Re:Hacker’s Manifesto (1986)
by euske on Friday October 25, 2019 @02:09AM
(#21352332)
Maybe because I grew up in a different background (80s and 90s in Japan), but I always found the "Hacker" culture bizarre. What's with their "underground" theme, after all? Black backgrounds and skull figures and that kind of stuff. Their attitude is pretty much the same as the locker-room culture, which isn't cool either. Gangs and pirates (and ninjas and yakuzas for that matter) were never considered "cool" among techy people in Japan, and I had a trouble understanding their taste.
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I think the idolizing of "underground" themes in the hacker subculture had a lot to do with the surrounding American culture, of that era and even further back to its origins. The entertainment industry, like Hollywood films, glorify the outlaw, the rebels, from Star Wars to the Wild West, the "counter-culture", rock music, punk, heavy metal.. That climate influenced generations of adolescents, many of whom never grew out of it, carrying these values into adulthood. It spread around the world too.
This influence can clearly be seen in the startup scene, at least in earlier days: jock/locker-room culture, rebellious and "disruptive", seeing a company as a gang of pirates.. It's very American - as one of them myself, I love this attitude in some ways, but, having lived in a few other cultures, I also understand that it has aspects of teenagers' mentality and behavior.
I can relate - the movie Wargames was ultimate cool to me when I was a kid, not "Hackers". Though I cringe-loved Hackers too.
Just out of curiosity, what was considered cool?