Hipsters Vs Rewilding
Can everyone shut the fuck up about “hipsters” already? I’m so fucking sick of that word. The whole subject seriously bores the shit out of me and yet I constantly have to defend myself from people who call me that word as though it suddenly makes everything I have done to further rewilding insincere or fake. I usually shrug it off but i recently surfed to the Adbusters website only to see an entire “feature” article from last summer where they just talk all kinds of shit about hipsters, and now I feel I need to say something.
The first time I got called a hipster I was walking into a burrito place on Belmont Street. As I walked through the door this big biker-looking dude was ushering out his 4 year old son. He said to his son with disgust, “Watch out for the hipster.” I remember feeling angry at first thinking, “I’m not a fucking hipster.” Of course I was. I was wearing a vintage Ferrari t-shirt, tight black polyester wranglers, black Ray-Ban sunglasses, black converse and I had a mullet. This was back in like, 2003.
When I was growing up, Portland was just another quiet, small, boring city on the west coast, always living in the shadow of Seattle and San Fransisco. Thanks to former mayor Vera Katz (who hated homeless people) the town is now littered with art galleries and fancy restaurants. 5 years ago Portland was all of a sudden an up and coming arts town; it was super cheap to live here, people drank PBR because it was the cheapest beer, everyone under 30 was in a rock band and no one had ever heard of myspace or youtube.
I dropped out of high school at 16 to rewild. I took classes and spent most of time in the woods, the library or at work. I didn’t care much for the way I dressed; I wore mostly over-sized, military surplus wool clothes. I didn’t really care much about aesthetic at that point in my life because I had no culture. For the most part, I was a loner. I quit doing anything artistic (my passion was filmmaking) because I didn’t think that would help me learn to rewild. It wasn’t until I came across Joseph Campbell that I really began to see a purpose in my passion for art and cultural creativity. He said;
The function of the artist is the mythologization of the environment.
I realized that my artistic talents in filmmaking and other mediums could actually help create a cultural movement of rewilding by using art to spread the mythology of it. Lonely at 19, with no culture of rewilders, never having had a girlfriend before, I began to spend more time with people. I realized if I was ever going to create a culture of rewilding, I would need to blend in with the other artists in town, and subversively spread animism and rewilding from within the arts scene.
Luckily I had some really cool friends who I worked with at Coffee People to show me the ropes. We went to the Goodwill Bins and I got a new wardrobe in 2 hours for $5. This was back when the bins was only 39¢ a pound and before the over-priced “vintage” thrift stores began sending their employees there to pick all the good stuff so that they could then up-sell it. I would dig through the troughs of clothes, holding up shirts for my friend Dave and he would look at it and turn his head thinking, looking into it for its potential. Then he would explain whether or not it would work and why. It was like taking a class on how to see cool. Dave loves clothes and talking about aesthetics and his excitement and knowledge spilled over into me. With Dave’s help I acquired my first girlfriend, Elspeth, a seamstress & clothing designer who took me a few steps further, with understanding how to dress oneself for their particular body and her classic motto, “it works if you work it.” With their help, I became a hipster fashionista practically over night.
I can hear you all saying, “what a poseur!” Let’s talk about that for a second. When I was in high school I remember this one time I walked by the most gothic kid in our school and I overheard him saying, “Then this guy was like, ‘Get outta my way you goth!’ and I was like… Oh my god! I’m not gothic!” I remember thinking, “what the fuck is that guy talking about. He is obviously gothic.” I knew immediately what he was doing; it isn’t cool to “try” to look gothic. To talk about yourself as gothic would mean you were intentionally going out of your way to dress like that and it’s never cool to admit it, because caring about shit is not cool. .
I recently pointed out to a green anarchist who claimed he “dressed however he wanted” that he wore all the right green anarchist scene clothes and topped it off with their iconic dreadlocks. By admitting I chose to dress this way, I’m no longer cool because it’s also not cool to “follow the crowd.” If being punk or gothic or hipster or anarchist is an attempt at rebelling against the mainstream, than being labeled a hipster is saying that you are a follower of a fashion trend and not a creative individual. Let’s get real. No one dresses like an individual. No one accidentally dresses like a gutter punk, hipster, hippie, yuppie, or whatever. Everyone chooses their subcultural identity. There is no way you can dress that will not lump you in with some kind of crowd. Subcultures create aesthetics. The individuality comes out of how you express yourself in that particular subculture. If you’re a gutter punk, you’ll obviously have a studded jacket, but the placement of studs or even the words you write on the jacket expresses your own individuality within that culture.
In the years that followed I made a lot of friends, partied my ass off and forgot all about why I became part of that subculture. In 2008, Portland is now like Seattle’s once cooler punk rock cousin, that finally had to get a job. In other words, the party is over. Shit is now extremely expensive in Portland and there are no jobs. I’ve seen the small town turn into a huge, strung out city practically over-night. I’ve lived through, been part of, and learned a tremendous amount about, the rise of hipster culture. I will risk my cool and admit that I am a hipster.
The best part of all is that these “critiques” of hipster culture never come from the hipster community speaking for itself, it’s always an outsider talking about something they are not a part of and don’t understand because they are either too old, jealous, or more self-conscious, then the hipsters they claim are. I (usually) don’t hear my hipster friends talking shit about people who aren’t in that scene. I’ve probably heard a dozen or more people who I don’t consider hipsters say, “Look at those fucking hipsters over there. They think they’re so fucking cool.” You know what? I bet those “hipsters” didn’t even notice you. Why the fuck do you care? Why do you go out of your way to point them out?
The largest criticism of hipster culture is that we allegedly steal symbols and styles from previous cultures but without the authenticity or sincerity with which those cultures had. Firstly, every new subculture steals from an older one. This is what old people say every time a new subculture rises. “They’re stealing from us!” Generally it’s because the old people don’t feel appreciated or acknowledged for “creating” (even though they stole it from someone else) that particular style. Secondly, in terms of the “lack of authenticity” or sincerity, every culture adapts and alters an old style and gives it a new meaning. While people complain about hipsters lack of sincerity and lack of meaning, that’s just our “new” twist.
Urban peoples lives are pointless; we are the human waste product of agriculture. We have no integrated purpose in the context of the real, wild world. We have no relationship with our landbase, except blind exploitation. Our purpose is only to serve coffee to those in power, to enter data into spreadsheets for those in power, or operate machinery for those in power. We simply shift wealth around so that we feel like we’re doing something. Though we are drowning in culture, none of it has any meaning beyond its initial consumption. Our entire culture is disposable. Our lives are disposable.
Some have made claims that we hipsters are lame because unlike previous counter-cultures, we do not rebel against previous generations. I think hipsters are rebelling against previous generations; we are rebelling against meaning. The people of my generation have all seen what those in power do to people with feelings and ideas. We’ve seen the gamut of “revolutions†and we have seen that they mean nothing in the end. Civilization continues to kill all life on this planet no matter who is in charge, no matter how much we protest, this culture wins and the earth dies. No matter what we do, we are slaves to it; we’ve been conditioned to be pacifists from birth. Rather than look foolish like our “revolutionary†predecessors, we just stopped caring at all, accepting our slavery to find happiness in novelty, irony, drugs, sex and music. Hipsters are not lame for being apathetic; civilization is lame for destroying our lives, our hearts and our landbase.
If meaninglessness is cool now, it will not be cool tomorrow. I want to break the shackles of this hierarchy and create a living world. I’m determined to make rewilding the next counter-culture. Who’s with me?
—
Show your support and appreciation for Urban Scout
I think calling people hipsters and using that as a directed criticism is as stupid as drawing lines on a map to call areas States. You’re correct that it is civilization which is the disease; hipsters, punks, goths, Soulja Boy, MTV, cellular phones, jocks, politicians, lawyers, etc. are the symptoms. I like to refer to it as the “monoculture mind”.
But, I do want to point something out. Among my group of friends, there is no real style to distinguish us by. I guess the only way we could be grouped is by the fact that we choose our clothing for its functionality.
So, yeah, I’m “down”.
Great read Scout!
My clothes are totally picked for functionality as well, in my case for warmth, and that is dependant upon where I live.
Thank you for sharing,
Hugs, Christine
I was never one to fall into a clique. In high school I surfed the crowd, looking for the real people in suburban Tigard, which can prove difficult. I started hanging out with the “ravers” and soon found myself part of a counterculture scene. It was nice to feel a sense of inclusion and at the same time the alienation from non ravers was a little odd.
Today I am still a crowd surfer although I tend to spend my time with those who share a passion about rewilding and the like. Separatism is the culprit. From the dawn of agrarian society, when man and woman took more definitive and separating roles. Women couldn’t plow and bear children too. Soon after men were in a comfortable place, with more time on their hands to think about something other than farming, a male dominated thought doctrine was set in place and the rest is history. I am not saying that pre-agrarian societies are to be idealized or that men are the devil. But that separatism in itself of man, woman, scene, state, nation etc. is to blame. But that opens a whole other can of worms I don’t think I care to discuss.
In the mean time I wear what I need to to survive and do my best to see things from all perspectives not just my own, even hipsters.
Scout:
I’d like to help you make rewilding the next counter-culture, but honestly I’d rather talk about my rewilding fashion choices. Could you do a blog just on rewilder fashions and cliques?
Hipster?? Whatever. Who besides a hard-core rewilder would run around a metropolitan area in a loincloth? You’ve dedicated yourself in every way to promoting rewilding, so let ’em say what they will; you know who you are and why you’re here.
Like you point out, everyone has some way of dressing that is an identifier with some group or other. This has probably been going on since prehistoric times. For example, what indigenous culture doesn’t have some distinguishing style? Like flattening heads, tattooing chins, or piercing noses, to name a few examples.
It seems like people are grasping at straws more desperately as this system faces collapse; what they drive, or don’t drive, what they eat – or don’t eat, what they wear, where they live. We are really like caged animals, and if any one steps out of line, the others want to drag it down and kill and eat it.
When I was young, I thought the “hippies” had all the answers. Their ideas were either squelched or bought and mainstreamed. The idea of living simply and/or off the grid isn’t enough now, though, and is only a temporary and self-serving value.
The only way of life most people have ever bothered to know is facing collapse soon. I, too, “want to break the shackles of this hierarchy and create a living world.” Rewilding reintroduces us to a reality-based existence. I’m for that.
Shusli
This entire post makes me so fucking hot.
“Hipsters are not lame for being apathetic; civilization is lame for destroying our lives, our hearts and our landbase.”
YES.
Blimey, I was getting annoyed by anarchists and primitivists having cat-calling sessions on Indymedia, and then I find people getting het up about fashion. Clothes and fashion are two different things – clothes are just part of what you are, they might matter to you to look good or to feel warm or to be practical, but they still reflect your personality; fashion, on the other hand, is just a pile of steaming pig shit, created specifically to make people feel out of the loop, so they are obliged to spend more money and time trying to be what they are not.
I have about as much time for fashion as I do for anything else that has the superficial marker of civilization. If you care about fashion then you are not being yourself, you are acting out someone else’s cash-driven fantasy.
Living, that’s what we need to do.
…
Where have you been hidin’ out lately, honey
You can’t dress trashy
‘Til you spend a lot of money
Everybody’s talkin’ ’bout the new sound
Funny, but it’s still Anarchy to me
…
Oh, it doesn’t matter what they say in the papers
‘Cause it’s always been the same old scene
There’s a new band in town
But you can’t get the sound
From a story in a magazine
Aimed at your average teen
Great writing, Scout. I think rewilding is the next counter-culture already, albeit in the beginning stages. But things change faster and faster, I think we’ll see it happen bigtime sooner rather than later.
Pingback: The Edge of Grace » The World of Forms, Part 1
Now I’m wondering if my look fits into any of these or other molds. I know some people think I’m a hippie, some think I’m a hardcore survivalist, some think I’m a redneck, and some think I’m a punk. I guess reality lies somewhere in the middle of all of them.
this article is interesting read. i myself have been drawn into the hipster fashion mode, but not through traditional means…which would include parties and pbr. no, hipsters are my living. hipsters provide me with enough money to live (comfortably) in civilization. hipsters provide the comforts of being able to work for myself, on my own terms and travel whenever i feel like it. i dont have to be a hipster to do this, i just have to spy on them. i have to learn what theyre wearing, why, and whats “in”. im a picker. i go to good will outlets, buy trashed hipster clothing and then sell it to the shops that, in turn, sell it back to hipsters for an inflated price. i have created a symbiotic relationship with the hipsters in my city. i depend on them for food, shelter, and luxury. they depend on me for scene points and fashionable wear. its a great system really, if not a bit depressing at times.
i am way into re wilding, i guess youd say im a punk, maybe a crusty kid or something? ive heard that terms a lot. basically, i love trains and i love nature. i dont feel like my “style” is very marketable, which in a way makes it sacred to me. the thing i dislike about hipsters is that you can sell them anything. they are a commodity. if i can figure out how to tap into their market, then anyone can. it makes it feel like nothing is sacred. i saw in a store called urban outiftters that they were selling mossy tree branches for 20 bucks a pop. i laughed out loud…
the problem I see with subcultures is that they get noticed by corporations. this particular subculture—the hipsters—may very well have had some important ideas about the depravity of urban life (maybe they still do), but it’s difficult to make a buck selling ideas. there is, however, plenty of easy money in selling cool: the fashions they wear and music that they listen to and even the bicycles they ride, so that’s what gets spread in the usual commercial manner, the same way it’s been for previous subcultures. the idea is lost and only the cool remains. the problem with cool (apart from the consumption it fuels) is that it’s inherently scarce and that makes it divisive. it is good for acquiring girlfriends, I suppose.
so you’re right, it’s not the hipsters, it’s the wider consumer culture that’s to blame. but it’s a subculture, a subset of the larger consumer culture so nobody’s off the hook.
my problem with hipsters is not that they are unoriginal or that I can’t stomach that urban life is meaningless. my problem with hipsters is that they’re as invested in the status quo as everybody else.
generalizing might not be a good idea, but I’m pretty sure it’s possible for something to be true about a group of people without it being true of individuals in that group. there are likely plenty of hipsters that would not fit my description. fine. I don’t know you, Scout—though I would like to, but from what I gather, you’re not particularly interested in maintaining the status quo. I can get behind spreading rewilding; I’m with you on that, but I reserve the right to make fun of any white belts I see along the way.