The Cultural War on Fun

            The war on fun continues.  Think this doesn’t affect you?  Are you *ahem* a dopefiend, homosexual, polygamist, musician, artist, pagan, herbalist, or a psychic?  Do you live on a commune or other shared living arrangement?  Do you not contribute or conform to societal norms?  Do you enjoy bondage, pornography, tattoos, sex toys, or Suicide Girls™?  Well then this war is against you and anyone else who enjoys an activity that doesn’t contribute to the cultural milieu in a “positive and wholesome” way.

            I call this the war on fun because these are all essentially harmless activities and proclivities that the government bans, regulates or censors in one form another for no reason other than that they do not fit in with prevailing cultural ideals.  They don’t contribute to making America strong.  They are a perverting influence on industry and conformity.  What is illegal is basically not participating in the culture.  Living on a commune or having more than one wife in a single household brings happiness and fulfillment to all involved, but don’t contribute to society.

            Drug use and masturbation (the general use for porn) make people feel good without contributing to society.  People find out they can feel good without a big paycheck and a 9-5 job and they might start dropping out of the culture.  But how is this enjoyment wrong?  How does it do any real damage to others?

            Let’s say that it does, in fact remove people from the culture, should it be illegal, no.  Law is to safeguard rights, not culture or community, but that is how laws are used.  They are used to safeguard the status quo.  When you go to a shrink do they try to make you feel good about yourself and point you towards happiness or do they try to mold you towards societal norms so that you can fit in.  My bet is most lean towards the latter, rather than the former and most view that as their job.

            The government doesn’t like people being happy.  This isn’t a conscious decision mind you.  No one sits down and declares, “You know it pisses me off when people are happy,” but what comes out is a war on happiness for happiness’ sake.  The puritan ideal that happiness without toil or some unhappiness is sinful and wrong drives this war on fun.

            It freaks out the Western cultural mind to see happiness without guilt.  Our culture likes contentment, not happiness.  Happiness is the same as euphoria and enthusiasm the same as mania.  Anyone who makes an impact on us tends to start as an outcast, not accepted by mainstream culture.  This would indicate to me that conformity is, in fact, our culture and fun doesn’t fit in, happiness doesn’t fit in.  Anyone who preaches happiness is shut down and vilified.

            When homosexuals have sex it bothers the establishment because it is not attached to the pain and responsibility of child birth.  When an old hippie drops acid it bothers the establishment because he his happy outside any cultural role.  When happiness comes without guilt or work or pain the reaction of the puritan instinct is to cringe and cry perversion.  Stop it.  There is nothing wrong with being happy. And there is nothing wrong with enjoyment.

            Socrates was killed for corrupting the young because he gave them an alternative to current culture.  He didn’t just question the leaders, he questioned their culture.  When an idea threatens our culture we attack it instead of letting it be.  People get a little twitchy nowadays if you seem to independent.  Try living on your own outside the cultural/industrial complex and you are a psychopath, and that doesn’t sound right to me.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

 •    •    •    •    •    •    •