Many of you probably saw this title and went "What?"
So let me explain:
It's happening a lot more these days. As the number of nonreligious white Americans begins to increase, so does the interest in other "alternative" cultures. Kids who grow up without a strong cultural identity (which can include religion) end up going through that identity crisis all of us experience at around the time of adolescence. Only, imagine that crisis magnified a few hundred times.
I saw it firsthand in high school. Though there are a lot of people at my church, there was also a hefty number of non-religious kids at my school. These were the self-proclaimed atheists who deemed religion to be manipulative and (in their words) "ultimately fucked up". Understandable, I suppose, because it most likely stemmed from the main teenage mantra that emerged in the 60's and has since become the battle-cry of modern adolescence: "Everything my parents and elders teach me must be wrong, so I will push myself as far away as I can." This has led to my generation actively seeking out alternative, "cool" beliefs and cultural practices all for the sake of claiming individuality.
And thus we have the problem of culture expolitation.
I did not realize how prevalent this was until last October, when my sister and I went into a pagan shop in Sugarloaf to get incense. As we were paying, we spoke with another woman who revealed herself to be a practicing witch, and the three of us watched as a group of college Hipster kids walked by with a stack of Tarot cards, shuffling them like Pokemon cards and giggling over how "cool" they were. I saw the woman next to me roll her eyes, but in a way that suggested that this wasn't the first time she's seen such a thing. For some reason I was irritated by the whole situation. Did these people ever stop to consider how wearing a pentagram or buying Tarot cards when you aren't a Wiccan is something that real Wiccans might take offense to? Did it cross their mind that certain people might not enjoy the fact that white secular Americans believe their culture to be a "fad" or a silly game instead of something to actually be taken seriously and respected? This drove me to the point of buying the last micro-book of spells at a local supermarket because I was terrified of it ending up in the hands of a yuppie kid.
It got me to thinking, and I realized that kids my age were trying to find a group to latch onto in order to feel accepted. And because the whole "I'm-a-special-and-unique-snowflake" message is infiltrating the mainstream, there are a lot of people experiencing cultural exploitation, namely the pagans, Indians, Asians, and Native Americans. Those who claim to be a part of these groups when they aren't are only insulting these people and treating their culture as something that is temporarily cool, and is a trend that won't last forever.
I personally don't give a flying fuck that Christianity and Conservativism isn't considered to be "cool". I know I am not a completely unique and special snowflake, and I hate it when people believe themselves to be one because in reality, we are all pretty normal (GASP).
Let me put it to you this way: cultures are not "fads". They are not some type of club you can join for a certain period of time until you get bored. You want a cultural identity? Look to your parents, your grandparents, and extended family. Remember who you really are and where you came from, because it is nothing to be ashamed of. There is nothing "boring" or redundant about a culture, no matter how many people belong to it. In fact, the most obvious way to be average is to act as if you don't need to belong to anything. Because guess what? There are hundreds of people who are trying to isolate themselves with the same thinking.
