Straight out of the recycle bin

After reading the adbusters article about hipsters, I had this immediate urge to write a response. I thought the article was true and hilarious, but the ending was pretty retarded. I figured I might as well post it, my response that is, because I’d just end up deleting it from my computer, and well, that’s no fun. There may be no logical insight to the whole thing, but I’m not too worried...read it if you please...

Hipsters just need to grow up and admit that they are in fact part of a group. So to get the ball rolling…MY NAME IS NICOLE, AND I, REGRETTABLY, MIGHT BE A HIPSTER. (except – I don’t think I’m doing anything really unique…I like to say that I like what I like because I just like it. Or maybe subliminally I think I should like this stuff so I’m always on the cusp of coolness. Clearly… I have no fucking clue.)

I guess it’s really going to come down to what the hipster will do for society? Are they going to be a self-denying subculture that vanishes in a few years with only a cloud of American Apparel cotton left in its wake? Or, will we fondly remember the hipsters as the group that made strides to progress our cultures ultimate coolness? Most other movements and subcultures are fondly remebered for inspiring, creating, and moving civilization along. The beats had the drugs and the literature; the hippies had the freedom, the protests, the love and the drugs; and the punks, well, the punks had their rebellion. Even grunge had its thing: uncleanliness.

I’m not sure that I believe that the hipster culture is going to be the cause of societal failure. Hipsters might not be advancing civilization, but who really is these days? Western civilization was already doomed, hipsters or no hipsters. We’re a culture of apathy, egocentrism and oblivion; we do nothing, we say nothing, and therefore, we really know nothing. We aren’t failing at the hands of wannabe artists and DJ’s adorned in thick rimmed glasses; we’re all failures. I get that we need a movement from a counterculture to try and shake the pot and change our ways, but hipsters just won’t be that group. We should just leave them to ride their fixed gear bikes, paint their art, and dance their dance.