variation on a theme

I have been thinking since yesterday about my last post. This isn't a negation of the previous post, but an addition to.

The conclusion that I have come to is this: the "hipster" doesn't really exist the way in which we talk about it. The reason why no one wants to claim that identity for themselves is because hipster means mindless following of trends, blind consumerism, apathy, inaction, etc...no one really wants to accept that as something that defines them. While there may be entire groups of people that follow this life-style, something tells me it more describes the aspects of our own lives that we are uncomfortable with.

I had a conversation with a puppeteer about something kind of similar. He was grungy, punked-out, and completely involved with and aware of today's issues. I was frustrated at the general state of things and talked about how our society attaches to aesthetics first, before ideals. And today, businesses and advertising agencies are so good at what they do, they spot an aesthetic trend (that may or may not be a reflection of an ideology), and they sell it. So the movement kind of stops there. All of the sudden you have an entire fleet of people wearing shirts that say "punk's not dead" and having no clue why they're wearing it. So when you stand up to talk about DIY culture, all anyone sees is an H&M ad. So that annoyed me. Dave responded by saying "It's not about trends or aesthetics. It never has been. When a group of people start relying on fashion as opposed to ideas, there was nothing there in the first place."

What I got out of that is this: we are an image-based society. No question. But perhaps the goal has always been and should always be that it doesn't matter whether you're drinking a PBR and look like you're wearing an American Apparel shirt, what matters is what you're doing with your life. What choices are you making? What things do you hold dear?

Which brings me back to my original point. There are no hipsters because "hipster" is an image-based term. You could point to me on one day and say I'm a hipster because I'm wearing black jeans, but my lifestyle does not match up with the ideological wasteland that we associate with that term. What hipster is, is that little "cool" microbe living inside of us that makes us nervous. That makes us wish we could just say "fuck it, I'm going to be ironic for the rest of my life, instead of doing something interesting with my time." No one person does this completely because if anyone did, there'd be a growing void of anything interesting in the world and they'd surely die of boredom. Even the most classic "hipster" must actually DO something. This, in my mind, means they are not a hipster, because to me, that term necessarily requires inaction.

We all are a part of this thing and want to outsource our apathetic guilt and so label as many other people with it as possible. Maybe that guy with the plastic rimmed glasses and trendy haircut is actually doing more to better the world than you. But you can at least point him out in a crowd, label him, and feel better about yourself.

The solution? Be who you be. And never stop being involved with the world. We'll always want to be cool. But the sooner we realize that's a meaningless construct, the better (I know, I know, I'll keep dreaming). What matters is what you're doing with your life- not how you chose to dress in the morning (unless of course what you're wearing is undermining global economies and generally harming the world. Sorry- had to put it in there).