An Introduction to Subcultures

Since there have been people, there have been cultures; within cultures there are subcultures. But what factors play a role in the creation of subculture? In 1955, a man by the name of Albert Cohen suggested that within these subcultures exists individuals who share common beliefs, judgements, and conflicts; that these individuals choose to cope with these problems with solutions derived from their moral standard (which varies heavily upon social upbringing). When external elements challenge individuals on a daily basis, they are often countered with a solution or an action in which differs than that of individuals located elsewhere; that elsewhere, different problems arise require different action, therefore shaping different individuals.

In Cohen's article, "A General Theory of Subcultures," Cohen explains that upon the assumption of this theory that the self interests and moral standings of another will distress and aggravate the solution/coping strategy/action used to deal with the situation in the first place. Thus the social implications of this nature, in an attempt to avoid this, generates a community of individuals sharing the same ideologies, conflicts, worries, and pleasures where one is not challenged by peers or challenged with a conflict alone. The need for affiliation and pressure toward conformity lead individuals to one another in a new age of digital and social media connection. Even still, within these communities remain individuals who may challenge the greater ordeals or matters in which the larger body of people find important or prioritize. The dissent within these groups often leads to the alienation of individuals which is the catalyst for deviating subcultures comprised of outcasted individuals who pride themselves on their identity different than the majority and practice routines outside the social norm.

Cohen's theory is backed up in Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 film "Breathless." Godard portrayed the story of a criminal deviant named Michel Poiccard, a cop killing car thief, attempting to convince an American woman to leave France with him to hide in Italy. These two outstanding individuals struggle to live in a normal society, where their hardships, aspirations, motivations, morals and standards differ greatly than that of the general public in the movie especially within the decade that it had been made in post-war Europe. The contrast of the film relative to Cohen's theory made only five years before the film, poses a strong truth. Bewteen the two characters, Michel's strong atrraction to Patricia seems to be loosely based around his facination with her foreign identity. Her strong sense of Western culture and his egotisical view of women in comparison had audiences a little surprises that Patricia had considered leaving with him, however this is not the point. Michel is coming from a social background life of a deviant criminal mind. He is met with daily challenges of a criminal in which he struggles to find solutions for throughout the movie. The everyday challenges of a criminal may not correlate with the daily challenges of a small boy picked on in school or a rich man who goes home to women and champagne. Michel's life is comprised of hiding, theft, and money laundering while at the same time trying to hold onto his sense of humanity through Patricia, an American journalist working abroad in France. Michel's need to have the woman he likes with him in Italy had ultimately costed him in life when Patrricia's moral concious, working on a different levels of morals similar to the population of the majority, had called the police to report him.

There is no arguing that had Patricia's moral upbringing as an independant young American woman had differed greatly from that of Michel's, a mind who's only morals are worrying about criminal intention and getting caught. Going back to Cohen's theory of social uprbringing from different experiences and values, these types of deviant individuals such a Michel emerge out of steps taken to try and solve a challenge or problem that they are encountered with, like Patricia when she was torn between leaving with Michel or reporting him to police. Ultimately, her desicion to have him arrested prevailed out of a moral implication prevailant in the dominant culture of the majority.