Human beings have always carried with them a library of reasons to hate and exclude each other. It all began with "otherness", when kingdoms began to trade with others and the introduction of philosophies and traditions began to cause conflict with natives and immigrants. Realistically, it probably began with facial features, skin colour, clothing and language. Soon enough that collective discomfort would mutate into hatred. Boats set sail to discover and conquer new, alien lands that's where globalization started. The world started to become smaller and for many it became claustrophobic. Identities were being lost, created, repressed and coalesced, seemingly all at once. Hatred was no longer an intimate reaction, it became generalizable. The rise of the aristocratic class only furthered stratification and hatred became homogenous, hating based on race and religion wasn't enough anymore, people began to hate those with more wealth, land and fancier clothes or those with a lack thereof.
What have we learned from this? Hatred is constructed, and it also advances and encompasses. So what next? How many more reasons can be come up with to hate or dislike each other? Why do we even need to hate and dislike each other for impersonal reasons? The answers to those questions are bloated with philosophy, but there is certainly a sociological answer to them as well. At least on a smaller scale. I think the answer to why we stratify and exclude each other can be found in the youth of today and the music they listen to. Yes, it's 2014, and there are people out there who fucking hate each other based on which Springsteen album is their favourite. We're living, and have been living for a while, in the "poser" generation. Are you wearing a band's t-shirt right now? There's someone out there who thinks less of you for wearing that shirt. That's the most specific and snobbish strain of hatred. Your tastes are different to mine. Go fuck yourself.
The concept of adolescence, that period of life where one is no longer a child but isn't quite an adult, is actually a rather new one. The rise of "youth culture" seemed to rise up as WWII ended. We were introduced to the nuclear family. The father as the breadwinner, the mother as the carer and caterer, the children as the future. But what of the adolescent? A period of life where innocence, immaturity, deviance and developing opinions begin to take hold. Not quite a child, not quite an adult. So who and what are they? What's their role in the nuclear family? With a flourishing economy, expansive job opportunities, the rise of "pop culture" and uncontrollable hormones, what was in store for this generation that we were starting to call "teenagers".
Rock n' roll, the opiate for a bored and restless generation.
Roll Over Beethoven and tell Tschaikowsky the news.
Like it always was before, music was the symposium for social integration. Except, probably for the first time in history, no adults allowed. I believe that the rock n' roll dance was the sperm for modern youth culture. A space where developing youths could congregate, explore themselves and each other. Of course, teens had been "exploring" each other long before there was a Chuck Berry or Bill Haley, but for the first time they could do so in a setting among other teens on a larger scale. Connections were made in these dance halls, ideas exchanged, dramas unfolded, sex was rampant, friendships formed and ended, and all without a single adult present. This is where youth culture began and this is also where it began to divide.
As time went on, teenagers weren't just teenagers anymore. The kinship of the dance halls had worn off and with new musics, new stars, new fashions and new attitudes, there were new teenagers. Rock n' roll influenced lifestyles and now lifestyles were evolving, separating and conjoining, and all of them had names. This was the birth of teen subculture. There were greasers (or "hoods"), rockers and heads, and they all carried themselves with gang mentalities. "Otherness" had found its way to the adolescent and this otherness would, again, mutate into irrational loathing.
Opiates, the opiate for a bored and stoned generation.
By the 1960s, the music was changing and the drugs were stronger and in higher demand. The division of labour brought about new forms of occupation, education, ideas and art and each of them carried their own importance to this new, radical generation seeking identity. The adolescent began to separate itself from its biological family in favour of a new family of friends with common interests, ideas and hobbies. The dance halls of old were now clubs and bars that catered for specific strains of rock n' roll and they were occupied by specific strains of teenager. Here we see the division of youth culture into sub groups and with division comes isolation, and as a group isolates itself, so too does it strengthen its internal bond. Greasers beat up hippies, hippies criticized the rich kids ("squares") and the rich kids looked down on them all. Class division had evolved into division of affiliation.
Social constructionism is the theory that humans endow meaning to something in order to better understand and contextualize the world around them. A statuette of a young man, half-naked and nailed to a cross, is an example of social construction. It's just a statuette, but to the human it is precious and sacred. The same can be said for much of what was happening in the 60s. Music and fashion were no longer exterior and materialistic, they became instrumental in the adolescent's identity formation. Music and fashion were then married with philosophies and lifestyles. Subcultures had matured and grew more important in the lives of teenagers at this time. If you weren't a part of a scene, where was your identity?
Anger, the opiate for a bored and poor generation.
To complicate things even further, not only were teenagers at each other's throats, but parents, teachers and government officials all began taking swipes at and scapegoating them, their music and their lifestyles for everything ranging from crime to out-and-out terrorism. The late 70s and early 80s webbed the fabric of youth culture even more so. Governmental candidates and the media all sought to exploit the fears of the older generation by highlighting the "dangers" of these punks, mods, rockers and general outcasts. Popular music became public enemy number one and so did those who listened to it. Greater distinctions could be made between these teens, whether they were skins or punks or metal heads, they were all easily identifiable and easy to scapegoat.
If you throw in civil and political unrest, boredom and the change of pop music from "I wanna hold your hand" to "I wanna fuck myself", the stereotype of the angry teenager was very much established. It was also heavily embrace by the teens themselves. By this point, the teen was estranged from the adult, the society and even their own faction. There was no longer a struggle to establish identity, rather there was a struggle for authenticity in a world full of organized identities. Who is that? Are they the real deal? Is he MORE punk than me, or is he a poser?
The word "poser" would eventually become a staple part of any young person's vocabulary, even to this day.
Hatred, the opiate for a bored and elitist generation.
Émile Durkheim, one of the forebears of sociology, offered a theory called "anomie" in his book Suicide (1897). He highlighted certain social disorders, rapid changes in society, that negatively affect the self. Though the term itself is quite flexible and still has yet to be fully understood, it can be said to describe a state of "purposelessness" in someone who has experienced a sudden change in societal integration. For Durkheim, functionalism is the dependence a society has on each member of the society, every man and woman has a purpose (occupation) in such a society and they also rely on other members of that society in order to fulfill their purpose. This reliance is essentially integration, the sociable aspects of every day life, from working with clients to taking part in sports events, anything that brings people together.
Though it's been widely argued that Durkheim did not say that anomie explicitly meant a state of "social detachment" in itself, anomie is in fact a large part of how someone becomes detached from society. Unemployment, social alienation, any kind of lack of purpose in life is what leads to this kind of detachment because one experiences a decrease in social interaction. This lack of interaction essentially leaves the self to its own devices and this is where constructionism begins to take place. Suddenly, the slightest of hobbies or interests become of heightened importance. Without practical work and without offering anything to society, one creates their own importance as they are left in a state of egoism.
In 2014, anomie has led to a heightened importance on the hobby, the subculture. This heightened importance doesn't just come in the form of constant engagement in said hobby, it also creates a frame of mind where this hobby IS the identity, rather than the hobby merely being part of the individual's identity. Thus, the individual must validate their "identity", which is the only thing they believe to possess, by criticizing others who claim a similar identity. Because the hobby is now the identity, and hobbies are shared by many, the individual must prove that he/she is unique to the others. They want to be a part of the elite, those who are "more unique than others".
In teen subcultures, the word "poser" is used to describe an individual who is either A) trying too hard to find an identity in a subculture, or B) someone who doesn't live up to the standards set by the "elite". Because consumption (music, video games, fashion, technology) is arguably the biggest hobby of the modern teenager, this kind of elitism is rampant and far and wide. Status is no longer based on ability or exertion, it is based on consumption.
Who are your favourite band? Crystal Castles? Oh, that's cute.
You mean you don't have the new expansion pack? You fucking faggot newb.
You've never read Charles Eliot Norton? HAH!
You know absolutely nothing about metal. Log off this forum and never come back.
So does the word "poser" really hold any weight? If it does, then why do people care so much about such trivial matters like musical taste or subculture lifestyle? Is this irrational hatred (perhaps too strong a word) of others based on perceived inferiority a socially constructed phenomenon or is it attributed to the primal instinct of "the other"? John Lennon wrote a song a long time ago about tearing down the walls with which we have created to segregate and stratify each other. He suggested that a world without radical belief, elitism and irrationality would lead to world peace. A world where we concentrate on ourselves rather than excluding and chastising others.
John Lennon got shot in the head.
End of story.
No comments:
Post a Comment