Well, that is truly
a post-modernist expression that some ultra-modernists folks speak out loud –
every now and then.
I heard a
character in a movie speaking it last night while I was randomly shuffling channels.
Coffeehouse
bullshit catches your attention.
Because all that
has been in the name of ‘coffee culture’ or ‘coffeehouse culture’ is simply not
bullshit.
Coffeehouse
culture has its connotations and nuances, and it has its relevance to the
cultures in societies it has had its vibrant presence.
Historians say
the coffee culture (or the coffeehouse culture) originated in Turkey around 14th
Century and spread in many European countries. As UNESCO puts it – ‘where time
and space are consumed, only the bill is in the name of coffee’ – the coffeehouse
culture has had a great contribution in European political and cultural revolutions
– and in European Renaissance and Enlightenment.
Like it happens
even today, you pay for the space and time while sitting in a coffeehouse,
spending some quality time, or doing the routine networking. You easily end up
paying somewhat 10-20 US$ for two mugs
of coffee even in many not so uber cool Delhi outlets. Rationally thinking,
these price points are astronomically high for the product but you don’t feel
so because you know you are paying for the ‘time and space’ there.
Back then,
passing through years, and even now, coffeehouse culture has had that same
symbolism – obviously with era-specific modifications/adaptations. People may
argue that internet is threatening the discourse culture of coffeehouses.
Well, they miss
the point here – internet is reshaping the ‘public sphere’. Its most relevant
examples are ‘Arab Spring’, ‘The Occupy Movement’ and ‘massification of Guy
Fawkes’ masks in popular culture.
Not all the
debates, not all the coffeehouses back then were part of the lore. Same holds
true even today. Debates will find their coffeehouses (or their ‘public sphere’).
Willing folks will find their outlets.
Those who mattered
- stood out and spread. Those who will matter - and those who are willing to
matter – will initiate or join the conversation.
Internet has
made the exchanges faster and freer. Communication can begin anywhere and its
threads can be picked up from anywhere.
All this is not
some bullshit!
Obviously, it
has some crap quotient. But then that is an inevitable part of a commercial activity
where people’s time means money.
Today, the
coffeehouse culture is a global phenomenon in democratic countries across the globe
– and in countries where the ‘public sphere’ has been crushed – and is being
crushed.
Yes, expressivity
varies – but then, that is the rule of the game.
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/
