Does it make sense to be a conservative public interest lawyer that’s seen The Rolling Stones in concert (twice) and is currently poring over The History of Surfing? Attempting to reconcile seemingly unrelated versions of myself, one day it all lined up—it wasn’t ragged Vans, steel drums, or Keith Richards that really held my interest. It was the mindset of the counterculture, the idea of not being able to be controlled, of rejecting a pre-ordained life plan. (Even more fitting that my poem of choice for fifth grade poetry recitation was Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.”) The underlying theme of fringe culture and modern-day conservatism is to question everything.
Being a conservative today is frankly unpopular. It’s very fitting considering the definition of counterculture is “a culture with values and mores that run counter to those of an established society.” Today’s “established society” acts the same as the squares former generations rebelled against, it just looks different. The aspect of control is the same. In order to be accepted socially and not pulled from social media, one must accept that “white privilege” is “oppressive,” march with fists held high at a BLM protest to not be “complicit” with perpetuating racism, and enforce a heckler’s veto when a political pundit from another party comes to speak on campus. Not supporting the left’s agenda leads to McCarthy-like accusations of racism.
Although “woke” culture proponents think of themselves as rebellious simply because they’re setting cities ablaze in the name of George Floyd, they’re all controlled by the same puppeteer. Groupthink is antithetical to an anti-establishment mindset.
Counterculture Through the Decades
What words illustrate what “counterculture” truly means? Perhaps disobedience, insubordination, highly critical, alternative, or anti-establishment.
What forms has counterculture taken? Surf culture of the ‘50s and ‘60s—a traditional 9–5 was secondary to the swell; the fantasy of the Endless Summer turned lifestyle. Hippies of the ‘60s and ‘70s were fighting to keep the “man” from telling them how white their shirts can be (the establishment was not to their satisfaction).
Grunge music of the ‘80s and ‘90s were embodied by grunge god Kurt Cobain appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone wearing a “Corporate Magazines Still Suck” t-shirt. Counterculture ran far away from Leave It to Beaver norms and forged a path of independent thinking and restlessness. So where does that leave counterculture today?
Counterculture Today
Today, the anti-establishment mindset is found amongst the most unlikely group—liberty-minded, freedom-loving conservatives. How are conservatives standing up against mainstream society and the government akin to their misbehaved predecessors? Well, by fighting for free speech rights.
To be clear, cancel culture is not counterculture. Today, leftists have stepped in the shoes of the authority they despised, the authority they protested.
In 1964, nearly 800 students were arrested on Berkeley’s campus for protesting the university’s strict speech rules that did not allow political activity on campus. Now, Berkeley is nothing more than a real-life Twitter-feed, barricading its campus from ideas that don’t echo the left. It’s surprising Ben Shapiro was allowed to set foot on campus and preach his “extremist” views on critical thinking. Oh, the hypocrisy.
Earlier this year, Yale law students shut down a Federalist Society debate between a Christian conservative and an atheist liberal. Taking the microphone away from a group you disagree with does not scream “champion of free speech” like the left used to so proudly tout. Leftists have forgotten that “compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard.”[1]
Conservatives were forced to create new social media platforms—such as Gettr, Parler, and Rumble, to name a few—because massive left-wing corporations silenced non-conforming right-leaning speakers. One of the most successful podcasts, The Joe Rogan Experience, was almost another casualty of cancel culture because Joe Rogan questioned the COVID-19 vaccine. The left is eating its own considering Rogan is not even conservative. Since when did counterculture involve mindlessly lining up with the masses to receive another dose? The left cowers to Big Brother, and fear is not a trait of the disobedient.
Today, a typical Black Lives Matter protest is full of half-shaved heads, neon hair, Doc Martens, and Nirvana t-shirts. Liberals may look the part of past countercultures, but the ideology of conservatives carries the torch of the anti-establishment attitude. As unpopular as it is to be conservative, just like Robert Frost, “I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
[1] W. Va. State Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 641 (1943)