Yuppies, Fuck Off

Like any neologism that enters our popular consciousness, the meaning of the word ‘yuppie’ has been much misconstrued. Many people think of the term as being synonymous with ‘baby boomer’, which refers to a particular generation most of whom were already too old to fit the ‘young upwardly mobile professional’ demographic for which the y-word was coined a couple decades back. Others think of the concept as being a relic of the 80s, with no relevance to today's society.

These misconceptions both stem from a failure to realize that for every professional that grows into settled middle age, there is a brand new graduate waiting to take his/her place as a conspicuous consumer. With the emergence of the ‘internet economy’, the world - or at least the West Coast of North America - seems to be infested with the buggers.

I flinch from attacking this class of people too much, mainly because of the analysis of anti-yuppie rhetoric offered in Whit Stillman's movie The Last Days of Disco. Also, I fear that a few of my friends may be borderline cases. But then I think back to an incident I witnessed in a store recently and my inhibitions just fall away.

The incident in question involved a well-dressed young woman who made a phone call whilst buying a CD. Let's get this straight, she didn't take a call or continue a call, she made the call - from dialing to hang-up, the whole nine yards, baby. The fact that this woman thought her call was more important than showing some common courtesy to a lowly service industry worker is both a perfect illustration and a damning indictment of the yuppie attitude to life.

This poisonous attitude flows from a lethal cocktail of arrogance and ignorance. What is most disturbing about it is that in an allegedly meritocratic society, it is the arrogant and ignorant who are cutting the deals, winning the game. Capitalism claims to reward the best or, at least, the strongest but really the bulk of those who reap its rewards are malicious idiots. They may be mere pawns of The Man but their smug complicity in an evil and outdated socioeconomic system is enough to deserve the admonishment: Yuppies! Fuck off!. -- Sam