“Something I need to point out: hipsters really are not problem to me.
To me, they’re basically caught in the crossfire between a Marxist cynicism about Capitalism and the very fact that Capitalism has adopted (via marketers (them as the ideal producer/consumers.” –Me
“They are the product of a younger generation just going fuck it… we are just going to live our lives… deal with the world as it is and have fun.” –Andy
“ I’ll buy into that, Andy. But what it suggests to me is a kind of nihilism that if not adding to the problem, will allow it to continue. In that sense, it is as perfectly implicit in our possible self destruction through climate change or our enslavement through global capitalism. It’s no wonder they are the flavor of the day for marketers.” –yes, me again……
Once again, I’m sure the hipsters are fine people with a lot of different political views. However, as Andy’s point confirms, one of the main concerns I have with them (and the term “concerns” is important here in that it is not a sweeping judgment of hipsters as a whole (is that they remind me a lot of the sports bar culture that emerged in the 90’s under the Clinton boom: a lot of people sitting around all tight fisted, flush with prosperity, and acting like they did it in a vacuum. And because of this (for reasons they will claim to be enlightened or radical: the same ones that got Jr. in (our next president will likely be republican.
And as luck would have it, my present reading of Zizek’s Plague of Fantasies sheds a little light on this on page 27:
“The lesson is therefore clear: an ideological identification exerts a true hold on us precisely when we maintain an awareness that we are not fully identical to it, that there is a rich human person beneath it: ‘not all is ideology, beneath the ideological mask, I am also a human person is the very form of ideology, of its ‘practical efficiency’.”
Now in order to crystallize this, I have to backtrack to the page before which offers up a criticism of the Robert Altman movie MASH which I consider a powerful response to right-wingers who harp on some supposed left-wing Hollywood conspiracy which completely neglects the very fact that Hollywood is run by corporations. He points to its perfect conformity in that while its anti-militarianism is expressed through a healthy dose of “cynicism, practical jokes, laughing at pompous officials, and so on,” the MASH crew performs their jobs exemplarily and thus present no threat to the military machine. It conforms while seeming to not conform. And I would humbly offer my own example concerning James Thurber’s story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Anyone who has read the story knows that it is the ultimate anti-Rand story in that it starts with a weak hen-pecked man who compensates through his daydreams and ends (triumphantly, mind you (with a weak hen-pecked man who compensates through his daydreams. But let’s take a look at what the Hollywood corporate machine has done with it so far. First we had the Danny Kaye version which basically got turned into a common Hollywood musical and dance spectacular. Enough said about that. But even more insidious (while actually being entertaining (was the Ben Stiller Ayn Rand fuck fantasy of Walter Mitty opposing all odds and actually becoming a hero. As the corporate mentality constantly reminds us: if you will it enough, you can make it happen.
To give you another personal and anecdotal example of how so-called anti-ideology can end up ideological: I was in a bar back in 90’s. One of the big movements then was thrash/rap metal that included bands like Limp Biscuit. That night, I watched a guy walk up to the bar with that Limp Biscuit look: the kaki shorts, the le tigre shirt, and the short brimmed hat turned sideways or backwards (I can’t remember which. Okay: a man trying to find his identity; nothing wrong there. But it turned comical when I watched another man walk up to the bar in the exact same dress. I had to wonder if they were wearing the same cologne. Probably should have smelled them but I think I was going nose blind by that time. And imagine how embarrassed they would have felt face to face.
The point is (and I hope the hipsters are listening (that there is no final realm of non-conformity that can put us beyond the status quo. Power will always assimilate what is available to it: even what defies it. So we have to defer to what Deleuze and Guattari referred to as a constant nomadic flight: to keep moving even while standing still. We have to keep the radars moving in the hope that they will eventually break down.