lickety jackblog

Speaking of a good article about hipsters, I was talking with my coworker friend, KV, earlier today about the general concept of Identiopathy, and in poking around the interweb just now I found this. A more brilliant commentary on the sheepish mentality of scenesters (which I use in this case as a sweeping term to describe anyone who defines him or herself only within the context of a larger subcultural identity), I have not seen in a long time.

If you've never actually read any of the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), the manual which in an earlier edition labeled homosexuality as a mental disorder (but has since updated and rescinded its position), it may lose a small portion of its charm. I was forced to use that abominable text-- whose apocryphal claims are often required in American courtrooms to lend authenticity to those doctors whose avarice keeps them from ever actually practicing medicine-- as a research aid in my last job.

The wonderful thing about this type of satire is that it blurs the line between social conformity (as enacted out of fear and insecurity) and "mental disorder", and in doing so, it succeeds in mocking both the Identiopaths and the DSM! I've never heard of this Hermenaut thing, but I'm going to do some more reading...

posted by Little Gordie @ 7:16 PM