Winning by Losing
The ten biggest impacting current cultures of peoples and nations that lost wars, land and rights, but not their spirit.
Winning, being dominant isn’t everything. Peoples seemingly broken after years or even centuries of submission can rise up and offer the world a gift that many will hold dear. Winning doesn’t mean your values, culture or ideas are better. Often it’s because of the oppressing victor that something the loser of a conflict holds dear is unleashed into the world.
Admittedly we often love underdogs, especially when they keep their head held high. For years activists in Europe wore the so called Palestinian Shawls as a sign of their activistic stand and support of an oppressed people. In this list shawls are not enough though. To make the list you must have lost a war or have been trodden on in more than one way. And this ‘losing’ must have as a result impacted both inner and outer behavior of new groups around the world. These must have embraced one or more aspects of the losing side.
NB: I did the list on my own, no deep scientific research. I think the message is more important than exact rankings in this list. Enjoy.
10. Irish Culture
Why are Irish Music, Irish symbolism, Irish Dance everywhere? Why are we more curious about the Celts, then lets say about Slavic or Thai traditions? It can’t be because Ireland is or was a country we ever looked up to. Ireland is a land almost nobody hates and everybody likes. Why do we love this underdog nation?
Ireland has been occupied by the British (or should I say English?) for centuries. The centuries long harsh rule of the British combined with some horrible famines led to mass emigration, mostly to the United States, where st. Patricks day flourishes! That many Americans have Irish roots is just one part of the story.
Even Ireland itself has become very aware of the attraction of Celtic symbolism, Irish music and Irish Dance and boosts it no end through tourism. Irish bands, such as U2 and Sinead O’Connor and Clannad, dominated the music scene at times. Many of their writers influenced world literature. The pain of Irish poverty, injustice, civil war, harsh landscape all shaped their stories and music into heartfelt drama’s. They touch us, because they are real.
9. Sufism
Yes, indeed, that’s part of Islam. Many might spurn this suggestion, but we must just look a bit further back to see a whole different picture. While many of us may consider the people from the Middle East, as the home of terrorists and peoples with backward believes and unfree women, there’s also another side.
Ever since the Crusades, we have been learning from their wisdom traditions. Many global inventions like Algebra, Medicine, Science, Education started in the Middle East and where brought to the West by, among others, the crusaders. Then a new invasion of subcultural richness from the Middle East happened around the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century. Both Russian and English interventions in the Middle East led to much war in this region, and led to the fleeing of many of their intellectuals to the West. Sufism, already entered Europe in that same time through people such as Inayat Kahn, Kahlil Gibran, Gurdijeff, Indries Shah and Tagore. Nowadays many revere Rumi, as the global Shakespeare of Poetry. And many wisdom schools in the West, from sufi psychology to Dervish dancing, are not based on Indian traditions, but rather based upon Sufi traditions. Perhaps this too, is not only because we Westeners stepped on them, perhaps also because many Sufis have been also hunted down by their own culture.
8. Jamaica
An island and country with fewer than 3 million inhabitants is influencing subcultures around the globe and also has a major contribution to the global music industry. Yes, Jamaica. Everyone in the world knows Reggae music and the colours of Rastafari (green, yellow, red, and often also black). And many hope to live a bit more like the people of this culture in which a joint stands for calmness and a stroll along the beach as fulfilling. It may be strange to see dreadlocks on whites, but it does happen. Jamaica has become a positive example for many (I know for people who hate dreadlocks and weed smoking, but this list only wants to highlight positive effects) for calm and easy living. How that came about? When the poor former slaves were looking for a positive figure head they found it in Haile Selassie, a dark brown African Emperor that even Whites bowed down to. They formed a way of living around the ideas they had about their hero and Africa. This gave them way of life that offered hope and had few dogma’s. Out of this subculture of hope Reggae was born. And when the world embraced this music, it also started to embrace Jamaican attitudes.
7. Nelson Mandela
Now I agree, this list is not about one man influencing the world. But when many in the world would name this name as the one leader they respect the most, than we have indeed a star that shone above the rest. And undeniably this man, and his followers rose from oppression (Apartheid) and a culture that was mistreated, with openly racist laws until almost the end of the 20th century. His answer to the oppression was an answer that avoided bloody revenge and included the whites into the new society. And this victory was born when he was still in prison, and from this prison inspired his own people and the world. A victory that couldn’t have been possible, when he hadn’t so many followers embracing this same vision of an inclusive resolution.
When we compare this man to many current ‘leaders’ I am indeed missing the integrity, vision and service Nelson Mandela lived. The philosophy he brought us, is rooted in more than non violence. It is very much also rooted in the principles he learned at home. And now many in the world herald the Ubuntu, “I am because we are”, as a important philosophy to live better together. When even Madonna utters this saying we can believe it has turned truly pop.
6. Punk
Yes, Punk. This short lived music culture in the late seventies and early eighties was a reaction to the way softer Hippie culture, not too long before it, and to the dominating society they didn’t feel part of. This time the victims are not a different culture spurned and beaten, but a generation of young English kids who saw no future being brought about by their parents. They lived in a time of huge unemployment, threatening global nuclear war and a society that had little to offer to kids that just didn’t like things the way they were. These were worker kids nobody believed in, too often not even they themselves, that started kicking in doors that would not open to them. It was their own aggression in a way that led to them being unaccepted underdogs. They made losing into a public art, by triggering others to kick them aside. Punk was very anti consumer driven and the aggression against the establishment was clear in music, behavior and ideas. This short lived subculture died when consumer culture picked it up and started selling punk culture cloths en masse. That just killed the idea of not wearing ready made stuff. But bands like Nirvana and Foo Fighters, the Gothic clothing style, the global rise of the button, and wild haircuts like that of Beckham never would have been possible without it.
5. Native American wisdom
“Only when the last tree has died
and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught
will we realize we cannot eat money.”
~ Cree Indian Proverb ~
The atrocities against the Native American peoples by the White invasion have not yet been fully looked in the face. Within the Native American community there’s still a lot of unresolved pain. Perhaps the American government fears real excuses could only lead to demands that cannot be met. For more than a century the Native Americans have been seen as a beaten and broken community. Deep into the seventies it was still portrayed as the primitive or evil.
And now the US and the rest of the world become awake to new problems that cannot be met with our current take on capitalism. Indeed for many us us believe that it is this system itself, that creates the problems, like global warming, environmental damages, banking and money crisis.
Many looking elsewhere for solutions have discovered Native Americans have been saying some wise stuff about this, see the popular quote above. Since also movies and books began to tell new tales about these people, we discovered that these peoples have deep values of their own. Now many environmentalists, European and and American trainees in shamanism and hippies alike have started to follow these ideas. In many places in Europe and America have Native American practices like sweat lodges, vision quests and sitting in circles for dialogue, become tools for personal development and raising community awareness.
4. Hinduism
While the British rule over India ended some seventy years ago, the afterglow of this rule still influences the world. The British and most Europeans with them looked down upon Indians. And more often as not they discovered an ancient civilization that had discovered insights we were not even aware about. Just like the Crusaders before them brought home the inventions of Islam, the British started to bring home the pearls of Indian civilization. Literature, music, religion and even afternoon tea. Then they discovered the Indian wisdom traditions and Guru’s. Whatever we think about the role of a Guru in peoples spiritual development, it won’t go away soon. Also methods such as Tantra, Yoga, meditation and the idea of reincarnation (very popular amongst those who left Church and sought a new kind of afterlife) are alive and well in the West.
Since the Beatles visited their guru in India, a second wave of Indian influences flooded the west. And for quite a few now, journeying to India, to find a deeper sense of life, is often seen as part of growing up. And then we have not even mentioned the non violent ideas of Gandhi, that finally helped the British to give up their colonial rule. Ideas which heavily inspired both Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King to help overcome racist convictions and laws against the the black population in their own countries.
3. Tibetan Buddhism
Finally a group whose message didn’t spread because of Anglo Saxon conquest and the first group I thought of when starting this list. This time we go back to 1950's when Communistic China invaded Tibet and took firmly control of the land without any intention to ever let go. The Dalai Lama fled to India with many followers, from where he let the world know about the drama of his people and later started teaching Tibetan Buddhism. These teachings were soon also embraced by Westerners. As a figure head of a very positive belief and the victim of a communistic regime he grew quickly popular in the West. And indeed the Dalai Lama also was a eloquent and nice man with a strong philosophy. He and other teachers, like Chögyam Trungpa and Sogyal Rinpoche, from his tradition became soon very popular in the West. Buddhism, especially the Tibetan style, is now one of the fastest growing religions in the West. China may have the land, the rest of the world is sharing the soul of the Tibetan people. That’s one big victory for the ‘losers’.
2. Hippies
The children of the people who went to war in WWII saw their parents rebuild a society after it with little adventure and little acceptance for outsiders. The hippies where those that didn’t fit in and felt that the freedom their parents fought for, might be in need of more depth, deeper connections and clearly more party, preferably with drugs. While not being directly stepped on, they were at first seen as losers. They couldn’t and wouldn’t fit in and were almost as despised as other minorities. This minority of wandering artists, flunked students, leftish dreamers, social activists have dominated the cultural image of a whole generation. In fact there have always been way fewer hippies than we tend to think.
They themselves soaked up the wisdoms of many ‘losers’ around the world, spreading them to a global audience. The philosophies of Indian Gurus such as krishnamurti, Osho & the Maharishi, teachings of Native Americans, of Martin Luther King, Buddhism and other outsiders as Jack Kerouac and Timothy Leary became integral parts of the movement.
Their legacies are multifold. To this day many people, have a more relaxed attitude towards drugs, than many governments like, such as marihuana. They were very much at the beginnings of social awareness towards the environment. They started communities focussed on sustainability and little consumption. They helped to stop the Vietnam War. They made yoga, tantra and more of such practices into accepted parts of self development for a large part of our society. Slowly many of their philosophies have and or are becoming mainstream. Once again, because Capitalism, or the way many big corporations run it, does have serious flaws. And these softies show time and again, they want to be part of the solution.
1. Black Music
The African American culture in the USA has long time been trodden on, in many ways. First as slaves and then as ‘inferior citizens’. That didn’t stop them to become major influencers in an important part of much of 20th century music. More so it was their horrible background the laid the foundation for this huge impact.
Black Slaves in the USA were often forbidden to talk to each other while working the fields. To circumvent the rules they would sing to and with each other. Years of oppression led thus to years of creating a culture where their field songs were perhaps, I can only suspect, the biggest solace within their situation. This line singing laid the basis for the so called Negro Spirituals, a style of music, powerful in beat and harmony and also so very emotional in its expression, unlike, say classical European music. Thus, one might say, their suffering became the source of many of the biggest musical traditions of the previous century.
Their musical styles that are somehow all connected to each other, amongst which the most well known may be: rhythm & blues, gospel, soul, jazz, which in their turn all hugely impacted modern pop music. Many whites, even many of those with prejudices, flocked to these music styles that, to be honest were often quite more authentic, alive and danceable than their own ‘beats’. And up to this day, this influence continuous. The American Blacks have been, almost undeniably, the biggest pillar under modern pop music all over the world. Their current anguish over continued racism and an unjust justice system leads to new expressions of their trials, such as Gangsta style and Hiphop culture. And once again, Western culture loves it. Mmm.
In 2020 this video came out, making you hear this point. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUhAzkwM6aI
Conclusion
A few things all connect these groups. Their message often deals with overcoming strong emotions endured by our dominant Western civilization. This can be done through expressing the pain, protesting or meditation and work on self acceptance. Their values often contain wisdoms that Western Capitalism seems to have forgotten or tries to ignore. Their symbols, rituals, music help to express those wisdoms and spread them further.
Good ideas are like water. If you stamp on them, they spread faster.
The question perhaps should be, why do we embrace or like one or more of these cultures so much? Could it be most of us have a sense of justice that ‘losers’ should be heard and included as well? Could it be, many of us feel also downtrodden upon and seek ways to deal with that feeling?
Because, well, to be honest, anyone in a shitty job, working his ass of to provide for his family, may sense that oppression isn’t something one nation does to another, but that it is one mindset over another. Perhaps we know deep down that focussing on winning only, is a very poor and narrow world view. Perhaps true winning, doesn’t happen through victory.
Bonus:
Maoris
When the British conquered and colonized the world, one of the few people that fought them so bitterly that they commanded huge respect were the Maori’s of new Zealand. Hence their culture stayed remarkably vital, even though plagued by, once again, being second rate civilians and huge unemployment. Still within and outside of new Zealand some parts of the Maori culture are widely known. Now with many going there with the ‘Lord of the Rings’ in mind, leave with a bit of Maori culture in their luggage. Everyone who watches Rugby knows the Haka, the Maori War dance, which makes them a favorite contender for the world title every time, though they hardly win. And almost most alternative travelers who ever visited New Zealand leaves with a greenstone or white bone in Maori style around the neck. And finally if one looks for a tribal tattoo, Maori style does it for many.
Middle Eastern Culture
The latest waves of Turkish, Iranian, Kurdish and Arabic immigrants, often fleeing wars the West created in their areas, into Europe are now influencing music (Arabic beats), eating culture (Kebab) and dance (Belly Dance), so soon I might add Middle Eastern Culture to this list.
