Except the hipsters. They have to hit thirty before they realize they're tools.

The whole hipster deal is really over. Now what we'll have is a bunch of yuppies and high-school kids reciting "My Chemical Romance" lyrics in an effort to engage in some kind of rebellious profundity, adopt some of the hair styles, and go shopping at Urban Outfitters. The desire is to have the effect of the bemoaned hipster who started the trends, but not to look so dirty while adopting some of the attachments.

Whenever MTV sees something that can be alluring and can catch on, it will do it to death and leave a torrid corpse. The whole frisson of these "up and coming" age of bands will be glossed over. These bands make the grade to them as to what THEY think punk is or should be, and the rest of the scene has to suffer the indignities of being assembled next to these "The Academy Is".

Music should never be about being lucrative.

Try being non-white, poor, old, handicapped, foreign, or ugly. Then you'll find yourself well on the outside looking in.

However, don't expect anyone to congratulate you on your unique specialness or to even notice your existence. Cool and hip are terms reserved exclusively for the white middle classes.

maybe in cultural studies circles, everyone is a shallow brand-obsessed poseur. but why in the world would any modern cultural analyst train his lens on hollywood (tom cruise and american idol???) when looking for signs of rebellion?

in the real world where people are working to cure diseases and clean up the earth, individual rebels rule. i know hundreds of them.

a note to the "cool" specialist: nerds. it's all about nerds now. catch up before the next grant cycle.

WTFWJD -- I think I may have made my point poorly.

I am not saying that humans are worthless, or our existance is somehow predetermined or pointless. I think that is a cop-out that is an attempt to somehow relieve us of responsibility for our actions. I actually know several people who have told me that global warming couldn't be true because God wouldn't let us destroy his planet. I was almost too stunned to reply ...

I am saying that it is silly to use "self-differentiation" to define ourselves as an individual, especially in a statistical sense. I believe that we have inherent value, given to us by a creator, and with that comes both free will and responsibility. This is where our potential lies. Forget all the dogma and judgement and theology and religious artifacts.

If you take umbrage with the "creator" part I can understand, even empathize, but ultimately don't agree.

God Bless! (or Good Luck! if you prefer)

Morgan

I'm as far from being an individual as I possibly can be is some great puppeteer in the sky has it all planned out and is yanking the strings. What a sad, puny god you've invented.

I am reminded of the poster from despair.com that has a picture of snowflakes and the caption that reads, "Individuality -- Always remember that you are unique. Just like everybody else."

I think that a lot of this conversation is based on a flawed view of what it means to be "individual". If individuality is externally defined then statistically speaking it is pretty difficult to be an individual in a large population. There simply aren't enough unique choices for everyone to always do things differently. I am not sure knee-jerk rebellion is so different from knee-jerk conformity, it is just shallowness focused in another direction.

I believe that we each have an inherent value that was given to us by God. We didn't do anything to deserve it and can't do anything to change or alter it. Our value transcends status, class, race, religion, denomination, or creed. You don't have to be "born again", say the right words, or perform the right ritual. It was God's for giving, and it is done.

So don't worry if everyone wears the same shirt or has the same tattoo or drives the same car or vacations at the same "hotspot". Work on transforming yourself into the person God wants you to be and making the world into the place that God wants it to be.

...and, of course, all makers of dairy products.

I agree, magpie. Hipsters need to stfu and get a job. Nothing like having rent to pay to drop one's pretenses about disposable income.

Did anybody else think of that scene in "Life of Brian" when they read this article? You know, when Brian is addressing the crowd and says, "You're all individuals." The crowd parrots back, "Yes, we're all individuals." Brian: "You're all different." Crowd: "Yes, we're all different." Lone Man in the Back: "I'm not."

So great.

haha just had to say that. first a minor point: Frankfurt Schooler Herbert Marcuse did in fact criticize the "false oppositionality" (or whatever he called it) of yoga in his classic "One-Dimensional Man". Now, things were probably different in the 60s, but I really doubt anyone who takes up yoga nowadays thinks they're being nonconformist and rebellious, or sticking it to the man or the system or Western culture or whatever.

Anyone who has been around hipsters knows they are pretentious, annoying, narcissistic, superficial, self-aware, fad-obssessed, and that to a large extent they've been bred that way by pop culture and the mass media. The issue is complex, however, and I suspect that there are also deep psychosocial roots to these personality traits, possibly having to do with the guilt, emptiness and frustration of white middle-class youth in the U.S.

But ultimately, I have to place myself in the "who cares?" camp. Mostly we're just dealing with spoiled kids and there are bigger issues to worry about.

It's just that EVERY generation comes to this same conclusion and they all think they're uniquely affected by this phenomena and they all think they're the absolute first navel-gazers to come to this conclusion. Please read some philosphy and cultural history.