Counterculture Alex Guenther A man stands before you wearing a business suit, and standing right next to him

is a man of about the same size, same look, but he is wearing a toga. The man wearing the toga is a part of a counterculture. The word counterculture is often correlated to the hippies of the 60s and the rebels of Woodstock but what is commonly overlooked is that there are countercultures all around us in today s society. A counterculture is a culture with values and mores that run counter to those of established society. With that understanding of the word, a whole world of countercultures becomes clear to the eye of the public. If one were to look at each individual social norm that has been set in stone by modern day society, they would find that there is a group that counters almost every single one of those social norms on a daily basis. Some people are inducted into different countercultures because they see it as there only way out of poverty and the poor life they see ahead of them, as in the case of gangs. Others see being a part of the counterculture as a way of truly expressing themselves, as is the case in the emo kids of society. Whereas others stand for change, as was the case in the 60s with protesting and defiance of the laws put into place back there. Music has also held a strong prevalence of the counterculture. The homosexuals of society stand directly in the middle of one of the most controversial issues worldwide at the moment. This is because they have stepped out of what is the social norm of heterosexual relations. Some stand firmly against while some encourage the legalization of same sex marriage. It was initially established in essence as a counterculture in the 60s, and has maintained members since the group s beginnings. The idea of a girl being attracted to another girl in the eyes of a straight woman may be simply repulsive, but to the girl, it is what she feels, and by suppressing her true feelings she becomes severely depressed and struggles to grasp reality as whole, because she doesn t know what is allowed, or not. Eventually I m sure that the issue will come to an end, but as to which side is going to win the argument, that is still extremely unclear. Then there is the stoner society of today. Once more carrying on a legacy started in the 60s. They are found to be in what will probably be an everlasting battle about the legalization of marijuana. To them marijuana controls their lives as a whole. It s all they think about, and all they do on weekends is sit around getting high with their buddies. Smoking weed is severely frowned upon by most of American society, but in retrospect, 41% of Americans have admitted to trying marijuana and 10% have admitted to smoking it in the past year. Seems a little oxymoronic. As different as those two countercultures may seem, they can be compared to show the ideas of almost any counterculture out there. They both stand up for what they believe to be right, and are defiant about it. They both are carrying on a long history of many like them, they both find themselves looked down upon in current day society, they both suffer many challenges and roadblocks put in there way by modern day society just as all countercultures. Countercultures see breaking social norms as a way to break out of a typically stressful and grueling life.