I hate to say this after my little tirade, but I do understand where the hipster movement is coming from. I need look no farther than Paul Hollander's The Only Superpower for a perspicuous insight to the largest problem in American society (just a sidenote, but I'm IN LOVE with Paul Hollander and I may have the chance to meet him this year! AAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYE!). But he says in his lovely, frank manner, "The weakness of America is usually located in the moral-ethical, characterological realm; American society in this perspective is seen as decadent, hedonistic, morally depraved, undisciplined, and riddled with social pathologies such as crime, drug addiction, family disintegration, declining standards of education, and moral relativism; it is a society symbolized by gangsters, cowboys, ruthless capitalists, and corrupt preachers and politicians." His words are literary sex. They also ring of the truth. America has reason to pat itself on the back. For years it maintained the title of heavy weight champion where countries were concerned; it should have had a large, tacky belt. And in a way, it did. America, like Ancient Rome, like the expansive British Empire, like every conquering nation of the past, did more than pat itself on the back. It got cocky. Oh Lord, did it get cocky. The excesses of Rome and Great Britain were nothing compared to those of the United States, and do you know why? Because techniques had been perfected. America knew how to be on top because it had so many examples. I'm sure politicians used to have brilliant minds. We look to Ben Franklin as one of our most clever forefathers, but he was just the most boastful. What about Alexander Hamilton, who had the first American political sex scandal and got away with it because he published all his sexploits in a public pamphlet? What about James Madison, father of the freaking Constitution? These men were brilliant, and they did their jobs well. Somewhere along the way, we lost that. I think it was when we decided who you know is worth more than who you are. We're dumbasses and should be ashamed of our political system today. Want to know why terrorism has impacted us so greatly? All it takes to undermined perfected technique is a clever idea that contradicts all the rules. The men who commit acts of terror love the idea of justice as desperately as we love the idea of life. They hit us where it hurts most. And why do you think so many other parties are popping into prominence? Tea party, Green party, Libertarian party, etc.? Because people are sick and blame that indefinable "something-wrong" on a bipartisan political system. But it's not that. That system's done us well for quite a while. It's the individuals. America needs leaders who will pull the heads of the people out of their own asses. But I'm getting off track.
I understand that the hipster movement wants to rise above the American standard. Anti-Americanism is as popular in the States as anywhere else. Among teenagers, it's as popular as any Middle Eastern country. We hate what our country has allowed itself to become.
The thing is, I really like America. Our citizens are so spoiled because the government has done such a comparably good job at handling itself. Young, angry teenage boys are allowed to march around wearing swastikas, shouting about socialism or communism or anarchy or any other flavor of the week because we have the freedom of speech. I'm allowed to criticize the government in this blog without fearing for my life because I have the freedom to do so. I can wake up tomorrow to read CNN or Fox News or The New York Times and have relative faith in everything down to the headlines because politics do not directly dictate what is written (to be fair, I did say 'directly').
But with equal fairness, I admit (so, so readily) that if America continues as it has in the last fifty-ish years, it will fall. Hard. On it's ass. I don't want that. Yes, I plan to move to Wales eventually, but I don't want to HAVE to because my country has turned into Canada, two point O. Or rather, China, two point O. I want the USA to flourish again. I want a people united. A people who don't hate themselves. I think, to unify America, some things need to be reinstated. We need some sort of mass moral code. We need an appreciation of our own aesthetics. We need to restore pride in our country and in our people (not to the batshit crazy, nationalistic sense of the Nai Party, but you get the picture). We need to revive interest in arts that aren't "ironic". We need to revitalize the humanity of our citizens. And why can't it expand to a more global level? Tolerance could be global, don't you think? This is young and idealistic, but truly, isn't America one of the most accepting countries in the world? Couldn't we start a trend that other societies want to emulate?
Here is where I get selfish. Because I want a specific type of movement. One that starts out small, like the Inklings, where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien sat in a bar, perusing manuscripts and dolling out concepts for plot development and blah blah blah. I want artists coming together, intellectuals coming together. Frankly, I want everyone to be artists and intellectuals, but you know. Life. Anyway, I want a Pre-Raphaelite type deal. They fought their darling hearts out against Classicism. I suppose I want this movement to rebel against another type of Classicism. Modern Classicism, if that makes any sense. I don't want another Renaissance. I want another Enlightenment. Only the scholars can mostly keep to their ivory towers. I want a societal movement.
Pre-Duchamps or something. Except everyone would call them douches.
