Why!!!! Hipsters!!! Why!!!!!

[MisterCairo]

I've been in and out of style at least half a dozen times in the last thirty years or so. Style is irrelevant. Subcultures are irrelevant. Trends are irrelevant. Irony is irrelevant. "Cool" is irrelevant. You will not be truly free until you honestly reject all of those concepts.

I'm always in style.

My style is always stylish.

Style comes from within, it is not imposed from without.

That's so deep you could swim in it....

 

[MisterCairo]

This thread reminded me of a recent controversy in British Columbia. Based on, wait for it, the provincial government's job creation strategy:

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/1...eal-job-bc-government-liberals_n_1952815.html

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's very good advice. The world has all the conceptual artists, graphic designers, web theorists, anarcho-syndicalist bass players, free-trade coffee-roasters, artisinal mayonnaise makers, nouvelle chefs, gelatin-print photographers, unpublishable poets and avant-garde filmmakers it will ever need. But try getting an electrician on Sunday.

(On the other hand, the more time privileged middle-class twenty-somethings spend chasing their whimsical will-o-the-wisps, the weaker the bourgeoise will become in the long term until finally it just disappears, a whey-faced phantom carried away by the winds of proletarian revolution. Or something like that.)

 

[tonyb]

I hope you're right about commonality. Ideally, taste is something independent of our social and personal circumstances - purely what one likes.

But in reality, it often plays out as deterministic - what you like is what your "type" likes. Hipsters might like a,b,c,d; gays b,d,e,f; conservatives c,d,e; loners a,d,f,g; and so on. Whether this is due to the ways we find out about things - usually from some community - or due to some intrinsic appeal to our type is another question.

Then too, you can often cross-map interests over each other. Indy fans might like straight razors but not phonographs; vintage dress-wearers might not be into shirtwaists; etc, etc.

I don't necessarily dispute any of that. But I don't necessarily agree with it either.

Sure, there's often a reason a stereotype takes hold. Those labelled "hipsters" in this thread may indeed exhibit an unusual propensity for self-satisfaction and a fondness for irony or whatever. But then, we're talking about young people predominantly, right? Anything new about that? Lord knows that many of my cohort during my 20s were insufferable know-it-alls. You know, if only the world listened to us, why, we'd have a f%#@ing utopia!

What you've identified, I think, is the tendency for people to seek group identity, and identifiers. A common sight in this mostly blue-collar district in which I've lived for the past 3 1/2 years are pickup trucks sporting window decals proclaiming why this person's Ford, Chevy or Dodge pickup is clearly superior to that other person's Ford, Chevy or Dodge pickup. From what I can tell, the people affixing those decals to their trucks are actually serious about this. It might seem like a joke to the rest of us, but apparently not to them.

There's always been that tension between individuality and community. It's our lot, you know, and it always has been.

When I was in my adolescence and "hippie" styles were current there was a slim volume available through Scholastic Book Services titled "How to Be a Nonconformist." Yes, the title was meant to be ironic, of course. I just now did a quick search and came upon this entry about it and its author ...

https://pogoer.wordpress.com/2008/06/09/how-to-be-a-nonconformist-a-fond-remembrance/

Seems that little has changed, except the titles.

Now I just hope to live long enough to truly outgrow certain of these less-constructive human tendencies.

Quick aside: The guy I bought my greenhouse from is a unusually large fellow -- a longshoreman who drinks beer and bourbon and drives a pickup and listens to country music. At first glance you might think him a cross between Archie Bunker and Hulk Hogan. He has the most impressive organic, pesticide-free, certified urban wildlife sanctuary garden I've ever seen.

 

[MisterCairo]

So, I have to ask:

Which IS the best pick up truck?

 

[Feraud]

Well said tonyb. It comes off as a suckerpunch when older folks who've lived their lives and made their mistakes take shots at young folks just being young and doing what most of us have done.

I’ve observed among the older hipster types a sincere interest in handicrafts, gardening, whole foods, anti-consumer attitudes, etc. My wife is a longtime knitter/crochet/quilter. I was surprised to see how many hipster types are into these crafts. Likewise the appreciation of quality handmade goods, clothing, and gardening. There is a solid group of older hipster types that are all about the “thinking locally, acting globally” mentality.
We may loath to admit it but there is another subculture keeping alive many of the traits of the culture of the Greatest Generation..

 

[tonyb]

So, I have to ask:

Which IS the best pick up truck?

The ones made in Canada.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The only good pickup truck is a sincere pickup truck.

 

[jamespowers]

This thread reminded me of a recent controversy in British Columbia. Based on, wait for it, the provincial government's job creation strategy:

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/1...eal-job-bc-government-liberals_n_1952815.html

:rofl:

 

[tonyb]

I'm always in style.

My style is always stylish.

Style comes from within, it is not imposed from without.

That's so deep you could swim in it....

I'm confident you're one stylin' mo-fo there, Cairo. That's on account of all that 'tude of yours, of course.

 

[Fletch]

So, I have to ask:

Which IS the best pick up truck?

Well doy! A Studebaker.

 

[MisterCairo]

I'm confident you're one stylin' mo-fo there, Cairo. That's on account of all that 'tude of yours, of course.

One tries...

 

[MisterCairo]

The ones made in Canada.

It'll be an older model, GM and Ford both closed their truck plants in Oshawa and Oakville, Ontario, respectively.

We do, however, make the Chevy Camaro!

 

[nick123]

The way I see it:
"Hipsterism" is a movement of sorts. If it wasn't, (just a few people scattered around the world carrying these traits), it would be a non-issue.
But when you see hundreds, thousands of these people everywhere, doing the same thing, you call b.s.
There is no way that everyone in this subculture is REALLY into the same things. I sense a lot of "trying to fit it" going on.
No doubt, something about it repulses me big time. Even though I haven't ditched publicly announcing "I hate hipsters", I feel myself taking a step back afterwords and realizing "we're all human".
This mindset helps to relax you and see the bigger picture.
A different perspective and you can make your hatred/disgust superficial and feel better about life. Perhaps hipsters are 21st century life's way of teaching us tolerance!

 

[jamespowers]

Perhaps hipsters are 21st century life's way of teaching us tolerance!

Or a way of exhibitng our failures as a culture.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I don't hate hipsters as individuals. I hate the empty vapidity, the pretentious Whole-Foods-Consumerism that turns even the most superficial purchase into a Statement, and the patronizing "pluralism" that views all other cultures as grist for their mill of cheap irony that "hipsterism" represents.

I'm not too fond of beards, either, but we'll let that one go.

 

[wireless man]

hipster don't bug me.. except when they just beat me to a collection of records at a yard sale!

 

[nick123]

What I'm saying is if you dissect it, it's kids trying to fit in. If their hearts (as a group) truly beat to the drum of the Whole Foods mentality, then we have a problem. But I doubt this. The kids have found (comfort) in whatever fad they've subscribed to, so they're doing it. But, I can guarantee you that to some degree their interests are superficial.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And I hate kale, too. Disgusting stuff. Blech.

 

[Rudie]

If their hearts (as a group) truly beat to the drum of the Whole Foods mentality, then we have a problem.

Huh? What's wrong with not wanting to eat processed food and preferring natural food instead?