On Anachronism

The very use of the word “anachronistic” is probably an anachronism. The word itself feels outdated, created in a different time, out of place here with us today. Specifically, anachronism is “the error of placing a person or thing in a period to which he or it does not belong.” It’s like a cowboy from the Wild West suddenly appearing in New York City, looking for a spot to park his horse. This idea, or something like it, has been the basis for many motion pictures over the years, the most famous perhaps the Back to the Future series or Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. While these movies use time travel as the main means of disrupting beliefs about reality, anachronism doesn’t need science fiction to exist today. It has always been and will continue to be a thriving aspect of culture.

In the pursuit of “cool,” younger generations take it upon themselves to incorporate past styles into the style of today. Though this seems to pose no threat, such elements ripped from the past get their true meaning skewed. The nature of the old style, a style that genuinely meant something in the period it originated, devised out of a need to create it, is being distorted, watered-down, destroyed.

This idea is reminiscent of George Orwell’s “newspeak” in the novel 1984, in which history is being changed by a language which is slowly replacing and misrepresenting the old, until the new words bear no specific meaning in relation to that which they are referring. Consumer culture, much like newspeak, is a shape-shifting phenomenon; one can never be sure what it will tamper with, alter for its own purposes and discard.

The way that consumer culture is now able to commodify these styles impacts the problem exponentially. It is a monster consuming the individual. Attitudes, values and beliefs are no longer safe either. Something deemed “uncool” has no chance for survival. Whereas old cultural norms were passed down to fulfill a purpose or to teach people how to live, this new system of ransacking the past is destroying it. As a result, the world is becoming a place based on appearances and bunk morals. Can anything genuine survive? Can anything be considered genuine anymore?