From Adbusters:
Ever since the Allies bombed the Axis into submission, Western civilization has had a succession of counter-culture movements that have energetically challenged the status quo. Each successive decade of the post-war era has seen it smash social standards, riot and fight to revolutionize every aspect of music, art, government and civil society.
But after punk was plasticized and hip hop lost its impetus for social change, all of the formerly dominant streams of “counter-culture” have merged together. Now, one mutating, trans-Atlantic melting pot of styles, tastes and behavior has come to define the generally indefinable idea of the “Hipster.”
I have to admit my enjoyment of the hipster scene back in Philadelphia as well as here in Toronto. Although I don't consider myself a hipster, I enjoy the dive bars, the young good-looking crowds and the often electronic music. Every time I go out to some hipster event, I think to myself about the opportunity to politically organize the crowds of intelligent, well-informed 20-somethings. The problem is that I haven't yet figured out how to inject progressive political activism into this hipster world.
Adbusters, whose cover story on Hipsterdom sparked this post, takes a unsurprisingly critical and pessimistic view.
Hipsterdom is the first “counterculture” to be born under the advertising industry’s microscope, leaving it open to constant manipulation but also forcing its participants to continually shift their interests and affiliations. Less a subculture, the hipster is a consumer group – using their capital to purchase empty authenticity and rebellion. But the moment a trend, band, sound, style or feeling gains too much exposure, it is suddenly looked upon with disdain. Hipsters cannot afford to maintain any cultural loyalties or affiliations for fear they will lose relevance.
An amalgamation of its own history, the youth of the West are left with consuming cool rather that creating it. The cultural zeitgeists of the past have always been sparked by furious indignation and are reactionary movements. But the hipster’s self-involved and isolated maintenance does nothing to feed cultural evolution. Western civilization’s well has run dry. The only way to avoid hitting the colossus of societal failure that looms over the horizon is for the kids to abandon this vain existence and start over.
Adbusters laments our "defeated generation" that is too afraid to create our own authentic counterculture. First, I can't disagree more with the fact that we are defeated. Have you seen the level of activism among millennials in the US? Our generation is well-informed, caring, and using the new tools at our disposal to effect real change, instead of feeding into some new counterculture movement that will inevitably be co-opted and sold back to us. Second, the whole notion of effecting change through some authentic counterculture has not worked for the last 20+ years. Remember all those culture jammers and anti-globalization radicals that Adbusters exemplifies? What have they achieved?
Instead of worrying about how Hipsterdom is growing into "a global phenomenon that is set to consume the very core of Western counterculture" we need to reevaluate what actual value comes from these countercultures. In my view, all of this focus on creating and sustaining these subcultures opposed to the "mainstream" is just a distraction from achieving real political change.
Cross Posted at Canadian Liberal @ Penn
3 comments:
In my view, all of this focus on creating and sustaining these subcultures opposed to the "mainstream" is just a distraction from achieving real political change. I agree with both you and adbusters.
I think adbusters is paying attention to those of our generation who, regardless of what generation they would have been a part of, would have just consumed the "cool" since that is what Americans seem to do best anyways....and not have tried to actually try to affect social change or make things happen.
You are looking at it from the perspective, and rightly so, of people in our generation who you know personally, who are kicking their butts all the time and being brilliant in their use of today's technology to bridge gaps and push things forward so that someday, things can be better for people.
So I don't know necessarily if adbusters can make the claim, while sounding like ridiculously old people who discard the youth, that our generation isn't doing ANY thing just because some of us are so focused on being cool. YES, there are those of us who never gave a damn and never will because it is not in their personality types to give a damn. And then there will be those of us who are just built to want to do more, to care more than the average person does, and who pushes more against the way things are than the average person does because thats the way they are built. And I agree with you that focusing on who is doing what or not doing whatever doesn't help anybody. Focus on those who are trying to do something, work with them, and forget about the rest of the people who don't care because they won't care until it feeds their self-interests and who knows when they will think it is "cool" to get involved.
It is always easier to focus on the bad aspects of people, things, and situations. But only focusing on those aspects discourages the rest of us, who are built to want to do more, to actually be motivated. We can do more and we are pushing to do more -- we always are.
Interesting- I actually quite enjoyed the adbusters article as well. I was speaking with some friends last week about what "hipster" is, and I liked the article's descriptions: "a class of individuals that seek to escape their own wealth and privilege by immersing themselves in the aesthetic of the working class", wearing the symbols but refusing to be called a hipster, etc.
From my reading, the article didn't really seem to say we were defeated, but, in their own words, that the hipster counterculture "represents the end of Western civilization – a culture so detached and disconnected that it has stopped giving birth to anything new." To my understanding, this means not that Western civilization is doomed, but that this particular 'movement' is far removed from the politically active, change agents that will really make a difference, and only represents a politically disengaged, fashion-conscious, young partying crowd. I think that's the the thing- as you brought up- about the value of 'counterculture'. And is 'hipsterdom' really a counterculture, or simply a style, a trend, of consumerist youth?
Anyway- thanks Brett, for keeping the interesting articles and tidbits coming! :-D
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