Before you call hipsterism a fad, consider this comment from kleinbl00. Hipsters are our version of '60s counterculture, which was their version of the beats, which was their version of the Horatio Alger prototype -- the noble tramp. Etc. -- Fuck aiming for uniqueness. I'm going to aim to live as simply and cheaply as possible so that I can enjoy my youth to the greatest extent. Maybe this means that next time I travel I figure out long distance carpooling and hostels instead of flying to a hotel. Maybe it means I spend a lot of my time in a free coffeeshop bumming wifi and occasionally making someone a drink to assuage my guilt. Could mean a lot of different things to a lot of people. But it's not a fad to everyone; I can guarantee you to some of us it's a lifestyle, and as kb mentions, it's a reaction to circumstances beyond gen x's control.The kids are all right. That "social safety net" described in the linked article is a strawman. It's not steady-state. For one thing, unemployment doesn't last forever (trust me, I know). For another, the United States is busily dealing with "structural unemployment" - a lovely technical term for "jobs that are not coming back ever." It's going to be a long slow decline. Part of it is caused by those very "hipsters" - they don't buy much. They don't need cars. They use "irony" as an excuse to shop at thrift stores (hey, whatever works!). They support "hipster" restaurants, which is code for "keeps money closer to the point of sale" (85% of money generated by a franchise restaurant leaves the zip code of the franchise). And they deeply believe in the shit they buy, to a zealous degree. It's not exactly an anti-consumer mantra, but it certainly protects the local at the expense of the global.
Bill McKibben (GenX) argues in Eaarth that the way forward is distinctly hipster-like: Travel less, buy less, eat local whenever possible, use less energy and cultivate online relationships. Shannon Hayes (GenX) argues in Radical Homemakers that the way forward is to freeload until you have enough resources to live self-sufficiently off your own land.
More extreme, much less pervasive. This is not remotely what I said.Don't you believe that the 60's counter culture was probably more extreme than our said modern version of it now?
I guess you can almost say that being hipster is a label young generations aim for because it allows them to fit in
Why? Income inequality ain't going away. This generational problem we supposedly have, of making less money than are parents did or whatever, that's here to stay. Most "hipsters" who actually embody what the average person thinks a "hipster" is are a lot older than you might guess anyway. It's not a fad it's a reactionary -- and often necessary -- lifestyle. You are all defining a hipster in one way and I am defining it in another. I think.
I think -- if you have to use the word at all -- it's best to define hipsters by their actions, as kb does in the bits of his post that I quoted above. People who have responded to changing social and labor conditions by reducing their "footprint." I'm not saying that's how almost anyone uses that term, but that's my best definition and the way I (and some people I know) use it. And it seems to me a compliment; unfortunately the word as discussed above has become inherently pejorative.
This discussion took me back to my hipster chicken post https://hubski.com/pub?id=91192 . I was in retrospect pretty tired of hearing about hipsters that week and maybe went a bit deep.
I remember that wonderful post. I agree wholeheartedly with: When I use the word 'hipster', as I have tried poorly to explain in this thread, I am using it in a complimentary way to describe the former group. People who keep chickens because, fuck it, it's cheaper and almost certainly less morally bankrupt than buying eggs every week. They have reacted to a certain part of society -- in this case, maybe, our fucked up food industry -- and found an 'alternative' solution. For which they are labeled hipsters. But there ain't nothing wrong with that.So maybe these chicken keepers in my neighborhood aren't "hipsters" because they have kept chickens for many years, they are doing it to provide food not because it's the "hip" thing to do. Maybe it's the people who keep chickens and give them up who are "hipsters."
My mom's friends give her some crap for raising chickens. But then they ask for eggs because 'They're just so much better!' Luckily our small flock is productive enough that it's no trouble to give somebody a half dozen every now and then, but the hypocrisy is astonishing.
Frankly, I would call the successful ones "hippies" and the ones who abandon their chickens "hipsters." I don't see a lot of hipster-dom as a genuine movement, more of a reaction to pop culture that has a lot more to do with obscure music, fixies, cigarettes, and fashion. Oh, and drinking - copious drinking and general drug use. I mean, I was in college with hipsters when the trend exploded and maybe that's part of why I have this perception. I think my friends who were hipsters have in some cases gone on and done things that are true to the underlying personality, such as move to New York City ( a lot of them), start working at farms or co-ops, and so on, but I also don't know if they would still identify themselves as hipsters.
Link leads to a blank page. Think I remember that post, but wouldn't mind reading again.