Andrew McIntosh – On Leaving Scenes (Ineffectual Whinging)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ3reRUSJn4[🡕]
Recently reading about people who quit being vegan for various reasons got me thinking about the whole idea of abandoning previously deeply held values and ideals. It’s something that I think is a lot more common than maybe people realize.
I’m in the situation myself as I went vegan for a few years when I was younger, a long time ago now, but gave up after a while for no other reason that I just didn’t see the point in doing it anymore. Had a [unintelligible] kebab and haven’t looked back since. At the time I didn’t cop much shit from vegan mates either, which was a relief, but this was before the internet: apparently, people now who are known online as vegan who stopped being vegan cop a lot more grief these days, but that’s the nature of scenes in general. As I say it, scenes generally revolve around the hardcore of individuals who set the tone and keep the gates, surrounded by a larger group of people who simply copy the example set by the hardcore, and get through those motions until at whatever time they become one of the hardcore or, more invariably, drift off out of disinterest; or just as likely, being forced out by the inevitable clashes and ruptures that happen in scenes, especially when they start getting bigger.
People in the hardcore can turn two, of course, and they usually get the most attention for, and invariably cop the most abuse from [unintelligible] comrades. I remember when I got sick of the anarchist scene I was involved with, and had a long anti-honeymoon period in which I just placed all my frustrations onto anarchism and the scenes it has. It’s sort of a venting getting-it-out-of-your-system thing, but it can also go too far and become almost like a replacement identity if you’re not too careful.
Anyway, I remember thinking about it and realizing nearly everyone’s your comrade but hardly anyone’s your friend; which is usually the mentality after all: a scene is just a group of otherwise disparate people who are united only in ideals. Of course it stands to reason that such people can’t always like each other and that you should be expected to, but what they don’t tell you is it’s also inevitable you’ll end up with people that can’t stand you and vice versa. The fallout can be pretty hard.
But that’s the thing: with scenes, it’s the ideals first, not the people. People become mere faculties for the ideals, which is bizarre because all ideals only come from people. But scenes thus tend to act as if the ideals they live by and promote are like divine commandments handed down from on high. The religious impulse in people comes out in all sort of ways, not just extensive religions. It’s why from an outsider’s point of view a lot of scenes look and act like not so much more than cults.
I’ve been involved in different scenes, from music scenes to ideological scenes, and I’ve noticed more or less the same patterns apply. Scenes, I think, can be useful in meeting people with similar ideas, which is important, but when they ossify into things in themselves – that is, when the scene becomes more important than the people in it, that’s when it’s time to leave ’em. In fact, I think it’d be a good idea to keep them at arm’s length. It’s perfectly natural for such things to form and that can be good for some people, so there’s no need to denounce them per se, but they can and often do become ghettos and echo chambers without any real intellectual input or output, just repeated slogans going over old arguments until the whole thing wears down.
When people leave scenes they can be seen as weak, not serious in the first place, not taken seriously anymore. That’s something people who get out of whatever it was they are into have to cope. I know I’d rather be seen as a weak trader by people who sell projection of themselves into the world as a chosen constructed cliché, rather than people whose only expectation of you is that you’d be decent and civil with them.