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As long as there has been culture, there
has been counterculture. At times it moves deep below the
surface of things, a stealth mode of being all but invisible
to the dominant paradigm; at other times it's in plain sight,
challenging the status quo; and at still other times it
erupts in a fiery burst of creative -- or destructive --
energy to change the world forever. But until now the countercultural
phenomenon has been one of history's great blind spots.
Individual countercultures have been explored, but never
before has a book set out to demonstrate the recurring nature
of counterculturalism across all times and societies, and
to illustrate its dynamic role in the continuous evolution
of human values and cultures.
Countercultural pundit and cyberguru R.
U. Sirius brilliantly sets the record straight in this colorful,
anecdotal, and wide-ranging study based on ideas developed
by the late Timothy Leary with Dan Joy. With a distinctive
mix of scholarly erudition and gonzo passion, Sirius and
Joy identify the distinguishing characteristics of countercultures,
delving into history and myth to establish beyond doubt
that, for all their surface differences, countercultures
share important underlying principles: individualism, anti-authoritarianism,
and a belief in the possibility of personal and social transformation.
Ranging from the Socratic
counterculture of ancient Athens and the outsider movements
of Judaism, which left indelible marks on Western culture,
to the Taoist, Sufi, and Zen Buddhist countercultures, which
were equally influential in the East, to the famous countercultural
movements of the last century -- Paris in the twenties,
Haight-Ashbury in the sixties, Tropicalismo, women's liberation,
punk rock -- to the cutting-edge countercultures of the
twenty-first century, which combine science, art, music,
technology, politics, and religion in astonishing (and sometimes
disturbing) new ways. Counterculture Through the Ages
is an indispensable guidebook to where we've been... and
where we're going.
Ken Goffman, a.k.a. R. U. Sirius, is
a well-known cultural commentator and co-founder of Mondo
2000, the iconoclastic magazine that defined the digital
culture of the early nineties. He is an author or editor
of seven books, including Mondo 2000: A User's Guide
to the New Edge and The Revolution, and he co-wrote
Timothy Leary's last book, Design for Dying. He was
a columnist for Artforum International and the San
Francisco Examiner. He lectures internationally on subjects
ranging from the implications of new technology to alternative
politics. He lives in Mill Valley, California,
Dan Joy is a writer, editor, and inadvertent
performance artist from San Francisco.
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