The Impertinence of Counterculture
A review of Living in a World That Can’t Be Fixed by Curtis White
It’s hard to think of counterculture as leading rather than rebelling. It plays a vital role in countering norms in any place where norms exist to preserve themselves and the institutions they serve, which, of course, is all places. The status quo is not nefarious so much as it’s inevitable—or maybe it’s both. So it’s not enough for counterculture to rebel. Rather, it should seek to replace a discredited culture with a more humane, sustainable, and less vulgar one. To rebel is to fight back; to replace is to fill a void of meaning with
