Wake Up Nerd Culture, You're A Sham

(one quick note, this is in no way a response to Elfarmy's recent post, as I've been planning on writing this for days)

"I think when people talk about nerdiness what they're really talking about are smart people who are trying to think hard about the world. And I don't think that's an insult, I think that's a great thing."
---John Green

I have spoken very often to friends of mine(and nowhere near enough on this blog) about what I like to call "country club mentality". Country Club Mentality, as I define it, is when you decide that whatever religion or country or state or church or group you happen to be part of is the best because it's the best and only people who are part of whatever it is you are part of are great people. "God Bless The USA" "Only Christians Go To Heaven" "When people talk about nerdiness what they're really talking about are smart people who are trying to think hard about the world" Ectera Ectera

I have....problems with this mindset and, in fact, I view it as the cause of a great many of our society's problems. John Lydon(or Johnny Rotten as he used to be called) once said that "National Pride Leads To War And Hate, Nothing Else, Planet Earth All The Way"(you'll be seeing that quote again) and while I don't 100% agree with that I certainly agree with it to a point.

And now we come to the "Nerd Movement" and where I start alienating a great many of my readers. It has become cool to be uncool. People are changing who they are so as to appear that they refuse to change who they are. Not Fitting in has become the new fitting in. And I have had enough of it.

A large number of people of my generation have decided that they are nerds and, because they are nerds, they must like certain things. All these so called nerds love John Green, Youtube Based Musicians, and Joss Whedon. They all do, all of them. When every member of a group loves the same things you don't have a group of people who are outcasts you have a fraternity.

That John Green quote is one of the finest examples of CCM(Country Club Mindset) that I have ever read. All nerds like to think intelligently about the world and that's the defining characteristic of the group? Really? To me that is not only ludicrous but offensive. Jocks can be just as smart and think just as hard about the world as nerds. Geeks, Punk Rockers, Emos, they can all be smart and think about the world. And someone who has as much sway with as many people as John Green has should know better than to play into age old stereotypes. He should have known better.

In the day of yore everyone agreed that Kings and Queens had the right to rule because God gave them the right to rule. They ruled because they were supposed to rule. We use almost the exact same logic today. Nerds are the best, because they're the smartest. Why are they the smartest? Because they're nerds. Logicians call that a circular argument and is a logical fallacy. But that is the thought process that CCM is based on. We're the best because we're the freaking best. USA USA, Won't you be a nerdfighter like me?

I am a firm believer in being diverse. Just because I listen to Punk Rock doesn't mean that I can't listen to showtunes. I like punk and I like showtunes and if you have a problem with that, that's your problem. Just because I watch the occasionally reality show doesn't mean I can't enjoy Doctor Who or Parks and Recreation or The West Wing. Just because I love Inception doesn't mean I can't love Frost/Nixon or True Grit. I am a firm believer in being a cultural omnivore(a term taken from one Linda Holmes on NPRs Monkey See.) When you devote yourself entirely to one thing or one style or one genre you miss out on all this awesome stuff in different styles and genres. That's why the argument "Oh Reading is so awesome, way better than watching that stupid television" strikes me as being very uniformed. Books are a medium and television is a medium, to say that one is better than the other just because some things created in the other are garbage is silly. Have there been mind-numbingly stupid tv shows? Yes, but have you read some of the YA books being published today?

Every medium, every group, ever organization has merits and disadvantages, which is why being exclusively in one group or organization or medium is never a good idea. Openness creates diversity and diversity is where greatness comes from.

I don't see the point in being in a group in which EVERYONE thinks the same things. Walk up to almost any nerdfighter and ask them their opinion of "Once More With Feeling" and they will, almost to a man, rave about it till the cows come home. Where are the nay sayers? Where is the independent thought? It, to me, is the same as when Christians identify themselves first and foremost as Christians. They listen to Christian music, watch Kirk Cameron Movies, and read inspirational books they are closing themselves off to the world and Nerds are doing the exact same thing. And it makes me mad.