Are we heading towards a cultural collapse?

[Vagrant0]

In the past, most sweeping changes in style, innovations, music, and entertainment have owed a large part of what made them significant to the way that they seemed to combine something already familiar with something new and novel (usually from foreign places). What I mean by this is the way that one group of people often takes an idea or style from somewhere else, applies some aspects of their own cultural values or themes, and transforms it into something new. This sort of thing has been happening constantly with music, going from traditional African songs to blues, to rock and roll, to a plethora of branching styles ranging from techno to death metal, with many of the variants pulling from other classical or traditional backgrounds. We see a similar thing with regards to movies and television programs... The idea comes from somewhere else to America where it gets dumbed down and bastardized, then it either gets re-packaged or re-envisioned for global distribution or gets bought by BBC or some other firm where the content gets classed up and gets new complications before getting sold back to the US or Canada. Except that what I've noticed happening over the last 5 years is that the lag between variants has been getting smaller at a rate very similar to the rate that global communication has been increasing.

 

But the question is if there will eventually be a point where the distances between points become so close that the concepts don't have the space to change from exposure to a secondary culture before being reflected back to the first. Or that there won't be any new ideas to add to the system that don't end up being something that only resonates locally (like Bollywood, period dramas, ect).

[mizdarby]

The globalisation of cultural ideas, is in some ways a refreshing and ultimately good thing. Although loss of national identities, challenges a nations' sense of being, the sharing of common likes and dislikes, will ultimately bring about a greater understanding between the peoples of the world. Of course, some cultural differences will always remain, those quirky things that may never be globally popular. Morris dancing leaps to mind, I just can't imagine, a quaint tradition like that ever being adopted outside of the UK. Some cultural oddities, are also best not sharing, such as Spanish bull-fighting etc.

New ideas and cultural "vogues", will continue to spring up, but will rapidly be absorbed into the "one world" nation.

[JimboUK]

A nations culture has always been influenced by contact with other cultures, modern communications and in the case of "entertainment" multinationals have sped that process up. It's led to the proliferation of populist garbage, it's become a race to the bottom where TV, movies and music are concerned. Will we have a cultural collapse? no I don't think so but we're in serious danger of replacing the varied cultures we enjoy now with a single homogenised one and that would be sad.

[dazzerfong]

I don't think they're collapsing, I just think they're getting harder to find, or acknowledge. With globalisation becoming stronger than ever, it's hard to resist conformism, really. Of course, there are still 'dissidents' to this movement, but as I said earlier, they're becoming quieter in the strength of their voice.

[marharth]

The globalisation of cultural ideas, is in some ways a refreshing and ultimately good thing. Although loss of national identities, challenges a nations' sense of being, the sharing of common likes and dislikes, will ultimately bring about a greater understanding between the peoples of the world. Of course, some cultural differences will always remain, those quirky things that may never be globally popular. Morris dancing leaps to mind, I just can't imagine, a quaint tradition like that ever being adopted outside of the UK. Some cultural oddities, are also best not sharing, such as Spanish bull-fighting etc.

New ideas and cultural "vogues", will continue to spring up, but will rapidly be absorbed into the "one world" nation.

I agree with this for the most part.

[emir22]

The globalisation of cultural ideas, is in some ways a refreshing and ultimately good thing. Although loss of national identities, challenges a nations' sense of being, the sharing of common likes and dislikes, will ultimately bring about a greater understanding between the peoples of the world. Of course, some cultural differences will always remain, those quirky things that may never be globally popular. Morris dancing leaps to mind, I just can't imagine, a quaint tradition like that ever being adopted outside of the UK. Some cultural oddities, are also best not sharing, such as Spanish bull-fighting etc.

New ideas and cultural "vogues", will continue to spring up, but will rapidly be absorbed into the "one world" nation.

I agree but also it would be a bad thing too... Considering these new ideas and cultural vogues will be absorbed into the "one world" nation, we will ultimately lose one of the things what makes us the most sophisticated race on earth, our diversity. Of course, it would most likely bring more peace and understanding between different nations and cultures, it would still for us to turn from the most diversed race on earth to being a more "stereotypic" race...

[phoneyLogic]

I'd agree to some point, which is not certain yet. In my opinion, culture always changed and adopted new elements. Simply because culture is similar to language, it simply changes, gets interpreted, people live their own culture. But, culture has become big business. Back in these days, you needed to do it yourself. Today, as a culture consumer, you are buying your stuff together. Don't know what to say about. Is it good, is it bad? Things may change, but at the bottom I think we nowadays have way more different culture “available” than in those olden days, you hardly came out of your town of birth. You just need the money.

[sukeban]

Ha, saw "cultural collapse" and thought this would be a topic about pop culture and the glorification (deification?) of wealth/promotion of casual violence/objectification of women/etc. Definitely was mistaken.

 

I would say "no," however, with the caveat that the OP does have a point that converging toward a monolithic "world" culture does not particularly sound that enticing. I would venture that we are still a long way off from there though, and that viewing the phenomenon strictly through the prism of a western lens is perhaps not the most constructive means of viewing the situation.

 

Recently, I was talking with a friend from China (Beijing to be specific) about the rock and roll scene (yaogun) in her town, contrasting it to the musical landscape in the US and the west writ large. She told me emphatically that there was more room for actual experimentation (and joy) in China--and for the musical "growth" of bands--compared with the west where music truly has just about seen and done everything and where people are largely bored/jaded with new micro-trends and variations in existing styles. The west has appropriated just about every genre from the developing world for its own use, without any thought of how said appropriation (and the indigenous styles of the west) would be interpreted/reflected back at those nations. The result is truly fascinating, if not always pleasing to listen to--can be appreciated on the cultural/phenomenological level rather than the aesthetic.

 

Speaking still in terms of music, but perhaps the best ("worst" in terms of actual musical outcome) of what the OP is talking about has taken place in Korean popular music, which is but a crude imitation of western styles (auto-tune/digital beats/insipid, culturally foreign lyrics/overly sexualized, young performers) that fails any objective test of authenticity but for its craven play for dollars. Tellingly, it is also ridiculously popular. In this sense, I would say "score one" for Chinese cultural curation, even as it perhaps only delaying the inevitable (what culture doesn't like easy listening and sex?). For the time being, Chinese artists have room to breathe, without the almighty demands of return on investment and mass appeal driving their content and presentation (possible due to the stultifying content of CCTV et al). In this sense, Chinese yaogun is perhaps the contemporary equivalent of Elvis--not controversial in a modern context, but given the cultural conservatism of the time--a veritable iconoclast.

 

Where does that lead? I can't say, but likely not toward cultural collapse. There are 7 billion people on this earth and counting, doubtlessly they will have different cultural tastes... even if those tastes are more closely aligned with class/ethnicity/interests than with traditional nation-states.

[juderodney]

Even if a single worldwide culture were to exist, there would be no shortage of new ideas. It all comes down to perspective. A farmer will still see things differently from a city dweller; a Christian to a Jew or a Muslim; a jungle native to a desert nomad; and so on and so forth. There will be plenty of stuff to borrow for a looooong time to come.

[Dan3345]

Someone tried to calculate the rate at which new songs are created, in order to determine if we would ever run out of new ideas. IN the end it was discovered that all songs run on common meter (or something similar) and that in reality the amount of combinations of notes is so great we could never even pretend to understand how many possibilities there are. But instinctively our minds like to seek out something similar, something heard of that we already understand even if only on a fundamental albeit subconscious level.

 

I believe cultures and social interactions behave the same way. The only limit to them is our imaginations, and of course no matter how globally linked we become there will always be differences among us.