I have this joke with my friends who love to hate on “hipsters”: hipsters are essentially people just like our friends (young, urban, artistically inclined, aesthetically focused, culturally aware, etc.) but aren’t actually our friends. It’s hilarious. And it’s true.
It’s a pretty fun little pastime recently to hate on hipsters who, in the negative sense of the word, are only interested in what’s cool, are cultivating personalities of disposable attributes and in actuality, don’t have any real sense of identity away from the group mind. To some extent, these things might be true. But what appalls me of late is the degree of disdain that exists for these kids. Really, who are they hurting? Let’s not be haters. I propose that hipsters aren’t the enemy at all. Here’s why:
1. They always know the greatest new music before anyone. And they’ll always burn you a CD and then talk as long as you want about how it fits into the pop culture spectrum.
2. They’ll buy your ancient bike and think they’ve struck Craigslist Gold.
3. Their inexplicable love of all things days-gone-by has pretty much single-handedly nudged the music industry to start producing new music on vinyl, for which we should all be thankful.
4. They’re basically harmless. I mean, they might be into things just because they’re indie popular, but let’s think about what falls under that category now: being eco-friendly, riding bikes, patronizing local co-ops and thrift stores, reading lots of books, making music…yeah, I’m okay with a generation coming of age with this set of interests. Might end up doing the world a little bit of good.
5. They believe in what they’re doing wholeheartedly. If they don’t believe in it, they probably won’t participate in it. How many other groups of people can say that?
6. Are you involved in any way with the real estate industry? Yeah, if you are in an urban area, these kids are (or their parents. Whatever) are paying your mortgage with their willingness to pay exorbitant rent amounts for a trendy neighborhood address.
7. If you were ever in your 20s and totally into everything that defined your generation, you were a hipster. Maybe it was a completely different scene, but the idea was the same. So don’t hate. You turned out just fine, right?
