The middle class are damned if they do, damned if they don't by the author's argument.
They are at once chastised for "inoculating" themselves from working class culture, and for embracing it.
London's poor fetish: commodifying working class culture
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Re: London's poor fetish: commodifying working class culture
#12Good article in many ways but what I always feel like these commentaries miss is that many of us came from working class backgrounds and put ourselves into the middle classes. And we still identify with the working class and that it isn't a fetish but rather our roots.
Say what you will about Western society but it does provide many opportunities for a working class kid to take agency and move themselves into the middle classes while still identifying with their upbringing too. I can afford nice things now, and I treat myself from time to time, but I (and many others I assume) haven't abandoned the things I grew up on either.
Re: London's poor fetish: commodifying working class culture
#13Between white America's appropriation of black American pop culture and the rise of yuppie hipsterdom, this applies just as much to the U.S., doesn't it?
Except Americans despise snobbery or snobbish attitudes of any kind, its almost taboo, while the Brits embrace it.
Re: London's poor fetish: commodifying working class culture
#14I dont get this. Bullshit jobs, pointless existence, drinking in bars, gentrifiers, working class. ..? It sounds like communist manifest. Most londoners I know are in constant buzz just to keep flowing. London problems could be fixed in four simple steps: 1) introduce 0.1% property tax 2) build a few decent schools 3) improve subway 4) deregulate high raise buildings
Erm - are you a local?
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Re: London's poor fetish: commodifying working class culture
#15Between white America's appropriation of black American pop culture and the rise of yuppie hipsterdom, this applies just as much to the U.S., doesn't it?
Except Americans despise snobbery or snobbish attitudes of any kind, its almost taboo, while the Brits embrace it.
Not really... just depends on what group you're around.
Re: London's poor fetish: commodifying working class culture
#16I'm always reluctant to embrace something that is basically bemoaning "cultural malaise", especially with a rather obvious left-wing bent, BUT, it's very well written and offers several good points. In particular, this bit: "That their accent, speech patterns and knowledge of institutions, by their very deployment in the job market, perpetuate norms that exclude those who were born outside of the cultural elite." It'…
I dunno, personally I thought it was dreadful even by the standards of left-wing articles bemoaning cultural malaise, some of which at least manage consistency.
Hipsters are attacked both for being "unable to do anything useful, alienated from physical labor" and because "never will they face the grinding monotony of mindless work", for taking unpaid internships and for having mortgages. They apparently go to food markets out of vicarious faux-working class escapism, and not because freshly-cooked spicy food is worth paying a bit more for than Pret. Middle class people that don't embrace the working class aesthetic are even worse.
The author doesn't seem to realise the average hipster has disposable income to buy £6 jerk sandwiches and £8 cocktails because £21k goes further when you have no dependents and rent by the room rather than because they're nascent millionaires tasked with finding new ways to cut working class incomes.
Hipsters are nowhere near as bad as keyboard class warriors whose pretentious prose belies the inauthenticity of their attempts to speak for the working class as surely as the braying accents they whinge about.
Re: London's poor fetish: commodifying working class culture
#17The middle class are damned if they do, damned if they don't by the author's argument. They are at once chastised for "inoculating" themselves from working class culture, and for embracing it.
They're not embracing it, they're consuming it. Embracing another culture is altruistic. Narcissism is looking at another culture and considering whether to "inoculate against" or "experience" it as a feature of your own life.
The twenty-somethings are filled with a sense of meaninglessness because their lives are meaningless. They allowed their careers to define who they were, and are now surprised when the market created a large, ticketed carousel for them.
Re: London's poor fetish: commodifying working class culture
#18I'm always surprised to see articles like this upvoted on Hacker News. Not that there is anything wrong with the content, but it surprises me that it is popular on a forum relating to startups and technology.
I like to imagine that many upper-middle class folks enjoy the fantasy of a "simpler," lower class existence. Likewise, I suspect many who benefit from the system dream of seeing that same system die. Neither will likely ever happen, but it's a pleasant fantasy.
Re: London's poor fetish: commodifying working class culture
#19The middle class are damned if they do, damned if they don't by the author's argument. They are at once chastised for "inoculating" themselves from working class culture, and for embracing it.
They're not embracing it, they're consuming it. Embracing another culture is altruistic. Narcissism is looking at another culture and considering whether to "inoculate against" or "experience" it as a feature of your own life. The twenty-somethings are filled with a sense of meaninglessness because their lives are meaningless. They allowed their careers to define who they were, and are now surprised when the market c…
This. They're not adopting, or becoming part of a culture, they're indulging in it as spectacle. If you bought your Mason Jar specifically to drink out of, you have missed the entire cultural context.
Re: London's poor fetish: commodifying working class culture
#20I'm always surprised to see articles like this upvoted on Hacker News. Not that there is anything wrong with the content, but it surprises me that it is popular on a forum relating to startups and technology.
There is nothing inherently linking startups and technology with engaging in working-class tourism.