Avoiding something simply because it is “cool”* is nearly as bad as liking something merely on the basis of it’s socially favoured status. This is because a person undertaking the former is still acknowledging the “cool” status of the item in question, and deciding their position on something solely because of the opinions of the masses. Flocking from trends is just as reprehensible as flocking towards trends, because you are allowing trends to influence your preferences. Your preferences should frolic freely amongst all possibilities and not flock anywhere in response to trends and the public opinion. A mindless avoider of trends who does not subject them to his own judgement but cultivates distaste for them based solely on the fact that others favour them is not noticeably less retarded than he who mindlessly cultivates a fondness for anything that currently happens to be in the limelight of other’s affections.
*”Cool” here need not mean mass-trendy, on the radio, etc. Cool can be anything that any group of people assent to within any subculture. “Cool” doesn’t need to mean favoured by the mass majority, just the majority of any particular social clique.
Filed under: The Joys of Mocking | 11 Comments
Tags: Posers, Scene Kids
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just a random hit, musings… hope you have a great new year. peace.
cool
yus, very nice; “cool”, subcultures and even attitudes to a certain extent are sociological phenomena; conformity. Would you agree that there is nothing wrong with conformity per se; the problem lies in the lack of rationality? The same problem arises with religion: the vast majority of religious people are/were subjects of childhood indoctrination and subject to sociological forces. That is, if someone is a Christian, it is because most members of their immediate family are and deviance would result in considerable discomfort therefore they dont deviate. As always these, you would think important, questions are subject to much less dialectical inquiry than you would hope and are more a result of socialisation and social network.
i enjoyed the read.. reminds me of the song ‘Admit It!’ by ‘Say Anything’.
it can be argued that your thaught of non-conformity somehow being worse then conformity is nothing more then a conformist trying to justify their conforming ways.
Touche.
zac – you could argue that, but that’d be besides the point. My point remains valid regardless of my own choices whether or not to conform – of which you know nothing, I might add. No, my motivation for writing this wasn’t to justify any of my own behaviour, rather, it was general annoyance at the stupidity I see exhibited by my fellow humans every day. Keep it up douchebags, you inspire me.
I want to know who originally said what is quoted in the title of this article. I’ve quoted it once or twice, and I’ve yet to cite it with any confidence that I had credited the correct person.
ummm….I said it. Wrote it, rather. I can see how you’d think an ancient philosopher with a pipe and a beard would have been the one to create such a sentence, but it was just me being pompusly proper.
You can attribute it to “Aisia Kouznetsova” or my more distinguished title – “captain pinhead”.
I love this.I Know this obnoxious girl, that believes she is better than the collective because she does the opposite.I try to tell her to stop basing her life aroungd what they do and what the other large group of “outsiders” think is acceptable. Her response is to blink rapidly.
Make her read this, perhaps?
If understanding the big words I use proves too challenging, you could always…cease knowing her.