Contentment

A recent conversation with Pat got me to concentrate some thoughts and feelings on the topic of the West Island, its culture (or lack thereof), and social elements. If there is one word that could accurately describe the West Island microsociety, and especially teens, it would be contentment. The social norm is that everyone lives with their middle-class parents. It's no surprise that the majority of the people who live there end up mooching off the system. Give a poor person a shot at a good education and they'll try their hardest (well...to a certain extent). So many West Islanders end up stopping school after High School, or are perpetually in adult school or changing programs in CEGEP, at the expense of the government and taxpayers.

Now, this culture of contentment is best looked at from the perspective of hobbies and interests. There is a type of mainstream culture in just about everything. In music, cinema, gaming, literature, whatever. The main problem with most people in the West Island is that few people actually have hobbies or interests. Instead, they hang around the mall, get drunk, enjoy the "prestige" of going downtown, "chillin'", and other random crap. The West Island is a wasteland of people who are sustained by their well-off parents and, at best, minimum wage jobs which is caused by a culture their parents have created, though I won't elaborate on that too much. All this to say that it creates a culture of young people who have no direction and don't seek one.

When I was living there, it never ceased to amaze me that, when meeting new people, and engaging in a random bullshit conversation, I'd always be curious to know if the person had any interests or hobbies. The standard conversation is:

-Uhhh....what do you mean?
-You know. What do you do in your spare time? Any hobbies or interests?
-You know, hang out with friends and stuff...I guess.....just chill...

My personal favourite is when someone tells me they listen to "every kind of music, nothing specific....except country!". Really? Then I guess you're well-versed in Gentle Giant's music? Do you listen to any music that wasn't a top 20 chart hit? Do you listen to anything other than mainstream rap, hip-hop, rock, and pop, past and present?

Everyone does things in their spare time, of course, but it is the level of interest and commitment that make it actually a constructive use of time. This is relevant to any form of artistic expression, but cinema is the one that I know best, so I'll use that analogy. You have films that are created for the masses, and they are created specifically with the goal of appealing to Mr. Average Joe's needs in order to clean out his pockets. On the flip side, you have other films which are at a higher level but can't be appreciated by everyone.

Contentment comes in precisely because it is the conscious unwillingness to jump to the second level either because it requires too much effort, or people see no need or interest. This is fine, as not everyone will be interested in everything. Just as I haven't developed an interest in medieval Russian fiction, many will not care for the films of Andrzej Wajda or Ingmar Bergman. The problem with 99% of the people I have met in the West Island is that people are content with the status quo in every possible area. Nobody questions anything and nobody seeks to improve. It is precisely the quest for something a little better than the mainstream that makes a person unique. Few people look at what is popular and ask to themselves: "Is this the best that is available? Can this be improved on in any way?". People therefore are just average in every possible way.

Finally, one of the consequences of this culture of contentment is communication problems. More specifically, for people who do have hobbies and interests of some kind. I often end up getting the feeling that there's nothing I can learn from a person, so it's almost worthless talking to them. It becomes uninteresting for me. I have spoken to some others and they also understand this phenomena. When I start talking to a person, it's clear that there's always a lot of filler and bullshit in a conversation, and this is fine and normal. After a while, though, I begin to ask myself: "OK, we're both fucking adults, do you want to talk about something a little concrete? Something with a bit of substance?"

In the end, it comes down to the fact that people want to conform to a certain norm. They want to be told what to like so that they can easily blend in. I guess people are insecure about things in this way. When I tell people I did a lot of urban exploration this summer and that it opened my eyes to alot of things, the reaction I often get is "That's weird..." or "Why?". It's strange because it's outside the status quo, and that is an anomaly in the West Island. The problem of contentment isn't specific to that region, but it seems especially prevalent in suburbia, and especially, from what I know, in the West Island.