Taste and Aesthetics. Being Basic and Normcore.

I think get along fairly well with my JD classmates despite a glaringly large generation gap. I actually said to a classmate that if I had a shotgun wedding when I was in JC, my kid would be her age, Maybe they treat me like a insane cousin or uncle that they can't seem to avoid on a family gathering. I like to ask questions in class like what if two people in a contract hypothetical case are lovers or whether consent can be withdrawn halfway during sexual intercourse just prior to male orgasm.

The generation gap becomes really magnified when I attend a lecture with the LLB kids. In those classes, I feel like a Singaporean Bill Crosby. Subconsciously,  like many older men, I really want to brow-beat the See-Gee-Nahs for the incoherent way they speak and their strange appearance. In the end I restrain myself because some of these kids are my seniors in Law School and may even end up coaching me for Moots. And of course, I should not pass judgment across generations, our struggles are quite different.

I actually feel ashamed to admit that the one thing which cheeses me off is the "SMU Smile". What happened to the angst, anomie and the general lack of confidence of an undergraduate ? Kids in my days have a lot of anxieties, how to get a job, how to get laid in a hostel and how to pay off the study loan, SMU undergraduates have this uncanny ability to project an inner sense of self confidence that I think has become the hallmark of the SMU brand which everyone else would either love or hate.

Today's article is about class anxiety. Buzzfeed has a really awesome article which talks about labelling someone as "basic" as a way to demonstrate their superiority in taste and class. In one lecture with the LLB folks, the lecturer picked on this kid because he wore an Abercrombie T-shirt. This is one brand I would never associate myself with. ( Unless it's to be a sole distributor )

After reading this article, I actually felt funny because I consider myself as having a taste beneath what would be considered basic in Singapore. After analyzing my personal taste and aesthetic, a friend concluded that I actually belong to a category called Normcore. It is a conscious striving to bland in taste and dress.

Being basic in Singapore is as follows :

1. You shop at NTUC Fairprice.
2. Eat in a foodcourt.
3. Buy clothes from Forever 21 or Mango if you are woman. For a guy, maybe G2000 or Giordano.
4. Drive a Toyota.
5. One pair of decent does like Rockport maybe.

I propose that investors should try to live a live below that level of "Basic" to reach financial goals.

1. Shop at Value$ or Sheng Siong.
2. Eat at Kopitiam or hawker centre whenever possible. 
3. I wear and love Goldlion shirts although I am slowing wearing some Uniqlo to keep up with the times. A Gen-X uncle brand. Boomers wear CYC or 3 Rifles. ( No SPG will talk to you and no one will ask you whether you are gay if you wear these brands )
4. A weekend Hyundai which I don't drive because I take public transport.
5. Bata shoes.

Of course, perhaps at the end of the day, in class anxious Singapore we can easily afford to find other areas to be complete snobs at. Done properly, it will not make you a jerk and can protect your self esteem from the consumerist types around you.

My weapon of choice is in the books I read. An expression of superiority coming from appearance is quite shallow and with available credit, anyone can look good. I am delighted by conversation on the works of Lawrence Freedman,  Steven Pinker, Thomas Piketty or perhaps Martin Seligman.

Of course, snobbery being snobbery, some books must be excluded from the club.  I am openly contemptuous of folks who read and wax lyrical about the works by Dr. Phil, Paul Coelho, John Gray or Rhonda Byrnes.

This is stupidity of the highest order.

( In case you are wondering, I did read most of their works to figure out how to make books sell. )