Bureau for Counterculture

I tried to write this many times. Every attempt ended in me thinking ‘Too complex, I’d drop out after the second paragraph’. So I made it bad simple.

I want to see more counterculture in today’s society. I want to see more non-conformance, more questioning of where society is going, and more impact of alternative spaces and concepts.

I want to find collaborators for this endeavour. How about you? How about You and the Bureau?

I’m tired of thinking ‘the 1990s were so much more exciting’. In the world of today, I want to see excitement, of the right kind, driven by ideas how to improve the world, ideas that fill the collective mind with good energy.

I want to find out what counterculture can look like, now and in future. I also want to learn about the history of counterculture.

This will be work in progress, for a long time.

You and the Bureau

For the Bureau to work, it will need to turn from a one-man party to a collective endeavour.

There are lots of options, e.g.

• Become one of the chief clerks – ideally there’ll be a group of people who like the idea enough to want to co-own it
• Give your thoughts on how to develop the concept – as written feedback or (even better) in conversation
• Contribute to layout/imagery
• Help me manage and develop the technical infrastructure and design for the website. Certainly it wants to look better.
• Take on the management of one of the departments
• Write an article that fits into one of the departments
• Point out hiccups in terms of language and spelling
• Send me links to something special – see the Links page for criteria. Include a brief description what the link is about and how it benefits the reader

Drop me a line: urvinjune@gmail.com

Reasons not to do it

I want to get this out of the way. Anyone who thinks the idea of a Bureau for Counterculture is rubbish – I think you’re right, in many ways. This is the dump for the reasons not to even start. A register for more issues than Vogue. It can all go here. I added mitigation suggestions where possible.

1) The term ‘Counterculture’ is open to many interpretations, it refers to lots of different movements that have no common denominator. A Bureau for Counterculture is inherently selective, biased and lop-sided.
Mitigation: None

2) The term ‘Bureau’ suggests some sort of coordination function which makes no sense for a phenomenon like counter culture.
Mitigation: We made it optional to take the term seriously

3) It’s not right to start a ‘Bureau of Counterculture’ using the Internet, which is the epitome of conformance and mainstream culture
Mitigation: Turn off the Internet

4) Before this website could go public, there are too many gaps and inconsistencies to deal with
Mitigation: Asking you for help

5) This looks like someone’s overwhelmed by the complexity and demands of the world, and is looking for straightforward solutions
Mitigation: Reframing complexity in a straightforward way