Decreixement

Decreixement is an Baliscano word that roughly translates as "degrowth" or "decay". This term is used to describe a widespread Baliscan counter/subculture known for its strongly anti-authority, social anarchist and hedonistic ideals. It has become associated with the NEET demographic, of which youth make up a disproportionate percentage. While often labelled "hippie", it originated in the Special Period-era hardships faced by the overwhelmingly young NEET Baliscans struggling with social and economic struggles (particularly housing insecurity) in Araucaria and other areas of the confederation.

Decreixement is considered a uniquely Baliscan phenomenon, pairing the grunge, beatnik, hippie and buen vivir concepts with rebel movements from past eras with the their rejection of today’s industrialized mass society. It draws significant inspiration from the diverse cultural and ethnic background of the Baliscan Confederation, reflecting the misfortune of communities left behind by the country's rapid socioeconomic transformation. In contemporary Baliscan society it has increasingly dominated over more European and Bohemian influences that are typically dominant in the rest of the world. It's rapid rise into mainstream Baliscan society has led to a blending of beauty and fashion trends from across the world, leading to occasional accusations of cultural appropriation. Decreixement is closely associated with permissive beliefs, such as sexual liberation, free love, post-genderism, egoism, anti-statism, recreational drug use, and political dealignment.

Decreixement accelerated the Baliscan anti-work movement and has embraced tenets of illegalism, which has also fueled illicit activity including Mafia-related crime and cybercrime. It played a significant role in the 2021 Baliscan civil unrest, and influenced the push for the recognition of autonomous communes.

Baliscans that subscribe to decreixement actively choose to lower their professional and economic ambitions and simplify their goals, still being fiscally responsible for their own essential needs, and prioritize psychological health over economic materialism. There is a strong criticism of wage slavery and such, the decreixement movement has been blamed as the main driver of Balisca's high youth unemployment rate.

Aspects

Fashion

Main article: Baliscan streetwear

Decreixement is actively opposed to fast fashion for several reasons, particularly sustainability concerns and to protest the industry's extensive exploitation of third world child workers in sweatshops to produce clothing cheaply for large profits. Instead embracing thrifting, upcycling and traditional methods such as sewing and patchwork.

Stereotypical fashion elements include unisex clothing, vintage clothes, alternative and genderqueer fashion, streetwear, or a mixture of different fashions, often including skinny jeans, button-up shirts, crop tops, a full beards/facial hair, mullets, natural hair styles such as locs, cornrows and box braids that are typically viewed as unkempt in other western societies, and thick-rimmed or lensless glasses.

Music

Main article: Roñaro

Ideologies

See also: Baliscan values

The emblem and flag of the Nobody Party, a joke party that is closely aligned with Decreixement. They are well known for street theatre, dirtbag commentary and politically themed pranks.

Decreixement political and socioeconomic ideologies are mostly concerned with individual freedom and anti-establishment views. Common viewpoints include individual liberty, anti-authoritarianism, a DIY ethic, non-conformity, anti-corporatism, anti-government, direct action and not "selling out".

Centering on a belief in the abject lack of meaning and value to life, hedonism and egoism have become fixtures of decreixement. As such, followers of the movement are described as having a "all play and no work" mentality, and have been known to seek entertainment wherever they can and maximize leisure. This is often manifested in recreational drug use.

Youth-led civil unrest during the Special Period.

Decreixent universally believe in direct action, although the way in which this manifests itself varies greatly. Many decreixent are pacifists and therefore believe in using non-violent means of achieving their aims. These include nonviolent resistance, refusal of work, squatting, economic sabotage, dumpster diving, graffiti, culture jamming, ecotage, freeganism, boycotting, civil disobedience, hacktivism and subvertising. However, it is agreed amongst decreixent that property damage is a natural form of expression. This manifests itself as rioting, vandalism, wire cutting, ecotage, hunt sabotage, participation in Animal Liberation Front, Earth Liberation Front, or even Black Bloc and Antifa style activities, and in extreme cases in the past, bombings. Many dispute the applicability of the term "violence" to describe destruction of property, since they argue that destruction of property is done not to control an individual or institution but to take its control away.

The issue of authenticity is important in this subculture—the pejorative term recreixent ("regrowther") is applied to those who associate with decreixement and adopt its stylistic attributes but are deemed not to share or understand the underlying values or philosophy.

See also

• Oka Shūki