The passing of George Carlin this past weekend represented much more than the loss of one of the funniest, edgiest comedians of all time. It also underscores the dwindling number of counter culture visionaries left in American culture. In the past few years, we’ve lost pivotal figures in the evolution of our culture like Timothy Leary and Hunter Thompson to the point that it’s hard to point out any significant counter culture figures remaining in modern society.

Now all that we have left are Youtubers performing stupid human tricks and celebutants as mascots for our materialistic and money-obsessed society. Everyone is screaming to get our attention in small bursts for short-lived fame or advertising revenue. And we’re all complacent to stare at our monitors and TV screens to be entertained instead of really making a difference. We’ve even commercialized our causes now, collecting our badge for being environmental or caring about the troops in Iraq. We collect them like our Prada clothes, Coach purses, Plasma TVs and latest gadgets.

You see, the counter culture is a critical component of social change in society. The great minds of the 60’s and 70’s weren’t afraid to challenge the establishment and their ideas spread like wildfire. As the counter culture movements swept through in waves, they brought to light new truths around freedom, social responsibility and personal exploration. Without these influencers or any substantive underground movement, we have no vehicle to propagate radical new philosophies that the larger society can adopt to effect real change in society.

Public support for our President is on the brink of falling to an all time low and the streets of DC are quiet. All of us accept that our government lied to get us into a war that, for a good cause or not, is killing our sons and brothers. In Carlin’s day there were protesters in the street when we fought an unjust war. The hippies that we characterize today as dirty, happy pacifists were rioting in DC to protect peace and stand up to ‘the man.’

Now we’re too comfortable in our overly mortgaged houses and too busy being politically correct to do or say anything about it. We send our kids to prep school and struggle to get ahead in our careers to crank the engine of our great economy so that Oil Baron politicians can afford to feed the next ten generations of their frat-boy offspring caviar for breakfast and our consciences for lunch.

Now I’m not saying that the likes of George Carlin and Hunter Thompson were particularly polarizing political figures or crusaders for the greater good. but these guys weren’t afraid to speak their minds, to walk their own path or to flip the bird at authority when it was needed. They lived authentically and wildly and weren’t afraid to deviate from social norms or disrobe the selfish agendas of the establishment.

So what now? I don’t have a recipe to cook up contention and I can’t tell you what will boil your blood. All I can do is live a little more intensely and to speak my mind when I see something that’s wrong. And that’s my promise to you from today on.

Yes, I’ll still churn out news about the mobile web daily, but you can expect to see a lot more commentary about our culture and how technology affects it, hence the digital lifestyle up there in the tag line.

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