"Alternative Scenes" that are not an Alternative

"Don't Be Mainstream!" is the war-cry of many subcultures, countercultures and "scenes" (groups of people who decide to do things differently from  the "mainstream" of the USA).  Brightly colored hair, piercings, tattoos, retro looks and styles, different ways of acting and thinking about things....what is the hope here?  Do the people involved in these things truly understand what they are doing, what they are hoping will happen, what they are "pushing", what statements they are making?

What is the hope of splinter scenes like Rockabilly?  Deathrock? Punk Rock, Rave, Hippie, New Age, Hardcore, Metal....the list is endless.  WHAT ARE THEY TRYING TO DO?

If you ask any person in any of these groups, they will say "I want to be different from everyone else".  "I want to be accepted for who I really am and not have to be somebody I'm not in order to be accepted".  "I want to get everyone to think differently".  "I want people not to be so materialistic and to focus on what's really important in life".  "I want people to stop being so decadent, and I want not to be decadent but to live simply in a way that makes sense for me as a person".  "I want to include more Art in my life and less cookie-cutter".  "I want people to recognize my pain in not being accepted and not being listened to".

So what is at the end of this journey?  After you've been SO "different", and SO "away from the mainstream", and SO "unique", what kind of a person are you hoping to become?  And what are you going to do if nobody decides to change as a result of the living performance art you've been giving this whole time?

So you decide to be this way, and you get all the clothes, and you do your hair, and you are outspoken against all the "hypocracy" and "sheeple" that you see.  You join a group of people whom you assume think the same way you do.  BUT DO THEY?

If you are a woman, how many times have you been slighted, ignored and not given a leadership position in your group in favor of a man- WITHIN A GROUP OF PEOPLE WHO ARE SUPPOSEDLY "ALTERNATIVE"???  Have you been abused in a relationship with a man who is supposedly "alternative?" Have you been taken advantage of or slighted in a band situation, or group situation which is supposed to be creating art or accomplishing some other goal?  Have you been shunted into a managerial or promotional role, or made to be a "bartender" or "door girl" when what you should have been was the main event?  Have you been treated like "someone's property" because you're dating them, and "not allowed" to speak normally to the other people in the environment you are in, or somehow restricted?  HOW IS THIS AN "ALTERNATIVE" TO WHAT HAPPENS IN THE MAINSTREAM???  So the man has Manic Panic dyed hair, or a shaved head, or long hair, or whatever.  So the other people in your group are wearing tye dye, or bondage pants, or rave pants, or whatever statement they make.   IF YOU ARE GETTING TREATED THE SAME WAY AS THE "MAINSTREAM", YOU ARE *NOT* IN AN ALTERNATIVE SCENE- you just look a little bit different and have a little more attitude- THAT'S IT.  You need to take a hard look at the people around you.  WHAT IS IT THAT THEY ARE GETTING OUT OF ALL THIS???  If they just want to get laid by hot girls with colored hair or piercings or whatever, but treat them exactly the same as jocks would, YOU NEED TO GET OUT AND GET NEW FRIENDS.

Let's talk about appearance.  When the goal of your group is to get several thousand dollars worth of supposed "alternative" clothing, HOW IS THAT DIFFERENT FROM BEING A CONSUMER???  How about a very expensive haircut and dye job with multiple levels of color that took 5 hours to execute?  Or high rent to live in the most "bohemian" area of town?  THIS IS THE ULTIMATE IN CONSUMERISM - yet you are supposedly "against consumerism????  How is this "not materialistic"?  Stores that sell $1000 items yet are supposedly "not mainstream"??? NO WAY.  This is just simple fetishism.  And there's nothing wrong with that, at all - but you should know what you're doing rather than believe you are being different from the guy who wants that really great car and that really great house.  It's a little more creative and artsy, but it's pretty much the same in it's lust for material things.

What is it that you TRULY want to achieve?  Make sure that the people around you match up to these goals.  If you want equality, you can NOT hang out with "jocks in alternative clothing".  If you want clarity, you can NOT hang out with drug addicts or alcoholics.  If you want non-materialism, you can't hang out with expensive clothes collectors.  Or record collectors.  Or other hoarders.

How about social pecking order.  Does anyone in your group tell you that you are "not allowed" to like a certain person or people?  Why?  Do they change who you are not supposed to like on a regular basis, or give various and conflicting reasons why you are "not supposed" to like them ?  Have you ever seen members of your group physically attack others? Why?  Did you agree with what happened?  Does anyone in your group constantly badmouth another person or constantly say abusive things? Is there any reason you should be "taking orders" from someone else about how you feel?  Why would you do that?  Are you "not being allowed" to make social decisions for yourself?  Do you ever hold things inside about the way you feel or the people you like,  knowing that "you could be next" if you "say the wrong thing" ?  Does anyone in your group make you feel uncomfortable or controlled?  This is NOT FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION.  THIS IS NOT BEING YOURSELF.  This is gang violence, and it is a very serious and dangerous matter, so much so that when you realize you are in it, you should get out right away.  This type of thing can seriously injure someone mentally and physically and is NOT cool to be involved in, in any shape or form.  It is analogous to groups of jocks looking for a fight or exiling someone from their group or their town, bullying, and in many cases can lead to illegal activity or is illegal in and of itself.  If your group has problems like this, YOU NEED TO LEAVE RIGHT AWAY.  Choose a group of less violent, more socially aware and reasonable individuals to spend your time with.

Let's talk about uniqueness- if everybody in your group is dressing the same way, HOW IS THIS UNIQUE?  The uniqueness has a shelf-life of until everyone else in the country finds out about it- then merchants can make a lot of money hawking these wares to others who wish they were unique.  It's a BUSINESS, with musicians as the high-priests, record labels, book stores and clothing/accessory merchants following in at a close second in importance.  Make no mistake about it, it's a sales engine and COMPLETELY MATERIALISTIC.  Which is COOL- if THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT. If this is NOT what you want, then you've got some thinking to do about where you should be and who you should be with.

Take a look around.  Do your friends TRULY share your views?  How about your partner?  Are you unhappy?  Why?  Did the way you got treated in any situation make you feel upset?  What is your real enjoyment in doing what you are doing, and where is it coming from?

How this is a Scam:

A true Alternative Scene is in actuality very different from Mainstream Culture.  Too many people missed their chance to be popular in High School or Collage and are now bent on dominating a group of people with the same values they "missed out" on being able to take part in when they were in school.  Real "Alternative" people are out there doing things differently, being different, and in actuality don't care how many clothes they've amassed, how many albums they own, if they have the coolest hairstyle and so forth.  Young people can be duped into spending a lot of money, being in an abusive relationship, hanging out in groups of people which have aspects of gang violence or hyper materialism, and spending years enmeshed in these "scenes" until they finally realize what THEY are all about and that their "scene" really doesn't match up with their goals.

How To Cut And Run:

Quit buying things, first of all.  One of the biggest things about Mainstream Culture in the USA is that it is Consumerist and tells you that your main worth is in what you buy.  Just stop.  Start putting your money toward things that you TRULY care about- for example, a cause you care about, or a savings account for your future, or a music studio you wanted to build, or anything that you really needed.

Quit listening to others about what to do - you can listen to your own heart about who you like, what you'd like to do and what steps to take next in your life.  It's not as though you shouldn't take other's opinions into consideration, but always be aware that this is an opinion and you are under no obligation to take that person's opinion into account in your own decisions about yourself and your life.

And most definitely if you've experienced or seen abuse, don't take a second glance backward - get all your stuff and BE GONE.  Act first, ask questions later.  Do what it takes to insulate yourself from anyone who would treat you or others abusively, wether it's blocking them on social networking or out of your phone, or making a police report - make sure that you yourself are safe, even if it's not you that was being attacked, because in that situation it could be you next.  "Alternative Scenes" can act as a gateway for abusers to find vulnerable people to abuse- make sure you are NOT one of them.

The Mortgage Scam

Learn How To Lay This Burden Down! It never should have been yours!  Cut bankers out of the equation!


Q: Why does a house in the USA cost $300,000 when the same house would cost about E 50,000 in Europe or Scandinavia?

A: Banks  who strive to OWN EVERYTHING and turn you into a workhorse who never TRULY owns your own property.  And BROKERS and AGENTS, who strive to drive the price UP so that they can get a healthy cut of the proceeds, often for very little work.

If you take one thing away from this Blog, please take this:  You were never meant to be a constant rent or mortgage slave for 30 years.  When the first citizens came to the USA, they were given land if only they would settle, and they built their own houses.  Gradually, this situation has turned into where a person must take out a huge bank loan in order to "buy" their property.   In order to qualify for this all-important loan, they must robotically make payments to companies "on time" and prove themselves to be a good little consumer and slave robot, getting them into a "consumer" mindset and habits much like "breaking" a horse to be ridden.  If  they then qualify, they can receive a loan from a bank which will keep them working for the next 30 years.  If they should fall ill or have any other type of emergency like job loss, etc, which would render them unable to pay their mortgage payment, they run the risk of "foreclosure" - where the bank seizes their house and they then lose all the money they have paid so far on their loan, even if it is almost payed down.  There are various things they could try like quickly selling the house at below market value or asking for forbearance for a period of time, but in all likelihood they will lose the years of work that they put into the house if there is some problem where they can't get right back to work.

This deal is a rather grisly bet with the bank that you can keep working your body and mind for the next 30 years- and if you lose the bet, the "winner takes all".  There are those people who are intelligent  or experienced enough not to go for this deal, but I'm speaking about the average citizen, the ones whom this blog is meant for, who believes that "this is the way things are supposed to be", who has been sold on this idea.  The word Mortgage itself means "death contract", so contemplate the implications of that.

This deal is very evil, for the average price of a home has crept up so much that it requires two working people (parents usually) to comfortably pay it, therefore leaving children alone in the home to send themselves to school and comfort themselves when they come home from school.  The parents usually depart at 6am in order to commute to work and don't return till 12 or 14 hours later.  Aimless children with nothing to do after school and no supervision get in trouble or fall into drug use and other vices, especially when tired parents come home after spending those hours away from the home and have no energy to put towards their children.  In this way you could say that the mortgage industry has eaten into and almost ruined the fabric of USA society and culture.  Generations of nearly parent-less children....what does that sound like to you?  Parents with no time or energy to pay attention to what is happening in their children's lives or to spot warning signs, generations of vulnerable children with no directions in particular, resentful and angry parents robbed of the time in their lives - this is a setup for disaster, which we see the effects of now.

Even in a situation where there are no children and it's just you paying the mortgage, you will pay quadruple what the house was worth by the time your mortgage is done ($100,000 loan equals around $400,000 paid out with interest, etc - provided you do not refinance, then it's even more!!!).  Then when you sell you will lose money in this market.  ALL that work, for nothing, so that bankers can get and stay very wealthy(far wealthier than you).  So that you can have your house earlier than you should have if you had just earned the $100,000 and saved it.

Why this is a Scam:

You will work hundreds of thousands of hours, far more than you should have, to pay a bank four times the amount that you borrowed.  Long ago this was called "usury" and was illegal - not so in the United States of SCAMerica.  Bankers can scam you and act like it's normal.  They can put on quite an air of grandeur and act as though you are a scumbag if you are late on a payment, meanwhile they are practicing an evil trade that was literally illegal in more civilized times.  You will be made into a slave, sleep-deprived robot who gets up at 6am, 5 days a week who works in service of the bank- you will have a pitiful week's vacation per year, you will not be able to guide your children's lives and you will be like a ghost, seen waking in and out of the door before you collapse in your bedroom after trying to de-stress in front of the TV.  This is IF you don't break down, or go into paroxysms of "unexplainable" rage at your fate, take it out on your children and everyone around you and wind up divorced.  Who could stand to be broken down like this?  I know people who have had to go on medication in order to withstand this, even though there was technically nothing wrong with them.

DON'T LET THIS BE YOU!!!!!

How to CUT AND RUN:

DO NOT use a bank as a lending institution.  If you have a way to work and save money, save until you can pay cash for your house and land.  Some keep living with their parents or other family members, others find other cheaper living arrangements.  If you are single or a couple with no children, you do not need as much room and space as if you had children.  Be creative.  Some people are buying their own cheap land and then building their houses themselves over time, as they get the cash.  Others are buying pre-built "Tiny Homes" (although they do not have to be "tiny", 500 or 600 sq feet is as large as a "studio" apt) and making deals with others to park them in their yards and fields and paying the amount you would pay to an RV park, between $200 and $300 per month.   Still others have decided to live in unique situations like houseboats.  Some have worked out deals with the existing owner of the property such as "rent to own".  Be creative, use your imagination.

In this way, they have the ability to enjoy life, spend time with their children and other family members, learn things and do things they have always wanted to do, and basically free themselves from slavery to a bank and a "9-5" job.  Check out the videos below for more ideas.  Be relentless in your search for an alternative to the "Death Contract Mortgage", because if you are lower middle class this will be your death knell.