemplate alternative viewpoints.  The chilling prospect of public ridicule, or worse still social exclusion, is so intense that death, so long as it is coupled with a sense of belonging, is a much more desirable fate for most.  Conformity is the soothing refuge of the consumer society.    “Sssshhhhhhh!  The television is singing our song.”

Without criticism, we are the walking dead.  Our existence is relegated to the unconscious reproduction of the very systems that enslave us.  Uncritical recognition of social structures is the source of contemporary slavery.  It is the definitive forfeiture of our inalienable right to impact the social world. Critical thinking is the most valuable weapon that citizens have in the protection of freedom and the imposition of the right to a dignified existence. Citizens that voyage the social terrain unarmed with this basic tool are defenseless, and ultimately doomed to the oblivious acceptance of social control. One fleet of empty vessels floating along in time and space to the pacifying rhythm of consumer jingles.  “Everything is for sale!”

So seek out the ‘truth’.  Assume nothing.  Disobey, explore, question, and criticize. These are the true expressions of a free society.  Challenge your friends, colleagues, family members, and political representatives.  Challenge everyone you know.  But most importantly, challenge yourself.  Cause if you truly value your freedom you are going to have to be prepared to wake up and fight for it.  “Fuckin’ hypocrite!”

Note: This article/blog is largely a concoction of the views of four brilliant philosophers that have enduringly pursued a more conscious citizenship: John Ralston Saul, Zygmunt Bauman, Jean Baudrillard and C Wright Mills.  If these views appeal to you, please contact me for more information.