The Hipsters ( an ongoing invasion).

I love Brooklyn. In fact I love it so much that I often wonder why I’m not living there. So what I’m about to say should not offend any Brooklynites out there. The one I thing I hate about Brooklyn (and particularly while riding the the L line) is the continuously-evolving-proliferation of the ridiculous Hipster.

Oh God, are you offended because I just called you a hipster? It’s so funny you hipsters get annoyed by judgmental people since you are so fucking self righteous.

I worked many years in advertising, I started young and then I grew older (I am not that old, but yes I am older) and at some point I realized that I was leading a group of Creatives who were 15 to 18 years younger than I. Some of them really cool, some of them trying really hard to be cool and some of them actual "hipsters".

You know the kind, the ones that believe fashion has to appear effortless, even if they take 30 minutes to put on an outfit consisting of a smart-t-shirt and skinny jeans. The ones that are constantly evolving into whatever happens to be cool at the moment (but not too cool, oh God no), the ones that don’t have any cultural loyalties or affiliations for fear they will lose relevance or not be approved by the hipster-judging-panel. The ones that get angry with the term hipster and vehemently deny being one. The ones that want nothing to do with Manhattan and live and die for Brooklyn, the ones that follow all the hipster trends while actually believing they are "trendsetters". 

The hipster, the one that claims to be open minded but if you mention one music band that is not approved by his hipsters friends, he’ll freak out on you (Fleetwood Mac, agh really?). The hipster, the one that rides the oldest fixed-gear-bike made out of pieces of other bikes by another Hipster in Williamsburg, a bike that will actually cost him more than a brand new one. The hipster, the one you always see wearing stylistic trademarks like skinny jeans, cotton leggings, vintage flannel, fake eyeglasses and stupid looking out-of-bed-style haircuts. The hipster, the one that has an eternal collection of "cool t-shirts."

You get the picture? 

So hear me out for two seconds band of hipsters, “Stick to something, believe in something, it’s ok to like a pop song, you don’t have to hide to sing it. Take risks, make mistakes, be uncool, it doesn’t matter. If you don’t make an original move you will never be a leader, you will always follow others. And may I also remind you that High school is over, stop dressing like a 15 year-old hipster, you are 20 something and your stupid rebellion at the workplace is totally lame. And will you please stop giving me your environmentalist bullshit when you are the target of all the major brands out there, accept it, you fell into the trap of American consumerism and most probably those Adidas tennis shoes you’re wearing, are a limited edition, a 300 dollar shoe. So get off your green and recycled horse right now."

Gavin McInnes, one of the founders of Vice, had a "Dos and Don'ts" commentary that defined the rules of hipster fashion for over a decade. He defended the hipsters of course, since he was making so much money of them, "I've always found that word ["hipster"] is used with such disdain, like it's always used by chubby bloggers who aren't getting laid anymore and are bored, and they're just so mad at these young kids for going out and getting wasted and having fun and being fashionable.”

I come from a generation (Gen X) that sociologists tend to judge unapologetically so I’ve gotten hit hard. But this Hipster culture deserves a major spanking, because it’s choking in its own shallowness and because the several layers of superficiality are keeping these kids blindfolded -- thus -- unable to create anything meaningful.

Christian Lorentzen wrote an article entitled ‘Why the Hipster Must Die.' in Time Out New York, "These hipster zombies… are the idols of the style pages, the darlings of viral marketers and the marks of predatory real-estate agents. And they must be buried for cool to be reborn."

 

Douglas Haddow a Canadian writer, who is 28, said it perfectly well, “We are a lost generation, desperately clinging to anything that feels real, but too afraid to become it ourselves. We are a defeated generation, resigned to the hypocrisy of those before us, who once sang songs of rebellion and now sell them back to us. The hipster represents the end of Western civilization – a culture so detached and disconnected that it has stopped giving birth to anything new.”

I agree with them two. We all want to be surprised by this generation, we all know that many Millenial geniuses are becoming the heroes of our times, but what happens with all the potential hidden behind a hipster disguise? 

And also, please leave Brooklyn out of your hipsterism. The neighborhood is not only yours.