-Style-

"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months." -Oscar Wilde

This is a chosen quote from a book I am reading on Snobbery. Specifically, "Snobbery : the American version." Joseph Epstein. Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2002.

I've often held a very special contempt for fashion in general and those seemingly overcome by it. What a waste of priorities. Want a cloak for your insecurity? Reinforce the superficiality of the populace by participating. There is the temptation to grease the wheels to success by paying the price of admission, be it a suit and tie at the job interview, or the proper tattoo at a biker-bar. Benedict Monk and his fellow anti-fashionists (authentic and original members of the punk movement, devoted ad busters, etc.) are loathe to participate in any fashion endeavor if they can help it.

We try hard to participate by not participating, and we succeed in the most visible area, competitive full-contact shopping. (Nice though it is to hear the misplaced glee of MPR's Marketplace on Friday. "So, are the stores reeling from all those people opting to buy nothing today? Ha-Ha! That'll teach those Stupid Pot-smoking Granola Heads. Back to you, David.")

How frustrating, then, when Epstein points out something I've suspected for a long time: anti-fashion intellectuals and counter-culturists engage in another form of snobbery. That superior feeling is always there, our closest companion when the chips are down.

The opposite of snobbery is snobbery with awareness.

Snobbery with awareness is as good as snobbery gets.