[Homeless]

As far as I can remember from some of my sociology classes, a ghetto is an area where people of similar background live, who share similar social frustraions usually in an urban area...

 

[Homeless]

As far as I can remember from some of my sociology classes, a ghetto is an area where people of similar background live, who share similar social frustraions usually in an urban area...

 

[ej82m]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kirosia I think people are confused with what "ghetto" is, and that scares me.

I know exactly what "ghetto" means.

ghet·to Audio pronunciation of "ghetto" ( P ) Pronunciation Key (gt)
n. pl. ghet·tos or ghet·toes

1. A section of a city occupied by a minority group who live there especially because of social, economic, or legal pressure.

Go to the Sun Valley Mall in Concord and you'll know what I'm talking about. Or try Bay Fair.

 

[blip]

Viva La Merton, Viva La Revolucion!

Seriously, I miss that guy... Head-Fi was more surreal when he was around... Those were some good times.

Anyway, I actually find malls kind of amusing. They are full of strange and stupid looking people to laugh at. Every store is overflowing with overpriced, meaningless bric-a-brac made by slave labor in the third world. Teenage rebellion is crystalized and sold. Non-conformists that conform. Most of the people are up to their necks in debt but they keep shopping. It's all so absurd, so diabolicly absurd that I really enjoy them.

To me, it is something like visiting a massive, poorly run primate zoo to look at all the clever and perplexing monkeys.

Of course, it helps if you have someone who feels the same way to walk through them with.

 

[granodemostasa]

Every time I visit the mall with a friend it turns into a discussion of whose school is more commercialized. The last real mall I visited was the West Covina mall. As we passed from one store to the next I would make comments about the absurdity of the styles, and my friend would say “You’re making fun of the way everyone at SC dresses.” I would say, “I know, it’s like that at Cal too.” Seriously, even the famous telegraph avenue has a Ritz camera, hot topic and gap! In any case, I walked out with two shirts and a pair of shoes; I intended to buy shoes but way over spent on a polo shirt. It’s a nice shirt, but I probably paid three times the cost only because of the tag it had on it. As for the shoes, they have been well used so no complaints there.
Coming from a real ghetto (Azusa CA), there is a tendency among my friends and myself to poke fun at American culture and consumerist tendencies; the mall has always provided a great stage for this wit to come out. In any case I don’t think a mall can really be considered ghetto, it’s strictly an American creation and therefore not isolated in any way.

 

[ricardo diaz]

Simple. If you live in Compton, you live in the Ghetto.

I like how the people wearing stupid Slipknot shirts try to stare me down in my No Doubt hoodie. It's pretty amusing.

I want and don't want an Apple store to open in our mall. If it did, I'd so get an application there.

"What expirience do you have with Macs?"
"I know that they're sexy... =\"
"Um."
"Steve Jobs is God."
"You're hired!"

 

[n00b]

I like how people wear band merchandise anyway. People should just get shirts that say "AUDIOSCROBBLER". That way people will know what musical tastes they have.

 

[ricardo diaz]

I got rid of my Audioscrobbler. I looked at the site and it's changed!



Only one other person was into the music that I was.

I don't know if I want to re-make an audioscrobbler.

 

[saturnine]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ricardo diaz Little girls being checked out by old men and LIKING it. It's so disturbing.

Guilty as charged

Teens dress way too sexy these days! I'm 22, and I caught myself checking out what later appeared to be a ~14 year old girl at a mall a few weeks ago.. That's just wrong..

Also, going to the mall makes me feel much older than I really am. I can't walk into Abercrombie/Hollister/HT/etc without feeling that I really don't belong here. Even the store employees were younger than I am. Now I feel like my parents did when I was young..

 

[shesmylovernow]

double post

 

[shesmylovernow]

You say scenesters suck, but look at it like this:

-Most of the people you label as "scenesters" probably don't fit into the "scenester" stereotype(s) that you and a few others have carved out in this thread. That's the problem with judging people based on your pre-exisiting stereotypes.

-"Scenesters" are part of a subculture; like many subcultures, they are ridiculed by those who are not part of the subculture. Do you really want to be that type of guy, or would you rather be a bigger person and just let them (and other subcultures -- be they potheads, goths, audiophiles . . .) be so long as they're not directly bothering you?

-"Scenesters," for my money, are more knowledgable/passionate of the arts, and as a result may in fact be incredibly interesting people to converse with, -- it's as integral to the subculture as the fashion trends or anything else -- although seeing as how they're all conforming non-conformists, they must all be reading the same Paluhniuk novels, watching the same Jarmusch films, and listening to the same Dylan records

.

And to be perfectly honest, I'm finding people who use the word "scenester" to be exponentially more annoying than the people on which they wax idiotic.

Just my two pence.

 

[blip]

I tend to agree on the scenester angle...

Conformist non-conformists are no worse than any other humanbeings. We're extremely social creations and use just about anything to symbolize group membership and cohesion. I think the issue is more the absurd irony of non-conformists that conform. Its an irony that I would guess many of your "scenesters" appreciate or, at least, should appreciate. They should be proud of it!

A conforming non-conformist is a sort of Camusian hero... Finding meaning in the struggle against the inevitable. They are all of the sisyphus-ian trope.

 

[shesmylovernow]

Quote:

Originally Posted by blip A conforming non-conformist is a sort of Camusian hero... Finding meaning in the struggle against the inevitable. They are all of the sisyphus-ian trope.

You just brought a smile to my face. Good stuff.

Anyway, I think most every non-conformist group could be called "conformist non-conformists" -- being part of any group or community naturally and inevitably stimulates and encourages some conformity.

 

[blip]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shesmylovernow You just brought a smile to my face. Good stuff. Anyway, I think most every non-conformist group could be called "conformist non-conformists" -- being part of any group or community naturally and inevitably stimulates and encourages some conformity.

Yeah, you've got it. The only real non-conformists are hermits with no social contact and sociopaths. Everyone else is, to one degree or another, part of a community which shapes their behavior and thoughts.

 

[ATAT]

Eh, to say that someone is part of a "community" is a flawed methodology to look at people .. by that token, hermits are "conforming" to hermit-hood and sociopaths are also conforming to some "other".. This nonconformity discussion is similar to Zizek's theory of surplus enjoyment .. how we fetishize some exotic "other" and turn resistance into a source of enjoyment (rather than change). Perhaps non-conformity is a "struggle against the inevitable" but they provide change to the norm...

Back on topic... Malls are bad not because they're filled with nonconformists, but because it turns nonconformity into surplus enjoyment.. i.e. resistance to be bought by cash at a clothing-store rather than an ideal.. The stereotypical mall outlined here is the reason why nonconformity turns into enjoyment.. it's not nonconformity that sucks, it's the capitalization of it.