What’s going on…
January 11th, 2008
A few years ago Ireland had one of the strongest anti-globalisation movements in Europe. The Reclaim the Streets march had thousands of long hairs out in central Dublin partying away. Then they seemingly evaporated, they went away and haven’t been seen again since. It’s difficult to work out why. Some will have got jobs, cut their hair and got on making money. Some left Ireland, to bigger canvas’s. Some turned away from the movement to concentrate on the war in Iraq.
The surprise, I suppose, has been that they haven’t been replaced.It could be that Ireland is too damn small, Dublin even, to support more than a few youth movements. And ‘movements’ itself is the wrong word they’re more like groups, loose affiliations and groups of friends, who dress the same a bit and hang out in front of the Central Bank and Starbucks. At the moment there are hipsters, emo kids and nu-ravers. Nothing else has arisen in large enough numbers to make a cultural impact. The hip hop kids are dismissed as scobes, the longhairs are mostly privilege hippies, and everyone else is English. None of the tribes that are currently thriving in the capital have anything political about them.
The hipsters are the most conscious of the political, but are the worst of the three. They wryly observe, self-consciously sit apon the sidelines witnessing the world, aware of the problems and the need to do something, but prefer to cock a snook, or to blog humorlessly about clothes and bad Italian cinema. The music is varied and some, mostly folk, is explicitly policital but the scene itself is about iconoclastic apathy. They wear Make Poverty History wrist bands and Arabic scarves, but when asked about them they spew nonchalant irony and sarcasm.
What’s going on with the emo kids? What are they thinking in there? Is it the same as goth, the introspection and the bad poetry? Are you trying to work out whats going on in your own heads never mind everyone elses, never mind the worlds? Whatever, the trend seems too commercial and self-reguarding for there to be much going on, and even if the lyrics are wild klaxon calls to the red flag, they haven’t had any goddamn effect. The only march I ever saw them on was an unpaid publicity march up Grafton Street for the launch of the Black Parade album.
There is something nihilistic about the total anti-politics and euphoria of the nu-ravers. The music is mindlessly fun, lyrics meaningless refrains, some even advertising slogans, existing solely to be shouted deliriously. Intentionally there is no depth, nothing else there, allowing you to utterly escape. It is quite political in its own negative way, but it hardly promotes anything like the rage and activism that the similarly apolitical Nirvana did.
And so here we are, in a time of strong tribal youth cultures but little politics. Perhaps it’s something to do with the success of the tiger. We don’t have much to complain about and maybe the capitalists are right, so what the hell’s there to protest against? Maybe the movements were defeated. Maybe we’ll all be back on the streets soon when the jobs we presumed were waiting for us by rights aren’t there when we get out of college. At a time where there is more inequality and injustice, when there is so much that ought to merit protest, when our police service and government act like the criminals and cheats they condemn, it is disappointing to look around and see so much energy wasted. You’re young for godsake. Shout about something.
Andrew Booth is an intercontinental dandy. He is co-writing his first novel Jackdaw Fool.
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Two things - I’m a big fan of Nirvana, and undoubtedly there was a big counterculture buzz about them, but don’t ever try to talk them up as political activists. They had an impact in the world’s of music and fashion thanks to their teenage fans, but did nothing to further any political or social cause - only apathy, drug abuse and self-harm.
Secondly, there is a wealth of political and social activism out there doing outstanding work in many cases and many places - don’t tarnish everyone with the same brush as your friends and acquaintances. You obviously just haven’t bothered to look hard enough or, God/Allah/Buddha forbid, start something yourself.
To address your first point, re Nirvana. I didn’t suggest that their music was political, or indeed their actions, rather that nihilism and rage seemed to feed into political activism.
On your second point, I flat out don’t agree. There is little of any consequence happening in Ireland, other than local Shell to Sea Campaign in Rossport. Whilst that campaign is very important and highlights many of the areas of concern I have with our sosciety today, it is largely a local movement with few beyond the Socialist Workers offering any nation wide support.
I’d be delighted for you to point in the direction of these highly politically active hipsters and ravers. Post us some links here.
Oh and by trying to start a debate I am trying to do a little something. Where’s your red flag?
‘Cock a snook’. Niiiice. x
That’s strange… I though I typed in “Analogue” not “indymedia”…
I don’t believe that “Protesters” were ever a teenage social clique. Protest movements and groups across history have always sprung up from universities and the 18-25 year old set, those who have begun to read the newspapers and regard the world around them. The cliques you deal with here are largely 12-18 year olds with nothing else to do on weekends than paint themselves up the way the NME or Kerrang told them to. And anybody deeming themself a hipster and wearing a Make Poverty History wristband and an Arabic scarf needs seeing to (SO 2005/2006)
Emo kids are for their part aged generally between 12 and 16 and a grasp on globalization at that age is rare, especially since the emo scene is so introspective. You’re confusing bands like My Chemical Romance with bands such as, say, Billy Talent (or, for the more discerning teenager, Black Flag and their more respectable ilk) who at least purport to have a political or social undercurrent.
Nu-Rave is a nothing fad that will have dissipated by this summer. Whereas original ravers had an anarchic outlook, with DIY parties and drug culture, nu-rave has none of the ethos that fuelled it’s predecessor, and all of the fashion accessories.
Are you suggesting that Bertie’s (ahem) alleged affairs are worth protest? They are receiving more than enough media criticism, and whether one believes in the expensive tribunal process or not, there is something being done about it. It would be wiser to encourage young people to vote against the man in future elections (not that he’ll be running next time, but the government that has allowed such discrepancies to be glossed over) that inciting street marches that, in reality, do nothing but make you late for work.
The Bebo generation has the facility to be the most potent protest generation ever seen, thanks to social networking sites. However, bemoaning the peaceability of it is not wise- If there is something to protest about, then the protesters will come out.
And yes, if you are curious as to what politicized “hipsters” and “ravers” are saying, try indymedia.ie or socialistyouth.wordpress.com
Youth culture is the internet, and vice versa. The net supercedes all musical movements these days, technological advances change even young peoples lives far more than musical ones.
I enjoy indymedia.ie and similar sites, but the thrust was at the lack of leadership on issues from the current batch of bands and all doing the rounds. I’m largely ignorant of the ‘emo’ scene, despite visiting Emo, County Laois ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emo%2C_County_Laois ), several times. Like I said the music could be wildly political but if it leads to more navel gazing then whatever…
I agree that there is tremendous potential on the web, and the fact that many of the ‘kids’ on facebook and bebo and all, but there’s little of note to come of it yet. Like I said, maybe we’ll be on the streets soon.
ps, I find your idea that bertie’s behaviour is not worthy of protest, or that I should be trying to influence someone else’s votes utterly shocking…
Gotta disagree with you Dan, if you don’t think there are concerns worthy of protest both nationally and internationally, you’re not looking around you. The casual acceptance of neoliberal corporate consumerism, which you’ve so ably illustrated, is reason enough to worry. The reliance of our economy on an economically suicidal unilaterally aggressive super power; the death of ideological belief (whatever the colour) in politics - and with it principle; the treatment (read imprisonment) by our government of refugees; the shambles that is our health care system; the dismantlement of privacy; the gradual privatisation of education. Pick your issue, there is plenty to be concerned about, and work on. What Andrew’s pointing out is that unlike previous cohorts, this one (perhaps for reasons of prosperity) exhibits a worrying apathy which simply didn’t represent the experience of ’switched on’ 16, 17, or 18 year old’s ten years ago. Nirvana might not have been about anything, but bands like Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, Dead Kennedy’s, NOFX etc very much were (and, somewhat less relevantly still are). The same can be said of the protest singers of the 60’s, Punks in the 70’s, and even God forbid, the stadium rockers of the 80’s. There’s an illegal war going on, unashamedly and unambiguously fought on bogus grounds, which threatens to engulf the Middle East. The leader of the most powerful country in the world is an evolution denying, anti-choice Christian Fundamentalist, and the only music I hear addressing the growing sense of alienation comes from talentless misery guts at unbearable singer song writer nights and the Dixie Chicks. To quote Sleater Kinney ‘Where is the questioning, where is the protest song?’