Why did you abandon the mainstream?

[randomness]

(a placeholder for a more substantive post)

In many ways I was never accepted by the mainstream. By virtue of the combination of my race and upbringing, I was always going to be the "other". So in contrast to many of my friends, who appear to have consciously chose the subculture, I ended up here because integrating into the mainstream was problematic.

And there are many mainstream assumptions which I think are completely fucked-up. That tends to reinforce my decision. Not that the particular social niche I find myself in is lacking in fucked-up assumptions, but perhaps there aren't as many, or at least there are fewer which impact me directly.

I'm still thinking about this.

Comments

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Would you say that, if you were to be a part of any culture, you'd have to integrate into it

Not exactly. I think if I were to be part of a culture I'd have to share its world-view.

For myself, I've been blessed with the ability to blend with high stratas of mainstream culture, and I've usually tried to maintain that ability because it's very useful, even if I don't particularly identify with mainstream culture.

Yeah, I think I addressed this point above; I'm not talking about blending in, I'm actually talking about identifying with its world-view.