Grumpy Bulldog vs. The Rebels

Doom & Gloom Week continues with some thoughts inspired by watching "Ghost World" and also hanging out too much at Starbucks and Panera Bread.  Also except for this sentence the post will be free of Star Wars references, though I bet that's the first thing you thought of when you saw the title.  OK, fine, here's a little Star Wars mood music to go with the post:

So anyway, last week I watched "Ghost World" because when I put it near the top of my queue I thought there would be actual ghosts in it and it was near Halloween time.  Turns out there aren't real ghosts in it, at least I don't think so.  I'm a little confused about the bus at the end, though.

Anyway, most of the story follows Enid, who graduates high school and finds her cynical rebellious lifestyle that worked in high school isn't really fit for the real world.  Because in the real world you can't make fun of the customers (to their faces) and playing dirty tricks can wind up hurting yourself as much as anyone else.  It's much better to be like Enid's friend (I forget her name but she was played by Scarlett Johannson, whose name I can never spell and don't feel like looking up because if I looked anything up it'd be the character name.  Got it?) and just conform with society by getting a crappy job and finding a place to live and so forth.

At one point in the movie Enid dyes her hair green and goes out in a whole punk outfit.  At the comic book store she frequents, though, the proprietors basically laugh her out of the place.  And actually when I see real people who are going around with hair dyed funny colors or in the whole Goth look, I get a good laugh out of it.  Because honestly, it's pathetic.  Because like Enid it's really a desperate attempt to show society that you don't care about society.  Well really if you didn't care about what society thinks then you'd dress any old way you want without feeling the need to dress like you're thumbing your nose at society.

In other words, you could be like me!  I wear a combination of whatever is comfortable/whatever is clean.  Mostly on weekends I wear polos or plain T-shirts.  No phony ironic messages or stupid Ed Hardy crap or whatever.  Because that's what's comfortable for me.  If I could I'd wear it to work too but for some reason we have to wear ties even though A)We don't work with clients and B)Women aren't required to wear anything fancy.  Anyway, the point is I don't care what society thinks of my clothes; I just care about what I think and screw everyone else.  And honestly I wouldn't wear leather pants or chains in my nose or dye my hair purple because that sounds uncomfortable and like too much effort.  Because really my clothes aren't a statement; they're just something to cover my big fat body.  (If I really wanted to freak people out I'd get nekkid.)

Also in cases like Enid or Juno (the movie character, not my niece) or Daria (if you ever watched the MTV show in the later '90s) is that the rebellion isn't so much about making a point but because they can't really fit in with the cool kids.  They aren't pretty enough or rich enough or perky enough so they say, "Yeah, well, screw you!  I don't need that anyway because you people suck!"  Being a Grumpy Bulldog I would agree that a lot of people do suck.  As we've already covered, a lot of society sucks.  But would I change my tune if like in some stupid teen movie I could get a makeover that would let me be one of the cool people?  Absolutely!  For that matter, if I got a Big Six publishing deal, would I shut this blog down and start raving about how great the industry is?  In a heartbeat!  If you gave all those Occupy people a billion dollars, would they still sti around tents protesting corporate greed?  Hell no!  Because really a lot of our rebelling against society, against the norm, is because we want to fit in but when we can't, we decide rebellion is the next best thing.

You know a good literary example:  Frankenstein.  Not the guy but his monster.  The monster spends months (most of a year really) spying on this poor family in Germany, learning English and how to act and all that stuff.  then he decides the time has come to reveal himself to them.  But of course they hate and fear him because he looks like a monster.  So what does he do then?  Burns their house down and then sets out to destroy his creator unless his creator will make him a bride.

For the most part, though, this kind of rebellion is benign.  Except for people who join gangs or start doing drugs or drinking or something like that.  That's when things get ugly.

But really there's no point trying to rebel by dyeing your hair or wearing something stupid and uncomfortable.  The best way to rebel is just to be yourself.