As i've grown older i've noticed quite a few things. The ones i'd like to pay attention to, right now, are as follows: Rich north county kids, and fixed gear bikes. First and foremost, has anyone else noticed the insurgence of rich trust fund babies moving into, "The city". I know that I have, and it doesn't sit well. Why would this be upsetting? Well, they don't work and have no sense of responsibility. Personally, I can't respect someone who doesn't know what it's like to put in an 8 hour day and then carry on with the rest of their lives. Usually, their addicted to drunks and alcohol. You could try to say thats an ignorant statement, but all the rich kids i've known through out the years have ALWAYS had some kind of addiction problem of cocaine, heroin, or any of their synthetics. If your parents can always afford to put you in a vacation clinic, then why not (i've personally seen this played out several times over the last 7 years). Some have said that i'm jealous. Waking up late everyday, doing whatever you want, and spending all the time you need on music. It's a good point, but if I can bring up again...these kids don't work. How does this relate? You have to know how crappy and bleak life can really be in order to both make and understand good art, otherwise it doesnt have a soul and bears as much meaning and depth as a landscape painting for sell at the mall. If you'd like to see what it's like to be a north county rich kid, and read their, "opinions", and "insights", you can go to www.cakepolice.blogspot.com Their just a bunch of cut and past assholes out of the LA and New York times since they're delivered everyday because you know... their parents have to keep up on stocks and mexican labor.
Lastly, those kids on fixed gears. PUNKS RIDE SKATEBOARDS YOU DIPSHITS!
This is unnecessarily slanderous, especially considering that there's considerable overlap between Cake Police and this blog.
ReplyDeleteI can see your point, but what's your object here, really? Something in the degree of venom of your opinions suggests that you're not really interested in changing this state of affairs - and anyway, would gentrification really be excusable if the trust fund babies who were displacing the urban poor worked 8-hour days? There are plenty of people who work and have a "sense of responsibility" (in the sense that you seem to understand this here) who are actually making the world a more unbearable place for the majority (e.g., the Wall Street investors who are rewarding themselves with 6- to 7-figure bonuses after one of the most economically catastrophic years in decades). I'm not saying that working and having a sense of responsibility are bad, but they aren't necessarily good in themselves.
It's certainly true that for many of the young and wealthy, life and art are just a kind of "glass bead game" which has nothing to do with reality and which has no consequences, but I think this is just as much an index of the contradictions with which our society is riddled as it is of some irresponsibility for which they can be faulted. Of course, to a large degree they should be - the fact that certain people have undue privileges is definitely a crime, and that those who enjoy these privileges are not in the least concerned about scaling them back or at least trying to provide some corrective to them in the way they live their lives is doubly offensive. But on the other hand, this heedless self-concern and ignorance is the lot of our entire society, even of many of those who work 8-hour days and carry on with the rest of their lives.
ReplyDeleteSo sure, there's something despicable about hipsterism, but there's more to the equation than irresponsible rich kids. Our culture is a hedonistic culture - the indulgences of trust fund babies are really just a kind of undiluted form of the indulgences that are offered to poor and working people as an antidote to their unrewarding hours of labor. So there's no doubt many of the people you're berating "don't work and have no sense of responsibility," and there's no doubt that they should be held to account, but the question you're neglecting here (though you allude to it) is precisely the crucial question of the conditions that allow for this in the first place. If there's a helpful approach to irresponsible rich kids (and really I ought to include myself in this category to some extent) from the perspective of actually eliminating the injustice they embody, it should be to point out how and why they are able to enjoy the privileges that they do, the inequitable partition of the work of running society that provides the foundation of their lifestyle. Being faced with this is sobering and actually leaves one with a set of choices about how to proceed (though of course it is difficult to break old habits). What you've done in this post is presented the contradiction between you and others like you (hard workers) and wealthy slackers as a kind of good guy/bad guy conflict to which there is no solution, only a further entrenchment. Maybe this is right. But in any case, this is a contradiction that can't fruitfully develop on the basis of insults and singling out.
^^^haha^^^
ReplyDeletebut still, with all of that said... i have to agree with utah. stay in north county please.
Jesus Christ. What's going on here? I thought these blogs were supposed to be friends? Like I pointed out in response to Cory's New Year's resolution post. It's really easy to ignore a blog if you're not into it.
ReplyDeleteAlso, your generalizations and attempts to belittle our blog are really fucking silly.
1. Never ever has anyone on Cake Police quoted the LA Times.
2. As far as the "since they're delivered everyday because you know... their parents have to keep up on stocks and mexican labor" comment goes: Delivered? HEELLLOOO?! 2010? The internet?? And secondly, you're making some pretty large assumptions (considering I for one have no idea who you are and am sure you know nothing about me personally) that we all live with our parents (not true for hardly any of us), and... you know honestly, I'm not even sure WHAT you're trying to say with the stocks and mexican labor comment, your logic gets a little hazy there.
3. It's funny that you're calling us assholes when we've never posted a negative thing about any of you guys, yet you continuously slander and attempt to degrade us and our opinions on your blog.
4. Linking and "cutting and pasting" other news articles from around the internet and providing your own commentary is the central purpose of most blogs.
Blog sniping aside, I also take issue with the fact that you seem to believe the only way to experience the "bleakness" of life and express it through art is to work 9-5 every day. To contradict that, I would direct you to practically every great artist throughout time, none of whom have drawn meaningfully from their shitty job at Starbucks for creative inspiration.
I'd like to second everything sheilasowncommunism and Woflgar insightfully presented and kindly direct you here (http://www.myspace.com/thewarondrugs).
ReplyDelete