Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Return to a Golden Age

"Society is indeed a contract. It is a partnership . . . not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born." - Edmund Burke

When people start looking to the past, you know there is something wrong with the present, which means things are going to change a lot in the future.

One of my friends is sort of stuck in the '60s - California, the Beach Boys, '32 Ford Deuce Coupes. James Bond. Derek Flint. Matt Helm.

His house is even decorated in the '60s style.

He's looking to a happier, more innocent time, before the destructive horror of multiculturalism, before Cosmodemonic Transnational Corporations attempting to steal everything in sight, before the government became loaded with traitors, before the economy turned into a catastrophe, before the repulsive and degraded mass culture.

They are looking for importance, meaning, and community, which everyone must have. If the current culture sucks, you have to withdraw as much as possible and create your own. Use the best you can find.

I recently ran across a culture known as the Rockabillies. I empathize with them. These people are a tribe with a shared culture - not a fake granfaloon one.

This article is from the Mail Online and is by Olivia Fleming. I strongly advise you to click on the link and look at the wonderful photographs by Jennifer Greenburg.


"It may be 2014 to the rest of us, but for the subjects in Jennifer Greenburg’s photographs, it is still 1951.

"The assistant professor of photography at Indiana University Northwest has been photographing America's Rockabilly community for more than ten years; people that not only dress like it’s the Fifties, but also drive perfectly preserved Cadillacs and decorate their homes with furniture to rival the retro sets of Mad Men.

"'At first I thought the culture was about fashion,' the 36-year-old photographer told MailOnline. 'Then I realized it was much, much, more than that. I realized that this was a culture of people who functioned as a community.'

"Jennifer Greenburg, the assistant professor of photography at Indiana University Northwest, has been photographing America's Rockabilly community for ten years.

"From bankers and laborers to teachers and doctors, Ms Greenburg says there is 'not just one type of person who joins the Rockabilly community'.

"'Some participants make their living inside the culture, but most have the same gamut of jobs that all people have. There is no trend,' she explained. 'Some dress at work to blend into the generally culture, some do not. Some have a hybrid way of dressing that is just toned down and not necessarily identifiable as 1950’s.'

"She points out that, after all, fashion has not radically changed that much in the last 65 years. 'A pencil skirt now is the same as a pencil skirt from the 1950’s. The only difference is the one you buy now was probably made in China, and won’t last three washings.'

"It is this affinity for quality that Ms Greenburg believes the Rockabilly community, which spans across pockets of people in almost every city, is most attracted to: the 'joyous' design and 'beautiful' functionality of furniture, clothing and ephemera of the Fifties.

"'The middle of the 20th Century in the United States was a time when design was in its heyday,' she said. 'Everything American’s owned at that time was designed, and made by, an industrial designer who labored over not only how things should function, but also, over how things should look.

"The Rockabilly community, filled with pockets of people from cities across America, not only dress like it's the Fifties, but also drive perfectly preserved Cadillacs and decorate their homes with furniture to rival the retro sets of Mad Men.

"'Then I realized it was much, much, more than that. I realized that this was a culture of people who functioned as a community'

"'We did not have a disposable 'Made in China' culture like we do now. When you bought a toaster, it worked for decades, and it looked good just as long. If it broke, you had it repaired. You did not simply toss it into a landfill and head out to a big box store to buy another. . . Yes, even the toaster was joyous in its design.'

"The community of people Ms Greenburg has documented, she believes, usually have a desire for this kind of joyousness that was lost in the 21st Century. 'Happiness, I believe, is everyone’s primary full-time job. And living a life that resembles, visually, the 1950’s helps make that just a little easier,' she said.

"From re-wiring a lamp, to re-sewing the seams of a Fifties cocktail dress, Ms Greenburg added that most true participants of the culture are skilled at repairing and restoring most of their possessions.

"'It is not as easy as going down to the shopping center and buying 'a look' off the rack,' she said. 'The Rockabillies take preservation into account as they sculpt their existence. And the culture existed long before it was commonplace to 'recycle.'

"'Some participants make their living inside the culture, but most have the same gamut of jobs that all people have. There is no trend,' she explained. 'Some dress at work to blend into the generally culture, some do not. Some have a hybrid way of dressing that is just toned down and not necessarily identifiable as 1950's'

"The children growing up inside of the Rockabilly culture, including the boy in the cowboy getup, seem to love their eccentric lifestyle. 'They don¿t usually like Justin Beiber, which actually, gives them a lot of cache among their peers,'

"Ms Greenburg, who has collected vintage clothing and jewelry since she was a child, said she started the project because she is 'as much of a participant in this culture as in any culture'.

"'When I became an adult I started running into young people who liked the same things that I like,' she said. 'At first I thought it was just about fashion. Then I dug deeper and started to discover how much more of a subculture it was.'

"She added that she took the time to get to really know the people in the Rockabilly community before she began photographing them.

"'I am friendly, and I am not a tourist in this world. So I began to meet people and get to know them. And that’s how the work happened,' she explained. 'It’s also why it took ten years to work on. I felt that a trust and mutual understanding between myself and the person in front of the lens was essential. And that is why the images are successful -- that trust.'

"'I realized what a special and lovely thing I found myself a part of,' she said. 'I have a friend in every city in America that I can call today and go visit tomorrow. That friend will open up his door to me, and, help me with anything that I need -- a laugh, a drink of water, a shoulder to cry on -- just like only the best of friends do.'"


About 22 years ago I was walking by a van with four teenage girls in it. They were about 16, and the van was bouncing up and down. They were listening to this song, which was popular before they were born.

In many ways I am an ArcheoFuturist - you take the best of the past and wed it to the technology of the future. Like that Crosby radio above.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

My parents are immigrants and they show this same hospitality to people from my original nationality. I was working in a neuro laboratory and two exchange students came to work there for a while, who were from my parent's country. When I told my parents this, they immediately invited them over to stay for a few days, fed them every meal possible, showed them hospitality and made their time here pleasurable. For no other fact than they were of the same nationality, same culture.

I suspect the reason modern Americans don't have this is because of multiculturalism. Immigration only works in small amounts, and where the immigrated populous assimilates into the country. There is no American "tribe" so to speak.

People harp on racism, but they don't understand racism is one aspect of the tribal system. When you destroy the tribal system in the name of destroying racism, you also destroy the hospitality, steal their culture, take away that group identity that makes living others in society not merely an obligation, but a joy. I myself feel this and I am the son of an immigrant. I can only imagine how the long ingrained western european Americans feel.

I saw it in my highschool. Each person sat at a table of the group of their own nationality! Chinese sat with chinese, korean with korean, african with african, hispanic with hispanic. Of course they mingled among others once in a while, but their main groups of friends tended to be of the same country or language. There is a legitimate joy that comes out with fraternizing with fellow countrymen/women and because of political correctness this has been taken out of white people in particular.

To call America a melting pot is a mistake, it is more like a schizophrenic mind possessed by different cultures fighting to define what is, or isn't American, what is OK to do, and what is not OK to do.

I don't assume America is going to collapse because of multicultural stress like so many doomsayers do. But I think it will take on a more Brazilian or South American cultural model. Neighborhoods and enclaves will form dividing race and class, in essence creating pseudo states within states. Most of it will be ghetto, slums, favellas, with small patches of prosperity. If you cannot even identify with your fellow countrymen, no prosperous extensive country can be created. No amount of cultural teaching or brainwash can eliminate the feelings you get when you meet someone of your own motherland, who speaks your tongue and shares in your customs and experiences.

Robert What? said...

Very pithy article and comment. Yes, multiculturalism has destroyed the American sense of community, and has also helped destroy the Black lower-middle class who have mostly fallen into the Black underclass. One question I want to put out there is: who benefits from this multicultural tsunami? Certainly not the middle class (black or white). I know it helps many government bureaucrats keep their high paid, do nothing jobs. But is that enough to keep the MC train on the rails? Clearly some very powerful forces reap huge benefits from this MC nightmare, but who?

ARoss said...

The ladies fashion and the home accessories look more late 50's/60's as the colored fake plants were more of a hippie fad than anything.

Unknown said...

There is nothing "hippie" about any of their culture. What they are is a combination of 50's and 60's.

If it was "hippie" there would have been beanbag chairs, lava lamps and black light posters.

The hippies partly evolved from the beatniks of the '50s. Think Maynard G. Krebs for a TV portray of a beatnik.