The Hipster Bandwagon

Goodness . . . you know it's been a long time since I've posted when Blogspot isn't even in my history.  I gave up trying to figure out why I'm not posting regularly, but whatever the reason, I'm fired up, so hold onto your horses.

In my speech class last year, they said that you should end persuasive papers and speeches with a call to action.  I'm gonna completely disregard that and start with a "call to action" instead:

GET OVER YOURSELF!!!

I mean, goodness, humanity.  What's your deal?  I just read the top six posts on my Facebook feed and they were all subtle (possibly subconscious) ways of gaining superiority over everyone else.  And if you're paying attention, I'm doing the EXACT same thing!  By realizing that people are acting superior to others, I'm setting myself up as superior to them.  Thereby, I've placed myself as high on the superiority chain as I can get.  BEAT THAT!!!

Really, though, there's a particular way of demanding superiority that ticks me off.  Interestingly, it's also one of the most common forms.  I know I wrote about it before, but I cannot stand the hipster movement!

As a recap for those that don't know, when I refer to a hipster, I'm referring specifically to that moment when people think they are better because they like something no one else does.  This usually mutates a step further into the idea that things are naturally not as good if everyone else likes it.  Thus, anything "mainstream" is COMPLETELY out of the question.

For those of you that know me, I'm being more than a little hypocritical here.  But, really, I was a hipster before being a hipster was cool.  Now hipsters are just WAY too mainstream!

Seriously, though, hipsters tend to reveal themselves most often in the entertainment industry.  For these people, different is as good a compliment as you can give a piece of creativity.  Formulaic movies suck.  Music that plays on the radio is appalling.  And NOBODY has good taste in books.  If it's written, played, performed, or created in such a way that the majority of the population can understand and appreciate it, it really isn't worth their time.

Go ask an English prof about almost any popular book.  Then ask them what their absolute favorite book of all times is and try to read it.  You'll be getting pretty close to an understanding of what I'm talking about then.  English profs are generally the biggest literary hipsters I've ever talked to.  The "Academy" is a group of the hipsters of movies.

What scares me more than anything about the hipster movement is that so many people don't realize they're a part of it.

For example, I present the idea of a bandwagon.  Literally, a bandwagon is a wagon which carries the band in a parade.  Back in the 1800s, an extremely popular clown by the name of Dan Rice offered a presidential candidate the opportunity to campaign on his bandwagon.  After that, many local politicians would want to ride on the bandwagon with said presidential candidate in the hopes that his popularity would rub off.  People started using the term "jumping on the bandwagon" derogatorily, and it stuck.

Most people don't think about football fans as being hipsters.  After all [flipping scarf over left shoulder and adjusting glasses that I don't need] football is SO mainstream!  And yet, have you ever talked to a true diehard fan of a team that sucks?  Those people are extremely proud that they haven't left a sinking ship.  Worse than fans of awful teams, though, are fans of suddenly good teams.  This "sudden" change can actually be rather slow.  It could happen over several years.  The point is that people who were fans back when the team sucked criticize those that became fans since the team's rise to glory.  They say they're just jumping on the bandwagon.

I raise to you this question:  WHO CARES?!?

Seriously, if jumping on the bandwagon gives someone the sense of satisfaction they need to get through the day, is it any of your business?  If I've been particularly impressed by a team's season and want to see them succeed, should it really bother you if I root for them?

Just because you discovered something before I did, does that really make you any more appreciative of it than me?

But, as I said before, the hipster movement is just a symptom of the larger human need of finding ways to feel superior to others.  Some people find it in intellect.  Some people find it in physicality.  Some people find it in their religion.  Some people find it in their creativity.  Some people find it in liking things no one else could possibly like.  Some people find it in making observations about people and then generalizing them until all of humanity is culpable.

Some people find it in using words like culpable.

I challenge you this week to get over yourself.  Find some way to make yourself inferior to others.  Save other people the trouble of finding superiority and give it to them.  You'll find a unique way to do this, but I can't think of a better way than to publicly listing reasons why people can feel superior to me:

• I'm EXTREMELY shy.
• I'm two-faced.
• I've spent over 19 of the last 20 years of my life single.
• I'm argumentative.
• I convince people that things are true when I have no idea what I'm talking about.
• I'm scared of failure, storms, and Bigfoot.
• High School Musical 3 makes me want to cry.

Now, since I am human, I would like to undo everything I just did by publicly listing reasons why people should feel inferior to me:

• Most people will never really realize I'm shy.
• I'm two-faced.
• I've spent over 19 of the last 20 years of my life single.
• I am NOT argumentative!  (And I resent your tone!)
• I convince people that things are true when I have no idea what I'm talking about.
• I'm willing to admit I'm afraid of failure, storms, and Bigfoot, and that HSM3 made me want to cry.
• I thought of making this list before you did!