Reflecting philosophically, I have often attempted to examine the notion of bohemianism, to pin it down to some sort of tangible set of ideals and identities: all attempts have thus failed save to say that bohemianism is more a state of mind than anything else…
A friend of mine some time ago told me an anecdote about a group of Italian anarchists who turned up at a protest rally dressed in fine business suits. This clash of images provoked a completely perplexed response from the authorities who could not reconcile their dress code with the contradiction in their actual intentions.
Thus, bohemianism, like anarchism, should best be reserved as a ‘technique of mind’ rather than a code of dress that often presents mere images in place of deeply held sets of ideas or ideals.
[MN] 7 December 2021
Naked Cities Journal 