466 replies to this topic

[jfutral]

Since Bethke's video has spurred conversation here as it has elsewhere.

Joe

[mrmando]

According to Diana Butler Bass in HuffPost, the pejorative definition of "religion" is now the mainstream one:

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In the last decade, the word "religion" has become equated with institutional or organized religion. Because of crises such as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the Roman Catholic abuse scandal, Americans now define "religion" in almost exclusively negative terms.

She also asserts:

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In 1999, when survey takers asked Americans "Do you consider yourself spiritual or religious," a solid majority of 54 percent responded that they were "religious but not spiritual."

I don't quite know what to make of either statement -- particularly the second one. Does it mean 54% of survey-takers ticked one box but not the other? I have a hard time believing a majority of people would actually utter a self-contradictory and stupid-sounding phrase like "I'm religious but not spiritual."

[Thom]

I definitely need to stay more current in other areas of the boards besides film. Although, in my defense, one reason I didn't go looking for a conversation on this book was because I was afraid of what I would find. After reading through some of this I am sorry to be a year late.

I was looking forward to this book and when it came out I found it difficult to engage with on a serious level. I love cultural studies especially when focused on marginal cultures and the hangers-on but this satirical, editorial had no foundation. There was no background developed for understanding counter-culture or hipster-ism. If the bibliography indicates a preparation for the book then I find it completely lacking substantive articles or books. In the end, I just could not grasp the thought process articulated within. One question that left me scratching my head from the very beginning was, "is this book actually saying anything?" Like so many people here have said, I guess everyone aligning with Christianity is a hipster.

I would have really enjoyed a book discussing how the church uses the idea of hipster values for evangelizing or how the hipster mentality has affected the church by posing as Jesus followers. The book talked very little about the affects of "when the church and cool collide."

I was sad to see some of the endorsements on this book, some of whose judgment I have trusted for some time.

This is such a rich topic for discussion and I did not walk away enriched. Actually, I walked away thinking the opportunity for some critical thinking was lost in this book all in an effort to write something hip.

[Pair]

A little late to the game, and at the risk of dredging Bethke back up...

I also saw one that said "...if I told you I love Babe Ruth but hate baseball." That one made me chuckle. But I think the "Rhyming makes it relevant," line is a cute bit of alliteration.

Edited by Pair, 06 March 2012 - 01:38 PM.

[NBooth]

Rachel Shteir reviews R. Jay Magill, Jr's Sincerity. I'm putting it here because of this paragraph:

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Magill is right to explain the Millennials’ embrace of hipsterism as a sincerity-desiring defense for a generation that has “grown up in the shadow of a culture that values economics and consumption over the values of humanism and artistic enterprise.” In other words, as the Recession narrowed young peoples’ choices, they began to flail around for anything not connected to a dead-end job—even if the real thing thing they settled on was ultimately fake. (Wearing a wifebeater does not make you James Dean.) And yet Magill’s analysis of hipsterism is ultimately dissatisfying, putting into relief how anemic—even how ironic—hipsterism is.

[Christian]

Americans so over hipsters

Just 16% of Americans have a favorable opinion of hipsters, a new PPP poll on the much-discussed subculture shows. 42% have an unfavorable opinion of hipsters, and 43% aren’t sure. Democrats (18% favorable, 34% unfav) are twice as likely as Republicans (9% fav, 48% unfav) to have a favorable opinion. Voters age 18-29 have a favorable opinion of them (43% fav-29% unfav), but very few voters over age 65 do (6% fav -37% unfav).

Just 10% of voters say they consider themselves to be hipsters – and almost all of those are younger voters. Half of all voters aged 18-29 consider themselves hipsters; every other age group is 5% or less.

Edited by Christian, 14 May 2013 - 07:06 PM.

[mrmando]

Springfield initially embraces but ultimately rejects hipster Christianity in this Simpsons episode:
http://www.fox.com/t...pulpit-friction