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Is that necessarily a problem? I'll admit that there are certain labels that I enjoy bearing and some that I am not so keen on. But is it really the end of the world if I'm called normal? Mainstream? Freak? Alien? Bigoted? Tepid? Luddite? Racist? Hypocrite? In each case I must see what truth there is in any term, positive or derogatory, throw my way and accept what truth there is, rejecting the rest.
So I would desire less that people worry about being tied to a title, or a scene, or a denomination or affiliation. In a sense, what these terms allow us to do is 'know' one another without truly knowing one another. We can gain credit via proximity to people enacting change without really making that change - cf. the Stuff White People Like article about 'raising awareness'.
And I'll admit I'm a hypocrite. I'm too in love with my own consumerism to give up wholesale parts of life that steal away some of my ability to love, to change and be changed. But then again, I said that a year ago and change still occurs despite my best efforts.
In an ideal world, we would all move transparent through the challenges and changes brought to us, together as a body that loves and respects one another. But in the real world we work with broken people; hipsters, people on all sides of the fence that are concerned about appearance, credibility, connection and the rest.
I don't think merely preaching shallowness of culture will make it deep, as much as grabbing a shovel and digging will. And perhaps others will slip into the ditch you dig.
So what does one call the children and grandchildren of Nietzsche's last man if that is what we are? If the chaos within man oscillates like a spring between generations and now the spring is practically done moving, does that mean all future generations are doomed to be just like us? Will we bide our time by exporting our detached and disconnected ideals to the rest of the world until all are just like us (or the return of Christ)?
The temptation to hipsterize is a steady presence in my life. And I don't mean "dress like Napoleon Dynamite and drink Pabst," though I confess to partaking in the latter regularly.
No, I'm thinking of the temptation to somehow need to prove my convictions by what I eat, wear, listen to, read, etc. I started wanting to be more hippie-activist in my style while in college in Eugene, Oregon. But I realized, I had a generous wardrobe full of otherwise bourgeois or middle-class style clothes that were perfectly good. What would the point be in buying even used clothes to patch up and hippify, when I have all this. It'd just be more consumerism and overuse of Creation's fruitfulness. So, I resolved to keep wearing my khakis. I wanted to "show" my radical creds, but refused to buy crap to prove it.
So, I grew a ponytail -- take that, status quo! I gardened in khakis instead of courds, but only because I refused to use more resources to show my simplicity-values. *sigh*
And all of this is immensely disorienting when you throw in trying to find a soulmate, to be perfectly honest. I dig the hippie style Christian gals, but I don't always immediately display the conventional radical-style-badges. I don't have all that many patches in my clothes, nor do I have dreadlocks or a Psalters patch or a Macbook or witty tatoo to "prove my radical creds". I just have a scruffy-as-heck beard. Am I being stubborn, then, in preferring to just wear what I have, instead of buying into the "radical look"? Which speaks more to simplicity: using more, or using what you've got?
Man, now I'm all flustered up. :) I'm in a hipster-heavy part of Portland (off of Belmont, for those who know the place) so this is kinda one of my shorter fuses...
Thanks for this article, though, man. Definitely one to be shared...
I can kind of relate, but maybe in an opposite way. For a long time I really didn't want to be identified as some "liberal, environmentalist, artsy, hipster." I guess that is a result of going to a church with a lot of less liberal looking people who I wanted to maintain "cred" with. I thought maybe if I looked enough like them they would listen to me when I talked about my ideas (seriously I thought this out, ha), so I refraimed from getting tattoos or piercings and maybe accepted some brands and habits too easily when they became "acceptable" to the people I've been around.
At one point though I decided to go ahead and embrace my "hipster" leanings, bought some American Apparel and Mac products, starting writing in Moleskines, and even got some dreads (which I hate and am now in the process of taking out!). On one level I'm embarressed by this, on another I throughly enjoy ironically musing about it all, which still the only thing I respect about self-aware hipsters (my favourite hipster-friend is the first to admit that his investment in a fixed-gear bike, and dabbling in ghetto culture is 70% fueled by it being cool... which then always launches us into very interesting, and ironic discussions on socialization and culture).
anyway, as I read the Adbuster's ariticle, and this one, I was torn. First of all, the Adbuster's article wasn't really saying anything that a self-aware hipster doesn't already know. The hipster's irony is based on a sense of futility and disrespect for the self-congradulating "counter-cultural" person. It is a recognition of how meaningless cultural identifiers really are, and thus the person chooses to rob it of its power. It is also a comment on how little activism seems to really accomplish. This is much like what Duchamp and Dadaism did to the art world, the effects of which are still present. I go back and forth between finding all of this annoying or interesting and intelligent (both in the art world and wider culture).
Of course, I probably think about this way more than the average "hipster," especially since a vast majority of them would probably not like being called a hipster in the first place... But the point is, hipsterism is one of the areas I feel some cognitive dissonance about. Here is the dilemma:
1. I actually just thoroughly like, aesthetically and for my own personal humor, a lot of hipster culture (probably because it is the culture I have been associated with the most).
2. When attempt to step outside myself and consider my own "culture" I find hipsterism incrediably interesting, funny, and surprisingly intelligent.
3. While I've always been attracted to musings on meaninglessness (existentialism, dadaism, hipsterism etc) I don't really believe in meaninglessness and thus am forced to consider how my values can be reflected in all areas of my life... this really ruins the fun of point 1 and 2.
4. I'm not really sure how to better represent my values in the clothing/music/external culture part of my life, and definently don't think throwing everything away and making a bunch of plain clothing is economical (nor does it really make sense when I think it all the way out)
so, whatever. Here I am, with all my self-contradictions trailing behind. I will say though that I do think this is an important topic, and its something I am increasingly critical of in myself.
...the sad thing is, I'm only half-joking there. Strike that, I'm dead serious.
On the serious side, while the Adbusters article had some good points, I found it to be shallow and near sighted. These kids that are labeled as hipsters are simply trying to find where they fit in this world just like all the previous generations did. I don't envy them though. Everything is so scrutinized by the media and comercialized now that it is nearly impossible to find a unique identity for one's self.
Ouch, I think I bit my tongue, I had it crammed so hard in my cheek there....
I think it is in the nature of teenagers and young people to take on the appearance of rebellion. It seems that it is part of their coming into their own as independent adults. It takes an extensive heart change to really effect change in one's person though.
I find it interesting that the children and now maybe the grandchildren of those who were part of white flight are choosing to move into the city and trying to identify in appearance with the poor (with expensive ripped up jeans, mind you). For the most part, I do not see those who are moving into the city as leaving their suburban consumer values behind. Rather, they are importing them into their new habitats.
Ultimately, for me, it isn't about the hipster or authentic question but about whether the gospel can be lived out by we who make up the dominant group?
Ps: Anyway, it is a lot better being "countercultural" than "coultercultural" (christianity is supposed to be the former, but has been the later for the most of the las 17 centuries).
At some point, I just got over it.
Thanks for this look into your heart Mark. We all have a lot of introspection to do, but it will only take us so far. And displaying that heart for others to look at has to be the only way around this "hipsterdom" that we've created.
It is when we are trying to fit in to a worldly patter, mainstream, hipster, professional, or whatever that we remake ourselves in man's image rather than God's. We fail to be peculiar. We try so hard to fit in. We regress to junior high.
First, we need to love our Lord, second we need to love His Bride, the Church. Though the other members may grieve us, our responses must be tempered in love.
Not this, Not that, Not not this, Not not that :-)
Between fashion and statement, how small the divide - between conformity and rebellion how great the divide.
1 Samuel 16:7b
(was that profound? - I'm not sure. - Sure sounded good.)
In the end, I really just think it comes down to motivation. If one is choosing to behave in such a way because of what others think, then one should refrain. If, however, you find that this type of choice meshes with who you are personally and what you believe, regardless of what outside "benefits" may come, then by all means continue to live as you wish. Too often I think we get too hung up on what others think, which comes through a bit in this article, and we waste a whole lot of time.
Just my two cents.
Growing up in Kuwait, I grew an attachment to goth/punk culture despite there being no 'scene' of any sort...moving to Australia, I continued in that vein, but I realized that in some situations, the beat-to-hell trenchcoat and throat spikes weren't helping my ability to connect with people. So I dropped the throat spikes, and eventually the coat as well. The mohawk became a shaved head, which became a 'normal' haircut. I did this not in an attempt to 'conform' as much as to allow for better relationships.
I still provoke and press people toward change, but because it's no longer tied to my appearance, I can pick and choose the times and the people I do it with...so that the people willing and able to be stretched, are, without hurting or offending those who cannot handle it.
Okay, so I couldn't resist that.
This really is a fascinating topic, and when I first read it my reaction was "welcome to the desert of the Real." It would seem that there is nothing, not even anti-capitalist resistance, that capitalism can't co-opt and then market back to you as an identity marker. If global capitalism (neoliberalism) is the new shape of Empire, there is basically no outside. It really is a life-size map of reality. It's like Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which is resistant to treatment because anything can become fodder for one's narcissistic drama. If the hipsters have an edge, it's that they get this -- at least the more self-aware ones that SarahLynne mentioned.
All of which is to say that you're right to feel this tension, to sense the ironies, to lament the contradictions. I look forward to the next installment.
Abby Hoffman eventually committed suicide and Jerry Rubin went on to become a neo-con stockbroker, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steal_this_book if you don't know who they were.
In the 60's the beats were absorbed, note the popularity of Manard G. Krebs in the TV series Dobbie Gillis.
In the 70' and 80's all the mainstream stores sold tie-died clothes.
Society absorbs, neutralizes, and regurgitates anything that is seen as a threat. By making counter-culture chic, the counter-culture becomes impotent. That was attempted with the Amish and other plain societies, with little effect. So it doesn't always succeed, but we need to remember that we need to stay on the fringe.
J.H. Yoder and others put it rather well - ecclesia semper reformanda.
As a side note, I've run Linux in one form or another since rel 0.9p13.
I don't think it that we despise what the movement became, so much as we despise what we let happen to it.
I think we've all identified how the mainstream co-opts counter cultures to neutralize them. we've all expressed our own hipsterisms and geek outs. I think its important for individuals to have a continuum of relationships and time and experiences allotted to those groups. to every kid who had a club house, or their special place by the creek, was shy at family gatherings, or really liked the attention at school or birthday parties, it is evident that they like a variety of groups, both in size and purpose, to be involved in. I know a classic case twin cities hipster. or atleast he looks like it. little do many of his nightime and cafe friends know that he is a elementary school teacher. i dont think that is a very popular profession yet, at least among fixed gear bikers. correct me if im wrong. Another spot on gutter punk friend of mine has been enjoying employment as a nanny for several years. he doesnt talk about work much in bigger crowds.
other things in the same vein, like sarahlynne's "trail of contradicitons", arent really contradictions at all. I mean, we are people. we are really really complex, multifaceted, and operate in 3 dimensions. we change our minds, switch allegiances, and ultimately make mistakes. and thats ok. we all need alone time, time with a best friend, or our secret club that no one else can be in, or a bigger group where the more that come the better the fun.
I liked mark's response and the adbusters article a lot. their criticisms and thoughts i think were right on. I wonder if though this isnt just another conversation about ultra specific class identity crises. But when I think of the 100,000 march on Washington in the 60's or the riots in France, and the millions of high school and university political activists in Latin America, I stop wondering, and start thinking again. They cant all be hipster/artsy/analog/fixed gear/urban/hippie/punk/grunge/alt/liberal arts students, can they? they must have something binding them together past sharp shoes, messy hair, and thick rimmed glasses...
i apologize if this seems incoherent. i think im a coffee glutton.
great article. very honest.
two things: the first is that I'm not sure the pseudo-alterity issues is so much a social issues (while of course it is) but also an economic issue. See "merchants of cool" by frontline for cool hunters and all that (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YuO8Zw9vJo).
Also, for me the defining thing about hipters and our generation is the ironic distance (or cynical distance) we have toward everything. Hipters are immune to criticism because whenever you expose their superficiality they just say, "Duh, I already knew that."
For me, the hard work of being radical...and the work of discipleship is to get rid of this ironic distance and actually live. Our relationships to others, to God, and even to ourselves are mediated through this distance, through these phrases of disavowal, through little gestures of insecurity, through voice inflections and sarcasms which say "I don't know who I am or what I'm really doing."
I would even venture, because I think I'm doing it myself, that church leadership suffers and congregational worship suffers because of the deep (might I even say 'unconscious') practices of ironic distance.
(an instance of ironic distance would be to conclude this comment with a mild phrase of self-deprecation so that you all didn't think I was some fundy)
A good example is the so-called hippies of the 60's and early 70's. It's been well-documented that they sold out and became yuppies and that's true of the vast majority of those who joined that movement in their youth because it was part of a trend. But if you look around you will still find aging hippies that stayed true to those ideals, they always were part of a minority even when it seemed "everybody" was a hippy.
I'm a product of the little neo-hippy movement of the late 80's and early 90's and I've seen the same thing. I might never have discovered those ideals had it not become "trendy" but unlike so many others, I took certain values to heart and still try to live by them -- I don't wear tie-dyes and have long hair anymore, that's the superficial of that particular trend, but I retain the values of peace, love and sustainability when so many others who appeared equally committed "back in the day" have moved on. But some of us have retained those values to one degree or another.
I may look and smell pretty much like your typical mainstream person, but maybe that just gives me a better opportunity to expose people to my radical ideas without them instantly having their guard up. If I still had long hair or dreads and reeked of patchouli, those same people probably would never get to know me at all.
But if they see someone who seems pretty much like them gardening organically, driving a hybrid, refusing to shop at Wal-Mart, raising beef on only grass instead of grain, etc. maybe they'll give more serious consideration to making small alterations in their own lives. They may not become radicalized, but maybe they'll take some steps in the right direction.