Yeah, I'd been thinking just to leave my last post, part 1, at that, but something clicked that really sizzled with me far deeper than any vague notions for a sequel/follow-up post that I'd had while writing the first (Second?) post yesterday. And now that I look at it, well, it's kind of ambitious, but let's just go over a very very basic outline of what I'd had in mind. Let's jump into it.
Nerds and hipsters- kind of an arbitrary mashup/pairing there, now that I think on it, but of course it becomes pretty clear why I'm doing this if you keep in mind that these are two sort of, stock characters? archetypes? countercultural movements? Well, that last one's closer, though the term "counterculture" has kind of become loaded again, and maybe it always has been that- subculture, that's the word. (subgenre?) -- these subcultures are ones that I sort of defined myself as fitting into (though not necessarily belonging to; entire volumes can be written exploring inside/outside cultural phenomena.) Sort of defined myself as fitting into, in a very silly manner of course, not at all being serious (that is at least I don't think)-- but the possibilities of my belonging have been brought up before so I suppose it's time to face that head-on.
This isn't going to be self-indulgent, I swear-- that was all just a rehash of why I'm comparing these kind of arbitrary apples and oranges.
It would be helpful to go over what I see as the basic assumptions/driving forces of the two factions as they stand today (though, it should be noted with extreme care, not how they've necessarily always stood):
Hipsters: Roots taking place in the countercultural minirevolution of beatniks in the back alleys- the revolution under the surface of the water, waiting to break out into the mainstream revolution. And when that happens, moving onto something else. Gradually evolving over the years, but always doing the "cool" thing before the "cool" thing becomes cool- or at least, that's the story needing to be told in order to maintain structure and the identity of the movement itself. Such ideals can of course lead to kneejerk reactions against anything in the mainstream- and it often does lead to that, of course. Which is hipsterdom's most iconic and thus most mockable facet- that schizoid blend of vinyl records and iPad 4s (or whatever the heck the latest iPad is nowadays.) It's a basic human longing, to feel if not to be special- to be the elite, the avant garde- super post modern, and thus super hip - which isn't always an ideal that's met, of course, and thus when lacking the resources for hipness, self-deprecatingly (re: postmodernly) unhip.
Nerds: Mercilessly persecuted throughout time, ever taking refuge in the idea that the persecutions and houndings were by an uneducated mass and that the subculture in fact rather represented the elite (whether these assumptions were correct or not is not my place to debate here- but I can point out that these assumptions aren't unfounded.) Like anything underground, there evolved an air of genuine coolness- and, now thrust into limelight, the barriers are breaking down and the entire thing's rather like a snake thrashing around without its head, as the subculture is becoming just plain old pop culture- with the injection of the "anything goes" new blood, the old blood --bound together through shared experience of persecution-- is searching for a core. Identity here is so shifting that it's near impossible to pin down any one basic tenet or screed, but if you were to run across one, you'd know it- a non-continuum continuum.
A lot more research could probably have stood getting put into those definitions, but you understand the basic outlines how I see them. And as you can see, they're not totally incompatible.
Now not all human behavior can be ascribed to these basic motivations of course- but a shockingly large amount can, I think.
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