freek culture in madison

The freek culture of Madison turns out for functions regularly. I was in attendance at one such event recently, a performance by Hugh Masekela and the Chissa All-Stars (featuring the amazing vocalist Sibongile Khumalo–if you ever have a chance to see her perform, don't miss it). If I had to guess, I'd say that Madison is probably somewhere near fifteen percent freek, broadly defined. By contrast, in the big city of Chicago, I would say the freek element constitutes as little as less than one percent of the population.

Oh, what is a freek? A freek is a person who identifies with the oppositional subcultures of the nineteen Sixties, and in some way, obvious or subtle, expresses that identification socially. Starting from the Sixties the relevant social histories stretch both backwards (to the Beats, for example) and forwards (to the myriad politicized styles and subcultures of the Eighties). Self-defined (as opposed to the media-anointed term 'hippy') and nuanced (the double 'e' freek brings together freedom and difference as one thing), freek society is alive and healthy in Madison, as anyone who reads this blog would gather.

Well, it is alive, anyway. Is freek culture ever healthy? We hope so; and goddess knows, we try. (Oops; it's out–I am a freek...) But we all know, freeks can be some of the most messed up and lost people we've ever met. Freeks prove the point:  there may in fact exist some relationship between being fucked-up and being free. But, as my vox neighbor Chris Balz says, some of us believe that freeks, as fucked-up as they sometimes are, just might be the best hope for the planet. I know. Scary.

Comments

[chicago pop]

To paraphrase Freud, sometimes a fuck-up is just a fuck-up.

I'll also invoke Hegel in support of the suggestion that, in lieu of
placing one's hopes exclusively in the hands of a single group --
(fuck-ups, the proletariat, the Third World) -- one might approach the
issue more dialectically. It's all about the structure of modernity, the roving and most cunning spirit of history.

And by that logic, I'm a freek too, or at least from the same
socio-economic substratum. It's all about middle class origins with a
deep, often unconscious assimilation to the liberal protestantism of
northern Europe. That's why there are so many freeks in the upper
midwest. It's not a big step from Garrison Keillor and Lake Wobegon to
Madison hippies and their CSAs and co-ops. I believe the sexual
revolution began in Sweden before anyplace else (discounting the Russian Revolution, but of course as with everything unleashed in that upheaval, it did not last very long).

As for Chicago's 1%, what with 4 liberal protestant seminaries, and a fairly liberal Catholic
one, it's not surprising that our one hundredth probably live mostly
in Hyde Park.

So there you have it: not that great a distance between Jesus, Saab, and organic gardening.

[dan s wang]

You should get paid for this kind of riffing!

[chicago pop]

And you get it for free!

(So does everyone else, unfortunately...)