In praise of hipster farmers

New York City is crawling with hipsters.  Particularly Brooklyn and the Lower East Side.  You can spot a hipster by his plaid shirts, ironic Civil War-era mustachio, ironic Pabst Blue Ribbon, ironic skinny jeans, ironic one-speed bikes, vintage anything, v-neck anything, ironic glasses, ironic everything.  For a fuller treatment, see Hipsters: The Dead End of Western Civilization.  Or for visual examples, check out Look at This F*&@ing Hipster (language and frightening images).

Over the past few years, there has been a growing trend for hipsters to work on farms.  This past weekend I picked up half a steer from Glynwood -- and I've never seen such fashion forward farmhands before.  (Fashion forward means everything is old and ironic, i.e., chosen precisely because it is not fashionable.  You can imagine Christmas dinner on the farm, when everyone would be wearing their ugliest Christmas sweaters.)  It was like I walked into the back room of an obscure Williamsburg bar.  As the NYT put it a couple years ago: "Their Carhartts are no longer ironic. Now they have real dirt on them."  Yes, but their Carhartts are still a size too tight, and are rolled up at the ankle to reveal that mainstay of farming footwear: the Converse All-Star.  No one is there to admire your fashion, hipster farmhand.  Except your biggest fan and critic: your own ironic conscience.

Over the past 5 years, spots working on a small or sustainable farms have become very hard to get.  It's the trendy thing to do.  And you know what?  Great.  I like to make fun of hipsters and ironically club them over the head with blunt objects (since I'm a modern caveman) -- but I'm glad to see them finding a sense of purpose.  Purpose is the antidote to irony and debilitating self-awareness.  And being entrepreneurial and building the alternative is a better way to create the future than standing on the sidelines and writing ironic poems lamenting commercialism and modernity.

So here's to you hipster farmhand.  And here's to the day when you show up for work not caring what you look like.

(If you have any pictures of hipster farmers, please send them in.)