A brilliant new article from the fine folks over at Corrupt.org on the disease of Hipsterdom, and the nullifying social effects of those who live for nothing more than how cool they are simply because of their interests.
http://www.corrupt.org/columns/alex_birch/death_to_hipsterdom
Death to Hipsterdom
Submitted by Alex Birch on Thu, 08/28/2008
The age of hipsterdom is upon us. I'm finding myself waking up to a world that's increasingly full of confused individuals who want to play important. While the ancients knew that a civilization only works when it's composed of people with shared ideals and values, the modern hipsters think it's more important to enhance their pop appearance in the mirror to play unique. Hipsters are easy to recognize in social groups, because as soon as you start to discuss opinions and values, they make sure they're always finding a way of disagreeing with you, even if 95% of what they're saying basically is a version of what you said, to appear assertive and different from other people: "Hi, my name is Morgan. I'm an anarcho-syndicalist-libertarian-socialist green, influenced by Foucault, Gandhi, Churchill and the hot chick in 'X-Files.'"
Hipsters create a social wall where they distance themselves from the world and echo back any argument in a discussion, as if you were talking to a machine with pre-programmed answers: "Local communities? That idea totally doesn't fit into my worldview, where societies instead are turned into autonomous disco houses with Hindu gods and Asian rock idols on the walls. I'm sorry dude, we don't have anything in common." The idea is to find a detailed objection to everything you say, so that you're supposed to act surprised and then copy the same behaviour: "You're right, I should become an Independent just like you, I'm simply too special to work in a group." If you follow the Hipster Cult, you'll never have to lift a finger for anyone except yourself, since you're too damn special to agree on what's effective.
Hipsterdom comes in many forms, often as straw man criticism that always defends a passive position. People who whine about how a certain organization doesn't meet all of their requirements, and therefore is impossible to work with, are hipsters. Instead of trying to integrate with the organization and changing it from within to more closely match his hopes and visions, the typical hipster simply shrugs because everything isn't perfect, and concludes beforehand that giving up is the right way to go. It's a comfortable position, kind of like sitting in front of the television and pointing fingers at drama queens at American Idol who sing like elephants; like all false self-empowerment where you morally place yourself above other people just to appear righteous and hip, it's a comfortable position that strokes your ego and provides you with a quick mental orgasm.
The religion of hipsterdom is growing in our society, because it is simply another way of giving up on the world around you and opting for a cop-out in disguise. Instead of saying outright that you're too confused to do anything about our rotten society, you sit at home and profess to your friends at the local coffee house about how you've discovered the oh-so-unique ideological flavor that will save the world. In reality, your opinions are not more special than the cup of cappuccino you're holding, even if you manipulate the appearance of what you're trying to say. Hipsters are anti-consensus, which means they kill the very foundation to human communities, where people decide to live together because they share the same outlook on life. Opposed to what the hipsters are looking for, everyone cannot agree on everything, but we need a shared agreement on basic ideas about how a community should work and what its goals and standards are. These are things that permeate the existence of everyday life.
There is only one way to counter hipsterdom and that is to become a pragmatic realist. These people are afraid that you'll point out their uselessness, so when asking them how they plan to apply "anarcho-syndicalist-libertarian-socialist greenism" to society, you break the glass of the Hipster Heaven and eventually force it to self-destruct. Individual differences will always exist, but when we let our ego dramatize itself at the expense of the community, we become social pushers who spend our passive lives defending our own inability to interact with the world and change it according to what we believe in. Hipsters are a by-product of a civilization that lacks the social cohesion once holding it together. As a realist, you choose the pragmatic path, which means you align yourself with like-minded individuals and work together for common, positive goals. "Alone against all" sounds good on paper, but the age of hipsterdom will kill off the last traces of once great civilizations, unless we change the minds of the confused and deport the permanent losers, who believe the world exists to serve their broken reflection in the mirror.
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