BadgeIsBack

Can't stand them. I believe there are people who are really into all that sort of thing. They swap references too!

Dreamy

The kids came out with some 'old' (like from the 80s, man) cultural reference the other day. I couldn't understand where on earth they'd picked it up from - obviously the answer was Southpark.

(I can just about tolerate Southpark. Family Guy and American Dad on the other hand... )

Swerv-o

Yeah, these things really grind my gears.


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BadgeIsBack

I'm going to be mildly controversial and will get hung up for this - it doesn't bother me - but one of the things about working with the new 'technical middle class' (see other topic) is that they do like to talk in references from, or seem overly interested in cartoons or sci-fi. Some are reluctant to talk about philosophy or the traditional arts etc and indeed scoff at it.

There is a reason why this class has been created by the BBC - in some ways it is a sort of artificial creation, a cultural phenomenon.

Swerv-o

I don't think it's a new thing - it's just that pop culture knowledge has become more acceptable rather than being the domain of nerds and geeks.

I recall talking in movie quotes from a very young age - largely The Wrath of Khan - and being told I was such a nerd, but now it's much more accepted. Indeed - we've just been spouting about how there's "Only two things that come from Texas son..." which has prompted an entire debate about which is the best Vietnam film.


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paulry

The last few episodes of this latest season were dissappointing

That is one of the worst shows on Aussie TV. It's so bad it's embarrassing.

scot47

What distinguishes the Morons from the Non-morons is awareness of the OFF switch, and the ability to use it !

GarryP

Put it this way, how could Shakespeare have created so many new words and known phrases if it were a new thing? Mass culture promotes the spread, acceptance, and incorporation of memes into everyday life in the same way that lack of communication promoted local dialects in the past.

And the reason I say the technical middle class category was made to sneer at those creating the world without reference to the 'arts' (that some think important) is because 'hipsters' are just the latest version of a trend to create a tribe apart by saying you need to 'appreciate' a particular form of 'art' to be 'high class'. Usually a form from the past. It's essentially backward looking, insular and excluding/exclusive. In comparison the culture of those looked down upon is inclusive, social and forward looking.

Personally I'd say there is some benefit to 'the arts' as defined in this study, but not in the reverent, excluding, stolid way it tends to be approached. It's one classification amongst many - it lives or dies by its qualities - and most of the time that 'technical middle class' will compare 'Ballet' to 'Banksy' and find it unenticing - on its merit.

Swerv-o

Ugh, don't get me started on Hipsters. I don't think there's any particularly cultural basis to their existence beyond the need to be contrary and pick at anybody that isn't part of their 'set'. You know - people with brakes on their bikes and who don't wear thick rimmed glasses.


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paddyo

Art is subjective, always is and always will be. Its forms, history and standards develop over time and the only reason some cling to 'classic arts' as a standard is merely an acknowledgement of the standards and materials of that time.
Banksy was a good example, he was once an anti-establishment figure...now he is accepted and that has almost taken the shine off of his work. Part snobbery and part elitism but I always think that those who think themselves elite tend to have failings in life that they have yet to experience.

Dreamy

I have to agree - I also have to laugh at the demonstrations of snobbery and reverse snobbery apparent in this thread

Swerv-o

How can you have snobbery in a classless society like Australia?


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Dreamy

Uhuh.

Snobbery isn't really anything to do with class (although the class system demonstrates snobbery quite beautifully) more to do with haves and have nots, whether that be of money, education, intelligence, breeding, grammar, ideology etc.

Oh hang on, you were being ironic. (You were, weren't you?)

Swerv-o

Yup


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BadgeIsBack

Agreed.

I like the internet as it has created a whole cute market for nostalgia.

I was a bit confused with your argument but I think I can see where you are going. I agree that hipsters are a group who have been created and think they are trendsetting and who would like to exclude others. But others in turn laugh at them.... I don't see hipsters as being 'classy' - in date and cool (by their standards) maybe. Hipsters don't create the world, they are just a subset.

I disagree though about conservative forces. The old culture of this world is just a historical artifact...a by product. A degree of conservatism is necessary for a reason. I believe that old established reasoning works for a reason - because it is based on years of experience, whereas other trends are invariably that, trends or fads. I don't even see it as elitism, just tried and tested methods and behaviour...which many will counter just because they can, or feel excluded from. You don't have had to go to Oxford etc to be part of it, but it helps. I see elements of conservative behaviour as the pinnacle of human achievement.

Arguably if the middle classes are now so empowered, who cares?

I don't have a problem with the underlying nature of what they are interested in, just the promotional package...

lol. Hold on!

On another tangent...he he I'm reading an article in the UK press - Telegraph!now how university education has been dumbed down and creating too many grads. I think that we are creating a whole class of hipsters, pop art referees(lol) who are going to 'uni' and expecting the world.