About a year ago, Adbusters had an article describing hipsters as the end of western civilization’s great counter-cultural movements. The article draws a great comparison between the seeming counter-culture of hipsterdom with its reliance on consumerism, marketing, and capitalism. I am willing to subject myself to such scrutiny. The article points out the reliance on graphic design, fashion, brand names, and products as part of the movement. Its the first marketable counter culture Adbusters claims.
I’ve recently been thinking about martyrs. They are not mentioned very frequently these days. We like the idea of counter-culturalism, but for us it means our music independent, our beer hand crafted, and our produce local. But what does it mean to die for a cause? The counter culture of hipsterdom relies on making ourselves comfortable at home in the empire we dwell, even if there is some subversion to the normalcy of it. I think buying local, imbibing the work of artisans, and supporting somewhat non-commodified art are good things, but they lead me down a path of justification. They move from responsibility to activism. Fashion, food, art, are not bad things, but they essentially deal with me…me…me. To participate in these arenas of life would require I do so with some responsibility. Going to a mega-coffee chain for my coffee, buying clothes at a mall, eating out of season imported fruit, are perpetuating injustice and thus we must respond by finding ways to dress, eat, experience art, which are sustainable and productive, but they are not activism.
My fear is that I would become comfortable drinking good beer, hanging out in great coffee shops, riding my bike around town, and wearing American made clothes and were some freakish change to happen in our government and I as a Christian became an outlaw, I would cower from radicalism, resigning it to a justice filled lifestyle still centered on…me. People run across our border everyday risking their lives, people organize underground Churches in their homes in China, the Anabaptists of the 16th century were executed for not marrying their faith with the government and the sword (both, not just the government’s army), and the martyrs of the first three centuries were not justice living consumers, they were Christians, pure and simple. They could not be anything else and since that was not legal, they were criminals.
I don’t seek to be self-depricating, I will continue to live my earthly life, aware that my sheer existence will in and of itself have a consuming impact on earth. But I hope to keep reminding myself that radicalism does not usually end with me being the recipient of the reward. I don’t need to find a way to be punished or persecuted, but I hope I don’t live a life which would make it difficult for me to face such a prospect.
austin pfeiffer 