Hipster Culture Part 1

Hipster culture – a philosophical take Part 1

To get to my description of the meta-hipster, I'll start with the original hipster.

The hipster stands out from the mainstream in a lot of ways. We're talking preference of music, clothing, movies etc.. This is a very discussed topic, and has been portrayed very humorously by Alex Stone and Mike Cronin in The Hipster Song

We however are going to take a look at the 'why'. Why stand out? Why be different? Why spend hours on Spotify searching for that new indy band that no one else knows? I believe my good friend Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) may be able to help us solve this one. This Danish philosopher describes the esthete 'A', who has an ironic take on life. He distances himself from the philistine (mainstream) as he is confronted with the meaningless of life. He sees how people in the mainstream are just products of their contexts (trends, fashion etc.) and don't really have any free will themselves, and this view forces the esthete to withdraw from life itself. 'A' is like someone watching a game of football, who just sits back and makes fun of the players. 'A' does not involve himself in anything – he just mocks the mainstream for their ignorance of the meaninglessness of their lives. He uses irony to ridicule them, while at the same time making himself untouchable. And that's exactly the point. Irony is a way of making yourself invulnerable, since you do not have any opinions about anything. The ironic 'A' can not be attacked, since he has no standpoints to attack, and from this platform of nothing, he looks down on the petty ants in the mainstream.

This might be a bit of a harsh generalization to say about all Radiohead fans, that they should have no opinions, that they distance themselves from life, and that they are just making a mockery of everyone else through irony. But I do think that some of the points match. The average hipster probably hasn't hit a wall of meaninglessness in life, but the thought of blending in with a large mainstream could very likely frighten him/her to try to establish his own culture/social group. The French sociologist Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) describes the great mass as “without property, without predicate, without quality and without reference. Herein consists its definition or its radical indefinition”. Who would want to be a part of this void of meaning and personality? Not the hipster – that's for sure.

So the hipster pulls out of the mainstream category to create his own individual meaning and style, liberated from generalization and group mentality. But what happens then? His friend does the same thing. And his friend with him. If there's one thing that is 'in' today, it is standing 'out'. The hipster finds his project terrorized by the next hipster in line. There are 3 ways to deal with this:

1. Stay as you are and establish a new culture where you are.
2. Distance yourself from the new hipsters by further evolving your style.
3. Distance yourself from the new hipsters by diving right back into the mainstream.

What happens next? We'll see in part two!.... Whenever I get to it, that is.

Comments?