Subcultures

Subcultures can develop by race, by lifestyle and by ideology and have been put in the spotlight because of the identity politics scam. I categorize groups as subcultures when the really have a good time when they are all together.

 

In Georgia we have large pockets of Blacks who choose to live in Black neighborhoods. We have a small group of Gays in larger cities who glom together. We have Rural White Georgians who gather for Southern food and rural activities. We have Republicans divided as “establishment” vs conservative. We have Democrats divided as Socialists vs moderates. We have the very rich and the very poor.

 

There are subcultures that are simply based on interests. Part of this is the natural tendency of people to be drawn to others with whom they have a common interest. Neighbors will gather to drive to the stadiums to go see ballgames and friends will go hunting in groups during deer season. There are other neighbors who have no interest in these things.

There are golfers, tennis players and parents of children play on sports teams and the individuals in these groups get to know each other.

 

Other groups are simply formed by proximity.

 

Rural Dwellers live, work and play in small towns and enjoy the lifestyle. They go to the same local restaurants and see people they know. They get to know other families and their children and witness generations of families for decades.

 

In my travels as a Tea Party Leader, I’ve had the opportunity to address Tea Party groups in rural counties and work with their Tea Party Leaders on State-wide issues. These Tea Parties usually have monthly lunch or dinner meetings with fairly large groups of 50 to 100 members. Rural Georgia is conservative.

 

Big City Georgians may do the same thing if they stay in the same neighborhoods, but the traffic, the turnover of families moving in and out and the general pace of activity consumes their time and getting to know all of their neighbors for generations is not easy to do. It’s harder to find meeting places for conservative political groups in Big Cities because these cities are 50-50 in their ideologies.

 

Gays love to gather together to blow off steam. They are hilarious. They are totally comfortable in their subculture. In their daily activities they are generally very successful. They are easy to identify by their mannerisms and those with an active sense of humor are likeable. Their approach to living in a society where they are a minority is similar to the approach used by the Reformed Jews and maybe for the same reasons.  The Reformed Jews decided to “fit in”. They had been forced to live everywhere and had to become very adaptable. They were able to be themselves and treat those who weren’t Jewish with respect, fairness and kindness. I see the Gays doing this and it works very well. Jews will enjoy their own Jewishness with family and friends.

 

Blacks exhibit the same joy and humor when they gather together to relax and be themselves. They too have the same sense of humor I see in Gays and Jews. These groups share a common experience of being rejected and their sense of humor has been their medication to treat the pain. The best comics have been Jews and Blacks. All of these groups are assimilating successfully and as they become completely comfortable and their behavior becomes largely indistinguishable from any other American. The same is true of those from other countries. My bridge to Blacks includes Jazz and my bridge to Jews, Blacks and Gays includes humor.

 

I was a musician and there is a subculture for musicians. It is fueled by the joy of playing music. Being a member of this subculture exposed me to Blacks and Gays and I got to know them as musicians. I was also a singer and that got me introduced to Gay singers. 

 

We added some Symphony Chorus members, who are mostly Gay to our choir to bulk it up for a concert and we were rehearsing. There was a piece of concrete color frieze sculpture on the wall depicting a choir. When asked about the sculpture by one of the Gay guys. I told him it was the Pompeii Boys’ Choir. My humor startled him.

 

I was later invited to sing with the Symphony Chorus for an independent event. We were rehearsing Monteverdi’s Vespers.  The Gay guys were in full subculture mode and were hilarious. They were relaxed enough with the few of us “straights” who were in the ensemble to cut loose and be outrageous. I love Gay humor and I had to play.

 

We had a Sackbut orchestra from New York and a harpsichord. I mentioned that Atlanta also had a Sackbut orchestra and we should introduce them to each other, because they had the same medical condition.

 

The girls in the ensemble were talking about coordinating their black dresses and I mentioned that I always wear the blue dress to jury duty.

 

This is the kind of dark humor Gays really appreciate. Like the Jews, I was able to gain my rapport with humor.

 

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader