The Contrarians

(inspired by some late-night talk with my three of my High School friends in outer town some weeks ago. The four of us sat in the corner of a coffeeshop, talking for hours with some companions from extra hot latte and the strong smell of caffe americano.)

 

Most of the friends I made in my life, are excellent academics who are consummate in art, literature, music, fashion, philosophy or scientific studies like math, economics, physics etc. I dare to say that these people are the open-minded people, the one that always curious about the coming of new idea, new forms of expression. They're the first to react in intellectual challenge or exchange of opinions. In the name of Feynman, Planck or Einstein I dare to say they're all smart, actual and always relevant.

But it's start to bothering me when they began to think themselves as elitist, an exclusive segment of society that won't be touched by germs of mainstream and 'usual' and 'ordinary' stuff. It's hurting to see some of my friends began to isolate themselves by saying things like, "I don't listen to that kind of music, I only listen to indie band. The one people haven't heard before." or, "I think those clothings/gadgets/bands/movies/books are waaay too mainstream, it's like billions of people used/heard/read/watched them, I don't want them." This is when contrarian fallacy took them over. This is when they started to lock themselves in a prison they made themselves. They're rebelling to everything, it's become ridiculous. They thought they were so extreme and radical, it's become outrageous.
This obsession with "street-cred" reaches its apex of absurdity, declining everything just for the sake of being 'cool' and 'indie' and 'rare', and 'unique', and doing your own 'DIY movement.'

Why must we so often isolate ourselves in this way? I mean, it's okay to have your own ideology and choices of taste or aesthetics pleasures. It's always fine to stand in your own established road, to dress in your predictable stylistic trademarks: skinny jeans, cotton spandex leggings, tucked-in printed shirt, vintage flannel, fake eyeglasses and keffiyeh or silk scarf. It's great to listen to Peter Bjorn and John, The Shins, Frou Frou, Phoenix, or every others indie band out there. But at least, please, see what's on the other lane. I believe they will meet us halfway if we offer them a reasonable hill to climb and a meaningful experience for their efforts. To become an idealistic person is not to ignoring everybody else, not to mock the mainstream culture. You're not rebelling to the authority just because you sporting a leather jacket a la Joey Ramone, you're not a princess who lived freely in the glamorous '50s like Holly Golightly just because you've read Breakfast at Tiffany's, and indeed you're not Ubermensch and live transcendly above the others just because you've read Nietszche. Millions of people read them too, watched them too, listened them too, don't think we're so unique. It's just us that doesn't see it, because we don't want to. We're hiding behind the pillars that is our comfort zone: the social recognition of being 'unique'. (After all, if everybody's unique, then none is.) 

The elitist, the exclusives aim to prove that there is something inherently wrong with the limited world view of another, while their actual concern is to establish a few limits of their own. They saw the world in dichotomy: if it's not me/us, then it's them. They stubbornly protesting against mass society (that was stupid and illiterate, said the most radical of them), while it's them who shaped mass society to its best. By consistently taking the opposite stand, they reveal themselves as just as much a fashion victim as the mainstreamers they so despise and hated against. They don the glasses that is monochrome, therefore they only see the world in black and white. We do not grow to dislike something because it is popular, rather because we grow to fear we no longer enjoy it for the reasons we once did. We fear of the broken emotional connection between us and the thing we loved: that's why we always feel the wind of victory everytime we discover new bands others haven't or when we saw new movies or read new books before anyone did, before they became mainstream. And that’s that the life of the elitists and the exclusives: they’re busy keeping up with Joneses while the others really give any damn about them.