Hipster

Hipsters are the young people who thrive well in the current high-velocity society, but prefer not to be a part of larger commercial institutes, in which adaptability and speed are very useful means of getting successful. They highly appreciate creativity, and always manage to quickly establish 'the latest and coolest' places and entities of art. In that sense, they form a solid subculture of versatile progressiveness. Their constant avant-garde position sets them apart from the rest of society, which offers them a sense of dignity. This sense of dignity mainly comes down to being different, but still being able to do well, and therefore be superior, for they would not need the community at large. A striking example of this is the do-it-yourself attitude of many of the older 'hipsters'. However, because they are at that front position collectively, their self-respect from thriving without the rest of society, especially the parents, is under threat. This results in them fetishising uniqueness. This paradox of a community hating on conformity is reinforced by its worship of other-ness; that drives them to continuously move ahead, away from 'the rest', to feel special over and over, and thus constantly worthy as anti-conformists. It's for this reason that hipsters despise being called one; it labels them.

The paradoxal nature of hipster culture is underlined by their ambiguous approach to materialism; they reject it, but attach great value to clothing in particular, to liberalism; they pledge for individual freedom, but do not believe in full individual responsibility, to sexual divergence; hipster men grow beards and hipster women admire innocence but are androgynous at the same time, and to vintage culture, which they embrace but always adjust.

Daniel is a hipster: he wears vintage clothes that are accepted as cool and alternative, listens to bands that are on the rise and mix traditional post-punk elements with sought for newness, is incredibly liberal in every sense but the economical one, regards Berlin as his Mecca, has a new favourite bar every couple of months, never engages in long-term romantic relationships, does not see gay culture as threatening for society's perception of masculinity, since that perception is already disadvantageous to his androgyny, portrays himself as having extraordinairily good taste and being unique and does all of this together with his peers.

5👍 7👎