Are we heading towards a cultural collapse?

[Vagrant0]

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.

 

except for two things...

 

One being that some combinations of notes can sound disharmonious beyond just musical preference. Even dubstep... Which sometimes sounds like you accidentally forgot to check your washing machine to make sure there isn't a a cat inside before starting it, still follows a model related to what combinations of notes and tones sound good. Or that combinations aren't dissimilar to actually look like any change has taken place. Meaning that the majority of possible combinations are ones that end up bad, or are perceived as being essentially the same as something which already exists.

 

Two and probably more apparent from what I was mentioning, being that it still becomes reliant on someone who is able to connect the dots and do something outside the norm in a way in which it actually catches on and gains momentum.

 

*edit*

Pretty much this, for the first part of what I was saying in this post.

 

But really, I wasn't talking about the numerical limits of "newness" so much as the practical ones based on inspiration, modification, and evolution. At some point we either keep recycling things that have come before and hope that we don't get bored of them, or start dabbling with concepts and formulations which are totally alien and try to force them into the mainstream.

[Dan3345]

Ok I think I see what you are saying.

 

On the topic of redoing what has been done and basically recycling the past. Hasn't humanity as a whole been doing this for thousands of years? Our version of society for example. Lots of people organized into many classes, with sub classes for roles (jobs) and they all live in a place in accordance with their roles. A journalist would live in a city, while a farmer lives in the suburbs. We have had some small changes in Western Civilization in the last two hundred years (even today, with the removal of kings and dictators) but the general premise is always the same, and comes with similar results.

 

I like that video and I love vsauce, and in the video I believe Michael mentions how each song is a repetitiousness version of a song that came before that the artist heard, liked, and then added upon. The two songs sound different enough that you aren't bored by them, but are similar enough that you are drawn to them. Civilization as we know it is the roughly the same in my view. So I don't think we will come to a collapse because people have run out of things to think of. As one generation goes and takes their ideas with them, the next generation will be left to relearn what they lost. So to speak.

 

I would take it a step further and go into why some forms of civilization and social structures didn't work and why I think they won't work but I will leave that for another discussion.

[Marxist ßastard]

You know they said the same exact thing in 220 BCE: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” So you, yourself, bring nothing new to the table.

 

That said, if you replace knowledge and natural curiosity with close-minded cynicism, of course you will think culture is dying. But that doesn't mean culture has really ceased to evolve. It means you have.

[Nintii]

Well as they say, "a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link" ... if you have a strong family unit, which is as far as I

am concerned the building block for any nation ... then you will have a stable or a strong cultural identity or platform.

Unfortunately the family unit as a whole is breaking down at present in the world, but this is nothing new, we humans

have gone full circle so many times that we are a "been there done that" species.

 

Culturally we simply reinvent ourselves every few generations later ... or war happens and this reshapes us ... and

our value systems change again.

Isolation is also a powerful tool when it comes to shaping a people, so too is the pariah syndrome ... just look at

Israel, and they are still going strong and that was even in the Diaspora.

Sometimes isolation can take place to a people geographically or right in the very midst of the crowds (nations).

 

It's like going to a meeting or a party filled with strangers, you're not alone yet in the midst of the crowds you're

lonely.

So too, an unconnected people or peoples will search for their roots, for identity and then reinvent themselves

when in that type of environment.

 

Also, should a strong leader emerge within a culture this will also shape a people, look at Mao, Hitler, Ghandi etc.,

don't underestimate the power of personality ... all it takes is one person and change both lasting and extreme can

take place over night.

 

C'mon girls, you know the saying that, "a new broom sweeps clean", get rid of the old controlling, moody guy and

"aaaahhhh what a difference, everything seems so fresh, it's like someone just pulled back the curtains, let the

light in and opened the windows what fresh air .... hmmmm".

The old musty ways and darkness of the ex are gone ... freedom babe ... whhhoooo.

And then we cannot understand why the heck we waited so long.

So it is with Culture, after the various stages of relationship ... Honeymoon stage through to the death stage we

will change so if we're currently going through a particularly rough period, then chances are that we could be

pretty close to the death of this one and a soon coming renewal.

 

Thing is this, if there is one thing about us we NEVER learn from history (or remember it), and get so freaked

out and cry doom whenever we are faced with difficulty but it too will pass.

Edited November 29, 2012 by Nintii

[Tidus44]

One hears the call of distress that has risen as war, crime, corruption, rebellion, famine, plague, slavery, genocide, and economic collapse seem to grip the world. The cry is a cacophony of lament; of cultural catastrophe; the loss of vision, the failure of purpose, and the collapse of values.

 

Every year more people are afraid to walk the streets at night; more people commit suicide; more people become addicted to drugs and alcohol; more people are imprisoned as criminals.

 

For each and every problem - real or perceived - the voices of each generation lament how hard they had it compared to how easy the next is treated and the resulting loss of culture because goldangit boy, she’s all goin ta hell in a handcart!

 

We are told the human race is fatally and irrevocably flawed; humanity is a planetary disease that will eventually be wiped out; that insatiable capitalist greed is to blame; technology is to blame; schools are to blame; rock and roll is to blame; video games are to blame; poverty, oppression, injustice, over population, bureaucratic indifference, and political corruption are to blame.

 

The foundations of culture are established by people who believe that they are the “it”, the “one”, the only.

But, they are not, they are just a culture.

One out of hundreds of thousands that have existed.

 

While not all cultural change is necessarily for the better, all cultures change over time. Those that do not change are doomed to disappear, overwhelmed by the needs of humanity or society. One can either accept it and call it "refreshing" or fight it and bemoan it as "collapse", but the need to change is the only human condition that remains the same.

[Maharg67]

Culture is always collapsing; its called 'change'.

[tg08096]

I think the speed of the exchange of ideas and commingling of cultural infuences in our arts is breaking down the physical boundaries of culture as in this country or that region, but I don't think this is leading to a result of everyone being part of some worldwide community where everyone is the same.

 

I'm from the US, and in the last few years, I have been exposed to different cultures through different things. For example, I enjoy anime from Japan, Korean drama from South Korea, and a lot of comedy and some drama from the UK. I've been to Colombia with an ex from there and absorbed some of the culture, and I like to cook foods from all over the world. All of this would not be possible without the internet (except perhaps the ex thing), which is mostly responsible for this cultural melting pot.

 

a lot of what I'm seeing lately is online communities of people with similar interests. There are, of course, people who still have not gotten with the program and don't have internet. As for the rest, especially young people, I think we are in fact leading to a "cultural collapse," in a sense. When you take all the people of the world and put them into one large room but take away language, color, religion, and other traditional discriminatory traits, you essentially have a large group of nameless, faceless beings. These people are not going to wander around aimlessly without cause. They will begin to divide themselves into groups based on interests and common ideals. The fact that the physical boundaries have dropped will not prevent people from raising new borders, but these borders will be digital. All globalization means is that we will have a greater pool of souls from which to draw members to our way of being.

 

All it's going to be is more groupings of culture within each culture. Instead of 3 or 4 "types" of people in high school, it will be 15 or 20. For me, it was jocks, nerds, stoners, and the goth kids. That was it. My kids will probably have all types.