“Increasingly since the 1960’s being hip in America has meant being nihilistic. How strange this would seem to the jazz musicians’ of the 1920’s and 1930’s, who invented hip. Back then hipness had been a celebration of individual freedom; now it required surrendering to groupthink, and a belief in the meaninglessness of human life.â€
Dean R. Koontz in One Door Away from Heaven
Does not caring make you hip, especially in intellectual circles?
Not at all. In fact, I see it more the other way around. I find that in intellectual circles, people are much more active in political and social participation in the world. There’s a lot more knowledge and care about what’s going on, what direction society is headed in, what to do about that, why it matters. If I see a lack of care, its in those community members who are ignorant and superficial. However, perhaps I do agree that materialism and superficiality are also “hip” - its hip to be like Paris Hilton - and she definitely wipes her non-existant ass with the world.