Adbusters had an article recently that looked into the May ‘68 riots in Paris. The article in and of itself was quite interesting but for me the part that caused me to wonder out loud, was when the author mentioned how striking it was that the individuals in an accompanying photograph really believed in what they were doing. And that’s when it hit me…we are so hungry to be apart of something that to suggest participation signifies belief is a tad bit presumptuous. Or better yet, our longing to participate in anything neither cements our love for or fidelity to any one cause. I have been to several ‘events’ where a collective of discordant youths publicly expressed their philosophical outrage at a system. Does that make me a believer? Did i share a collective belief?
In looking at the above photo, are we to gather that the beliefs of the two individuals in the foreground are the same, or at least similar? For how long? The guy to the left, holding the stick, could’ve had a bad day with his parents; recently found out that his student loans had been denied; or that his boyfriend just broke up with him and therefore decided to go on a rampage — low-and-behold, there happened to be this very convenient paradigmatic riot happening right outside his flat. oh how fortuitous!! let’s go bust up that VW.
Now the point I’m trying to make here, in a not so lucid fashion, is how difficult the journey of belief really is. To merely suggest the internal wiring of someone based on collective involvement means shit. And in fact, ones involvement in anything is most likely based on something akin to a contact high (yes, of the drug induced variety). On some level, we yearn to be apart of something, so once we witness a certain happening that fits into this ‘ideal’ situation we have a tendency to mirror the other participants. It’s interesting, because we seem to do this quite often. Instead of looking like the odd man out so to speak, we subsequently become engendered with feelings, affectations, and linguistic assimilation’s that would suggest that we have a greater knowledge of this belief than we actually have. But here’s the kicker, once we’ve ascribed to ourselves a certain belief system complete with affectation, we then seek to understand it and make it our own. It’s like some kid who watched North Shore for the first time in the ’80’s and thus begins to identify with the attributes associated with surf culture only to follow it up with learning how to surf.
But what happens if after investing so much of our time in ‘creating’ our identity, we come to realize that the outward image is far more difficult to believe in after we truly delve into what ever substantive quality lies beneath?
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