{"id":172,"date":"2008-07-14T11:17:25","date_gmt":"2008-07-14T11:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2008\/07\/the-provocative-world-of-williamsburg-hipsters.html"},"modified":"2008-07-14T11:17:25","modified_gmt":"2008-07-14T11:17:25","slug":"the-provocative-world-of-williamsburg-hipsters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/07\/the-provocative-world-of-williamsburg-hipsters.html","title":{"rendered":"The provocative world of Williamsburg hipsters"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Williamsburg Hipster. In Buddhist epistemological terms, it\u2019s an example of a \u201cgenerally characterized phenomena\u201d\u2014a general concept, in other words. And judging by the reactions it provokes in certain quarters of the blogosphere (and elsewhere), for many people it\u2019s a particularly potent one.
\nI\u2019ve lived in Williamsburg (and Greenpoint) for eight years, and I\u2019ve always felt at home there. I\u2019ve enjoyed being around a dense concentration of intriguing peers, and I\u2019ve been mostly willing to overlook such excesses as may occasionally be apparent.
\nBut every so often I get a taste of what people are (I surmise) feeling when they go into a tizzy at the mention of the archetype at hand. It happened one recent evening\u2014I decided at the last minute to go to a showing at Summerscreen<\/a> at the McCarren Park Pool. Unable to corral a companion at that point, I went anyway, by myself.
\nThe movie was \u201cWet Hot American Summer.\u201d The sound was bad, the view was poor and the concrete beneath me was uncomfortable, but that isn\u2019t why I was ill at ease. It was because I was alone and surrounded by hundreds of young adults in couples and groups, flirting, laughing, displaying themselves, with all sorts of things to prove. At age 32, I\u2019m already something of an outlier on the demographic spectrum that was present that evening. But between the movie and my solitude in the crowd, I felt transported back to the Junior High School cafeteria, age fifteen once more.
\nAs I listened to the boorish camp counselor on screen boast \u201cshe totally wants to fuck me\u201d as he leered at a comely adolescent camper, I was reminded of how strongly the young are impelled to see sex as nothing more than a way to validate self-worth by objectifying others. It\u2019s sad how pervasive and persistent that perspective can be, even as we age. And as I listened to the young hipsters around me jeer strangers to get them to move, mock the appearances of passersby, and watched them aggressively impinge upon the just-claimed personal space of their neighbors, I was reminded of how badly we often treat one another under the pressures that large peer groups seem inevitably to generate.
\nThis is all to say that I don\u2019t think it\u2019s really the pretentions of young Williamsburg that inflame people, or the perception that \u201chipsters\u201d are lording something over everyone else (few hipsters were the cool kids in high school, after all). I don\u2019t even think the hook is that the whole situation is privileged and self-involved, although of course it is. Mostly I think outside observers have strong negative reactions to \u201cWilliamsburg hipsters\u201d because they\u2019re horrified that anyone would opt for additional years in the peer-group social cauldron, after the mandatory ones that school impels upon us have passed. And perhaps there\u2019s a little bit of jealousy over the excitement that that situation can generate, in spite of all the liabilities.
\nWhen I left the pool, hit the Greenpoint street and was surrounded by people of all ages, in personal attire evincing the full range of the hip-square spectrum, the social cauldron dissipated with little trace, as ephemeral as a city of gandharvas. I\u2019m glad I can still revisit that world sometimes for a potent jolt (for a short while longer, at least). But I\u2019m very thankful that it\u2019s now entirely optional, and viewed from a larger perspective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Williamsburg Hipster. In Buddhist epistemological terms, it\u2019s an example of a \u201cgenerally characterized phenomena\u201d\u2014a general concept, in other words. And judging by the reactions it provokes in certain quarters of the blogosphere (and elsewhere), for many people it\u2019s a particularly potent one. I\u2019ve lived in Williamsburg (and Greenpoint) for eight years, and I\u2019ve always…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":193,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-media"],"yoast_head":"\nThe provocative world of Williamsburg hipsters - One City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/07\/the-provocative-world-of-williamsburg-hipsters.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The provocative world of Williamsburg hipsters - One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Williamsburg Hipster. In Buddhist epistemological terms, it\u2019s an example of a \u201cgenerally characterized phenomena\u201d\u2014a general concept, in other words. And judging by the reactions it provokes in certain quarters of the blogosphere (and elsewhere), for many people it\u2019s a particularly potent one. I\u2019ve lived in Williamsburg (and Greenpoint) for eight years, and I\u2019ve always…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/07\/the-provocative-world-of-williamsburg-hipsters.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-07-14T11:17:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Greg Zwahlen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The provocative world of Williamsburg hipsters - One City","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2008\/07\/the-provocative-world-of-williamsburg-hipsters.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The provocative world of Williamsburg hipsters - One City","og_description":"The Williamsburg Hipster. 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