Semiotic Elasticity

Notice how the tribal aspiration to a counter-cultural identity generates corporeal branding and literal inscriptions of membership and participation. The further “out” from the center a person travels or seeks to exist, the more tightly are they bound by a need for self-conscious labelling and symbolic group identification. There is in essence no true “outside” or inalienable “counter” culture; everything exists on some interior surface, warped and twisted back upon and through itself; a spectrum and range of values across a curved surface and incomplete logical system of complex symbolic self-reference. Aesthetics and style are valid and in any specific context might possess intrinsic value but they are never really ever “anti-” anything.