I came across the first quote below by Morris Schwartz in Paul Millerd’s book The Pathless Path. What strikes me about the quote is twofold. First, I agree wholeheartedly that our culture is essentially sick and emphasizes many foolish ideas. The Terrence McKenna quote below (lifted from Tao Lin’s excellent memoir Trip) makes this point even more pointedly.

Secondly, agreeing as I do with both Schwartz and McKenna, I feel challenged to follow Morris’ advice to make my own culture as an antidote to living in such an unwell society. Upon reflection, I feel like I have quite a bit of work to do in this regard. I have managed to cut myself off from social media. I also watch virtually zero traditional TV, unless it is an interesting college football game. I have a subscription to Netflix, but I probably watch one show about every 4 months. I suppose my daily commitment to reading is also an attempt to cultivate my own mental universe.

Indeed, all of these elements of my media diet have helped in many ways. However, I still spend too much time on YouTube and too much time generally following politics. I also don’t vote with my wallet as consistently as I should, which I also see as a means of standing athwart the dominate culture and trying to make a small difference.

As I type this, I realize I am going to have to keep thinking about this particular question. This earlier blog post of mine is a stab at solving this puzzle. However, I simply don’t have many other answers appearing to me about how to follow Schwartz’s injunction. It is a worthy goal though, rejecting the powerful yet vapid parts of American society to carve out one’s own niche, and hopefully, improving the general culture action by action.