Authenticity With A Bullet

Four people were recently shot in an altercation outside a plaza in my hometown of Hamilton. According to one unnamed young man, "A lot of wannabe gangster kids hang out there. It probably started over something stupid." By "wannabe gangster kids" I'm positive the man meant kids with baggy jeans and clownishly oversized shirts, not men in crisp Italian suits with Tommy guns. The word gangster has now become synonymous with "gangsta," which is sad for sartorial reasons if nothing else.

The "wannabe" part of the sentence also struck me in this context. When does a "wannabe gangster kid" become a real gangster kid? Possibly when he shoots four people, which is likely the reason the shooter did it. Being called a gangster used to be an insult; the Nazi propaganda machine even referred to Churchill as a "gangster" and distributed pictures of him holding a tommy gun. Nowadays calling a political figure a gangster would probably win him the youth vote, if the youth who aspire to be gangsters voted.

Although I can't relate to most gangster values, the ideal of being "authentic" is universal. Some may desire to be called a gangster, but nobody wants to be called a wannabe. If being a gentleman was still an ideal in society, accusations of inauthentic gentlemanliness might lead to a duel. Now that being a gangster is an ideal, accusations of inauthentic gangsterism might lead to a drive-by shooting. Human nature hasn't changed; it's just that the societal ideal for authenticity has declined.

Of course postmodernists, authentic in their self-congratulatory inauthenticity, would say that I view the notion of "decline" from my own socially constructed value system. This is true. And when all the socially constructed value systems of old are deconstructed, the postmodern paradise--which is a void--will indeed triumph for one second before being filled by new, some would say grossly inferior value systems like gangsterism. When wannabe gangster kids shoot each other, they are saying in the boldest of terms that they want to be real; and postmodern irony has no real to offer them.

Whoever the anonymous shooter is, he has proven he's not a wannabe. He has lived up to his ideals, which demand tit-for-tat violence over any perceived disrespect. But for all the wannabes out there: is this really what you want to be? We all have the urge to kill sometimes, but isn't that what the army is for? At least by joining the army you would kill for a reason above petty personal disputes. Even killing for oil is surely a grander cause than killing because someone stared at your girlfriend too long. We all need values--nature abhors a vacuum and man even moreso--but aren't there better ways to be real?