Hipster: The End of Civilization?
Douglas Haddow, the author of a semi-recent article in Adbusters called “Hipster: The Dead End of Civilization” makes the following claim about the state of counterculture:
“We’ve reached a point in our civilization where counterculture has mutated into a self-obsessed aesthetic vacuum.
The author goes on to level a scathing critique of “hipsters,” who he blames for culture FAIL:
Assuming for a moment that his beliefs are accurate (and that all hipsters are created equal: unlikely, as few hipsters wear the label proudly), does it really matter if hipsters don’t challenge the status quo in any meaningful way? Does it matter that hipsters are just ironically rehashing what came before them? Does the younger generation really need to create anything new? Haven’t the young always been insecure, self-obsessed, and susceptible to the same herd mentality as their parents? Is it really so bad if hipster lives are limited to little more than dressing creatively, posing, dancing, getting drunk, and scoring ass? I think relativism has it's problems, but I'm not sure i would choose this subject for drawing battle lines. I suppose I'm saying that kids have always been kids, and that across time, the ones who give a damn and turn theory into praxis have always been the minority, regardless of subculture. Perhaps the author would have been better served to focus on those who exceed the standard instead of those who huddle around it as sheep to a shepherd. What do you think?So while hipsterdom is the end product of all prior countercultures, it’s been stripped of its subversion and originality…Less a subculture, the hipster is a consumer group – using their capital to purchase empty authenticity and rebellion….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.”
….. An artificial appropriation of different styles from different eras, the hipster represents the end of Western civilization – a culture lost in the superficiality of its past and unable to create any new meaning. Not only is it unsustainable, it is suicidal. While previous youth movements have challenged the dysfunction and decadence of their elders, today we have the “hipster” – a youth subculture that mirrors the doomed shallowness of mainstream society.
21 comments:
I didn't find much to argue with in his article. Previous counter-cultural movements were much more DIY. Hipsterdom is just another form of consumerism. You buy your way through it. It really isn't surprising. We've reached a point where almost all experience is "consumed" rather than lived. Do we even know how to experience life any longer?
"Do we even know how to experience life any longer?
Bahaha!
I like this quote from the article:
“I’ve always found that word [“hipster”] is used with such disdain, like it’s always used by chubby bloggers who aren’t getting laid anymore and are bored, and they’re just so mad at these young kids for going out and getting wasted and having fun and being fashionable,” he says. “I’m dubious of these hypotheses because they always smell of an agenda.”
So true. I have been called a hipster many times. I was recently hanging out with some friends (non-hipsters, I guess) and while sitting cross-legged, my brown sock was showing and someone said something like, "Oh, what are those hipster socks?" I was puzzled and asked why my socks were "hipster" and was told that they were hipster because they aren't white. So, you're a hipster if you have a fashion sense that doesn't begin with khaki pants and end with Nike running shoes? Or if you just don't wear white socks? I'm confused. Can someone tell me what the fuck a "hipster" is?
"Hipster" is so poorly defined and so idiotically and widely applied that it is often meaningless and absurd, as in the example of my brown socks. Meanwhile, people who do their consuming at the mall instead of at the thrift store get to feel better about their stale sense of style by putting the rest of us down. Exactly how is the hipster any less consumerist than anyone else? Why are my consumer habits inferior to anyone else's? At least American Apparel is not sweatshop produced and the clothes at the thrift store are getting reused rather than wasted.
I am also puzzled by the implication that "hipsters" are all trust fund babies who party, sleep late, and then party again every day of their lives. I am a genuinely poor grad student who appreciates buying $3 shirts at Value Village because it's cheap. And I work hard. So just because I wear Chuck Taylors (also a cheaper alternative to most other footwear) and thrift store clothes, people look at me and assume I'm a privileged douchebag? Go fuck yourself.
And who exactly decided that by virtue of the clothes I wear that I am part of some sort of counter-cultural movement? I had no idea I was participating in such a thing. Is their a website where I can sign up or something? Something with a ".org" at the end of it?
And one more thing... Does anyone doubt that the douche who wrote that article is a "hipster" himself? These people need to get over themselves and live and let live.
the thing is hipsters are not a typical counterculture movement, are they? were they ever? when i first heard the word 'hipster', i remember it meaning something along the lines of somebody having their finger on what was new and interesting, in a mostly urban setting. in that sense, being a hipster did not start with kids and irony, but 20somethings trying to create an interesting scene.
that's an interesting kind of counterculture, because it assumes that in the last 15 years engagement has become the counter movement and apathy is the norm.
in any case, it became appropriated very consumerism, prob because hipsters were about the next thing and what is interesting and happening, it was an easy trap to fall into. and then it became stratified and exclusive, and the 'hipster-than-thou' websites appeared, and a typical hipster now is kind of a douchebag that will criticize your taste in beer, clothing, music and what not. and then go out for a smoke.
hey John,
i, too, thought the point about the trust fund babies was a little off. I'm a college student and there are hipsters abound here, but while reading the article I knew instinctively that the author was referring to a different "breed" of hipster. the academic hipsters are different in a lot of ways than what was being discussed in the article.
i do feel pretty uncomfortable using such a label so freely, but y'know...I'll do it for now.
i think a lot of "hipsterdom" is about intent. i, too, buy all my clothes used for a lot of different reasons. monetary and human costs being the most important, but I feel like the hyper-sensitivity to image is what sets hipsters apart maybe?
i just know that whenever I go to hipster parties I never have any real interactions with people because there are so many walls up. clothing is definitely not the best "hipster barometer."
alright, i'm done rambling.
-eliza.
Ben, my responses are not about “hipsters” per se. They are answers to the questions you threw out there.
does it really matter if hipsters don’t challenge the status quo in any meaningful way?
Yes! Vietnam, the Civil Rights Movement, Ending Apartheid in South Africa, the Peace Corps
Does it matter that hipsters are just ironically rehashing what came before them?
Um, I think it’s more cliched consumerism. Maybe I am just old, but it seems rather lazy to me.
Does the younger generation really need to create anything new?
Abso-friggin-lutely. The Beats, the Hippies, the Disco folks, Punks, New wavers, Preps, they have all made significant and defining contributions to our culture.
Haven’t the young always been insecure, self-obsessed, and susceptible to the same herd mentality as their parents?
NO! Parents have always projected their shit on to their kids. I often tell my friends with kids that, in addition to a college fund, they need to start saving for therapy bills.
Is it really so bad if hipster lives are limited to little more than dressing creatively, posing, dancing, getting drunk, and scoring ass?
That is the definition of a parasite.
Perhaps the author would have been better served to focus on those who exceed the standard instead of those who huddle around it as sheep to a shepherd. What do you think?
MIserable bastards love to make other people miserable.
Based on the description of “hipsters,” I know some folks who fit the cover, but whose pages are deep, meaningful and generous.
Are there different types of hipster? Is there a manual somewhere? As you can read in an old post (linked in my post above) I'm thrown by people labeling me something that I don't have any connection to, other than in the way I dress myself (and even there, I'm not so much hipster as I don't put much thought into my clothes, which is mostly second-hand). If there are hipsters trying to take back the label or define it in other ways, I would like to hear from those individuals.
My experience is much like eliza's.
as someone who knows a thing or two about "hip", just read this blog and let i change your life
hipsterrunoff.com
Hipsterrunoff.com is simply unviewable. It makes me want to barf. I have no idea what's going on there. Maybe it's just because I wasn't raised watching seizure-inspiring japanamation like the rest of the kids these days.
Ben, yes, there is a "Hipster Handbook" and it's a piece of crap. It actually tries to assert that hipsters use the word "deck" to mean "cool." That alone makes me cringe.
Of course it's also 5 years old, so it can't be up on what all the real hipsters are doing and saying nowadays.
mike! "deck" as "cool" reminded me of the megan jasper "grunge speak" hoax on the nyt.
as a kid who never properly learned how to tight-roll jeans, i want to know if there's a handbook that includes instructions for properly arranging one's hipster sandinista scarf. mine always looks like i'm saddling up to a red lobster buffet.
"hipster represents the end of Western civilization"
snicker, snicker
i always thought skaters were the end of western civilization
Coach, the sad part is that I had friends who started using the term "deck" just because they read it in the Hipster Handbook. I tried my best not to laugh in their faces.
I think I recall "lamestain" but otherwise the grunge-speak hoax was lost on me. I got called a grunge guy back in the early 90s because I happened to have long hair and wear flannel shirts. I just couldn't get any love.
Steph, something tells me the author of this article couldn't tell a hipster from a skate punk to save his life.
Proof: Michael as a grunge kid circa 1995.
michael, i'd date that proof.
Haha! Adbusters is always full of self-righteous drivel that criticizes everything and goes nowhere. Newsflash, PC Canadian Adbusters staff: kids have always been interested in trying to define a style different from mom and dad and trying to look "cool" in the process, and hopefully scoring some tail along the way. Is that the "end of western civilization?" What a hand-wringing bunch of old ladies.
BTW, if I have to choose sides between kids into indie rock, art, and progressive politics over a bunch of republican dolts living in the suburbs and dreaming of working their way up the middle-management ladder, so they can someday afford an even bigger McMansion, it will not be a hard choice for me.
P.S. to Adbusters: if every "hipster" disappears tomorrow, so does your circulation.
I think "hipster" defines 99.9% of the readers of this blog. Vain, insecure, pretentious, neurotic, well intentioned but ignorant, petulant and generally obnoxious poseurs.
In capitalist democracy everything has "value". Your home, car, identity, pants, hair color, even life itself.
There isn't anything anyone thinks, feels, does or says that is not pre-configured by the market. We are exploited by corporate America which sees we are nothing but a collective raging ID desperate to coagulate and disappear into a comforting mass of consumers. Conformity.
Whether you consume flat screen TVs at Best Buy or slim slack jeans at American Apparel you are the same faceless drone unit of consumption.
Now, you could rebel against that or just keep shopping at American Apparel, dancing at Homo/Sonic and striking your fashionably urban gay pose.
Harsh? You're goddamn right.
Gretchen, stop trying to make fetch happen! It's not going to happen!
I guess the same could be said about...deck.
anon -
do you really think you could make a blanket (well, save the .1%) that all hipsters are "ignorant, petulant and generally obnoxious poseurs"?
i guess i ask because no matter how much of a fashion parade someone puts on in public / on the weekend, you never really know the values they hold or the issues they care most passionately about until you actually know the person.
for example: sure, i shop at american apparel, dance at Homo/Sonic, and - well no, i don't strike very good poses - and if you catch me on a saturday night in white pants and a neon shirt you would probably call me a "poseur"; however, a) i would have no idea what i'm pretending to be and b) it just wouldn't make sense to try to figure out my character by looking at that one snapshot of my week/life, and i don't really think you can do that for many people.
you might think i'm just being defensive, but i honestly just don't believe you can judge a person's character based on the way they dress or the places they socialize.
also - did you put 99.9% to save yourself?
omg stephanie, its just like Romans 11:46 - "And Jesus said, 'All men are sinners. Except one man. Who was born in a manger. And whose mom is named Mary. And is like, really awesome. Everyone else sucks.'"
Prophet Anon is a visionary.
"I am also puzzled by the implication that "hipsters" are all trust fund babies who party, sleep late, and then party again every day of their lives."
Well, considering the basis of 'hipster' culture stems from a New York culture of the early 00s that was basically a bunch of trust fund kids going out partying, doing drugs, and obsessed with being fashionable, there's actually a basis for it. The whole thing was really just a a bastardized evolution of an indie rock culture that existed in some form since the 80s, but removed of much substance or any real meaning beyond perpetuating an idea of trendiness. Vice magazine pretty much epitomized it.
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