Your Total Personality LifestyleTM
How much of the way of life that a person chooses has to do with crafting an identity, a persona?
Take for instance those who join the Society for Creative Anachronism, dance to "Under A Harvest Moon" by a Celtic acoustic band, protect the environment, shop at Whole Foods Market, collect fantasy art, worship aboriginal pantheons, study geneology, pay for alternative traditional remedies, and pine for the simpler and more romantic days of yore.
Consider those who attend science fiction conventions, listen to highly-produced electronica, live entirely on Hot Pockets and Breakfast Toaster Scrambles in the car, read WIRED Magazine, collect art of artificial eco-habitats floating in outer space, scorn the religions and heritages of the world, donate to genetic engineering and artificial intelligence research, would implant their cell phone in their ears and an internet-equipped PDA in their eyes if they could, and can hardly wait for life to get faster, prettier and more complicated.
I could name other categories than these two, but is it really ideology? Such as that between past and future, between nature and technology, between gods and man? How much of the difference between counter-cultures is just ... a fashion statement? A series of "identity purchases" that cultivate a "Total Personality LifestyleTM"?
Comments
phecda on Mar. 11, 2005 7:58 PM
And then there's all those pretty rainbow hues in between. Personally, I have an eclectic selection of tastes drawn from both poles and many points betwixt. The older I get, the more value I find in some traditions. Some of that is due to future shock, some is due simply because I enjoy older stuff -- things that I didn't experience as a child like 1950's bebop and jazz, or really good scotch are large parts of my life now. At the same time, I've adopted newer past times like LJ and the web, so I still consider myself leading edge, just not bleeding edge...
Maybe a good metaphor is fashion. It's been interesting to see the fashion recycling going on. I certainly don't need to wear bellbottoms again. Ever. And the current spring fashions for men are just so 1985 all over again. I'm waiting for stirrup pants for women to make a rebound (not!), but those tight lowrider pants are so 1977. Really, those young whipper snappers should just go get their own decade already... ;-)
dawnwolf on Mar. 12, 2005 1:49 PM — You wore bellbottoms???
Ewwwww.....
flutterby68 on Mar. 13, 2005 6:42 PM
My musical tastes run the gamut from classical and classic rock, to alternative and obscure. Same with books, and movies and any number of other interests.
I don't really "fit" any patterns of behavior. I am quixotic, introspective, low maintenance, relatively even tempered, and interested in just about everything. I love to learn, and dream, and FEEL. However, I do tend to embrace the same patterns in my life. That gives me a measure of stability with which to indulge my passions. Guess that makes me unique, but like everyone else in some ways.
And I wear low-rider boot cut jeans and love them. Who cares what decade they are from? If they make my ass look good, I'm happy! LOL
lorrraine on Mar. 11, 2005 8:08 PM
Hi Matt,
This is why I get my life from the ala carte menu. I'm always suspicious of anyone who 'just happens' to like everything attached to a "Total Personality Lifestyle TM". Those packages are put together and sold by corporations that make their money off of "identity purchases". In my opinion if you've got corporations devoted to promoting your exact way of life then you aren't counter-culture, you're just an eccentric part of the culture.
I like contradictions in my life. I'm a Luddite with a Live Journal, a Scientific Magician, a Religious Agnostic, a Prudish Porn Writer, and a Gender Normative Transwoman among my other identities. No magazine or tv show encompasses all my interests...yet.
Thanks,
Lorrraine
treebones on Mar. 11, 2005 9:58 PM — Wow.
I hope I'm allowed to have a Mutant Mixed LifestyleTM, because I kind of fit both of your stereotypes. (:
bardicwench on Mar. 11, 2005 10:52 PM — Hummmm.....
Ack! Ummm.... where do I fit if I belong to both groups? I work at the Ren Faire, love celtic music, collect fantasy art, and pine for romantic days of yore... but I also go to Science Fiction Conventions, love my PDA, digital camera, and cell phone, and am interested in all sorts of other geeky type stuff... Am I just lost? *grin*
matt-arnold on Mar. 11, 2005 11:54 PM
It has to do, I think, with what mileu we embrace and identify with, rather than just what we tolerate.
Since most of us here embrace all kinds of "other worlds," both past and future, I suggest that the link that binds all of the above into a single cultural mileu is time travel. Many of us are like time-travelers, feeling displaced in time and longing for home. (Mythologically, it seems vaguely similar to the millenarian impulse.) Perhaps this is dimly connected to what once referred to as "the fannish twist of mind."
temujin9 on Mar. 13, 2005 8:18 AM
You're going for polar extremes that really don't exist as such in the geeky world. You want to demonstrate the TPL, you need look no further than music scenes. Emo vs goth vs punk vs rap, ad nauseum . . .
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