part of the reason i’m super excited to travel this fall is that i know being outside my own culture will give me a chance to really see my own life, and own self, from an entirely different perspective. while some Americans go abroad and end up comparatively loathing American culture (and end up ex-pats), most start to really appreciate it, which is something i think i really need (perspective shift).

it’s not that i don’t totally love and appreciate SF and my subculture. i do i do i do i do. it’s that it gets hard to see the forest for the trees after a while, and it’s so, so easy to be jaded, especially when being jaded is cool.

I’m at the tail-end of a 4.5 month trip trough southern africa and southeast asia so naturally I’ve been thinking about culture a lot, and also specifically the many various san francisco subcultures and how they fit into the world.

if anything I think traveling has validated the idea of subculture to me more than ever. I have been jaded about burners/ravers/hipsters/*insertgrouphere* but I don’t see how our attempts at creating communities with specific ideologies, music, and style preferences should be considered somehow less valid than culture that is based around religion or family. should it not be considered truly “real” because we are white (hmm… guilt)? if anything, the main real criticism I could see is that there is a lack of timelessness in western subcultures. they come and go in a decade for the most part, whereas the culture of a country or tribal group is constantly shifting (there is no such thing as pure culture), but at a much slower rate.

having a set of narrower choices to refer to for clothing, music, event preferences, rituals, beliefs, goals goes along with any culture, but I think we are uniquely uncomfortable with it because we have always been told to be Unique and Independent… lt’s so American really, nobody else in the world works so hard to be so different.

the longer I am in asia the more uncomfortable I feel with my own western clothes and attitudes. besides just being much larger physically, us whiteys also dress way sluttier (exception: thailand) and generally have a lot less tact and grace. I feel uncomfortable walking around in a tank top and mid-length skirt because it feels too revealing compared to what most of the women around here are wearing. in time 99% of people will probably start to meld to whatever it is their surroundings are and whatever is available to them economically. whenever my social groups shift my clothes shift as well. it’s hard to help really, you see what’s around you and pick what you like from that. and why should it matter? why is it so damn important for us to be entirely unique in this world of 6 billion people. the various tribes and cultures I have seen on this trip are all very different but also have a lot of commonalities, and I think western culture is the same way. culture never exists in a vacuum because humans don’t exist in a vacuum.

okay back to bali read my blog for more..