Karl Popper felt that culture, tradition and myths were a core factor in our experience of the world (3 Worlds Theory). And they form much of the bedrock of GK Chesterton’s writings - which I find myself gravitating to more and more with age…
(As a very trivial addendum, I found myself misreading - age, again - “Moleskin” for “Molesworth” in the Rattle Bag section, and wondering what on earth Bruce Chatwin had to do with Willans & Seale’s immortal creation.)
I always enjoy being provoked and stimulated by Ian Leslie’s posts. I have a disagreement here: The idea that manifestations of (Western) culture such as films and music are largely unchanged since the early 2000s (I hope I don’t misrepresent this point?) is something I instinctively agree with, but it might be a subjective feature of Ian’s age (he is in his 40s, I am in my early 50s). When my teen/pre-teen kids watch stuff from the early 2000s (eg Lord of the Rings) they comment that it looks a bit dated.
These shifts they are seeing might be more of degree than of kind; but I think that in the middle of the 1980s a person in their 40s or 50s then might have said the same thing about that decade as you are saying about the 2020s.
I also think that, say, Korean and Japanese cinema have styles (framing, pacing, tone, characterisation) that remain clearly distinctive from typical Hollywood fare or American art cinema.
One point I do think is true is that culture is less homogenised within countries but possibly more homogenised between classes across countries. I.e. political types in any English speaking country (and many non-English speaking countries) will likely recognise references to The West Wing or to recent major events in the US political sphere. In general the chattering classes in most of the Anglosphere will have some familiarity with, say, Succession. But such shows, primarily streamed, will have essentially no penetration in the wider population. Whereas when terrestrial TV (or formerly newspapers and radio broadcasts) was dominant, you might get 20 million viewers for a popular comedy or drama, so almost everyone in the UK would be familiar with them. Those days are permanently gone.
And of course it follows that language, dress, manners etc. will be influenced consequently - i.e. I'd expect the way Anglosphere politicos behave to gradually converge between across countries.
Another factor which would need to be explored to get into this fragmentation is the rise of social media and instant messaging apps.
Roy's right about cultures homogenising, and about tech being the driver. Past couple years I've been researching tech cultures in 60 countries- shockingly all pretty much the same, even when in other sectors national, even local, cultures are very strong. I'm looking into links between this and tech product flaws...too little productive disagreement!
There has been a lot of this talk in the air recently, and while I'm open to the idea that cultures are becoming more homogeneous due to something one might lazily call 'globalisation', for me there's a much more (frustratingly so) obvious cause: the stranglehold of copyright.
In the last few years, notable works that have fallen out of copyright include the very first Mickey Mouse cartoon Steamboat Willie, the screenplay for Citizen Kane, and Animal Farm. It the case of the latter, it's only really because Orwell died tragically young. How is anyone supposed to make anything new, when the last century's worth of music, books and films is still under lock and key, and making anything even vaguely derivative of anything that came before is an invite for some geriatric rockstar to send you a Cease and Desist?
People often act as if the current regime of life-plus-70-years is something that has existed forever, but it's incredibly modern. It was extended from life-plus-50 in 1998 after successful -bribing- lobbying by the Disney Corporation. The previous regime only came in with the Copyright Act of 1976. Before then, copyright hadn't really changed much since the start of the century where the copyright term was 28 years. Every pop tune written before then was under that regime. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act adds further chilling effects on the way copyrighted works are shared. All of these laws have global reach thanks to trade agreements.
We wonder where our culture has gone, but the answer is obvious. All art is derivative and if we want people to make new things, Morning Glory must fall into the public domain. We must bring back the 28 year term limit for copyrighted works.
Yes I think this makes it all worse. But the world has got so much smaller, we're so aware of everything that happens, particularly in the US. The positive theory is that we're now all quickly absorbing "best practice" and everything is becoming homogenous but better. Yet where are the Stone Roses, Oasis, the Beatles, of 2024, the culturally particular products of particular places in time? Are we better off now that everyone just listens to overproduced Taylor Swift?
Karl Popper felt that culture, tradition and myths were a core factor in our experience of the world (3 Worlds Theory). And they form much of the bedrock of GK Chesterton’s writings - which I find myself gravitating to more and more with age…
(As a very trivial addendum, I found myself misreading - age, again - “Moleskin” for “Molesworth” in the Rattle Bag section, and wondering what on earth Bruce Chatwin had to do with Willans & Seale’s immortal creation.)
I always enjoy being provoked and stimulated by Ian Leslie’s posts. I have a disagreement here: The idea that manifestations of (Western) culture such as films and music are largely unchanged since the early 2000s (I hope I don’t misrepresent this point?) is something I instinctively agree with, but it might be a subjective feature of Ian’s age (he is in his 40s, I am in my early 50s). When my teen/pre-teen kids watch stuff from the early 2000s (eg Lord of the Rings) they comment that it looks a bit dated.
These shifts they are seeing might be more of degree than of kind; but I think that in the middle of the 1980s a person in their 40s or 50s then might have said the same thing about that decade as you are saying about the 2020s.
I also think that, say, Korean and Japanese cinema have styles (framing, pacing, tone, characterisation) that remain clearly distinctive from typical Hollywood fare or American art cinema.
One point I do think is true is that culture is less homogenised within countries but possibly more homogenised between classes across countries. I.e. political types in any English speaking country (and many non-English speaking countries) will likely recognise references to The West Wing or to recent major events in the US political sphere. In general the chattering classes in most of the Anglosphere will have some familiarity with, say, Succession. But such shows, primarily streamed, will have essentially no penetration in the wider population. Whereas when terrestrial TV (or formerly newspapers and radio broadcasts) was dominant, you might get 20 million viewers for a popular comedy or drama, so almost everyone in the UK would be familiar with them. Those days are permanently gone.
And of course it follows that language, dress, manners etc. will be influenced consequently - i.e. I'd expect the way Anglosphere politicos behave to gradually converge between across countries.
Another factor which would need to be explored to get into this fragmentation is the rise of social media and instant messaging apps.
Yes...hard to distinguish between what looks technically dated (use of CGI etc) from what is artistically dated or 'of its era'.
Roy's right about cultures homogenising, and about tech being the driver. Past couple years I've been researching tech cultures in 60 countries- shockingly all pretty much the same, even when in other sectors national, even local, cultures are very strong. I'm looking into links between this and tech product flaws...too little productive disagreement!
Depressing!
There has been a lot of this talk in the air recently, and while I'm open to the idea that cultures are becoming more homogeneous due to something one might lazily call 'globalisation', for me there's a much more (frustratingly so) obvious cause: the stranglehold of copyright.
In the last few years, notable works that have fallen out of copyright include the very first Mickey Mouse cartoon Steamboat Willie, the screenplay for Citizen Kane, and Animal Farm. It the case of the latter, it's only really because Orwell died tragically young. How is anyone supposed to make anything new, when the last century's worth of music, books and films is still under lock and key, and making anything even vaguely derivative of anything that came before is an invite for some geriatric rockstar to send you a Cease and Desist?
People often act as if the current regime of life-plus-70-years is something that has existed forever, but it's incredibly modern. It was extended from life-plus-50 in 1998 after successful -bribing- lobbying by the Disney Corporation. The previous regime only came in with the Copyright Act of 1976. Before then, copyright hadn't really changed much since the start of the century where the copyright term was 28 years. Every pop tune written before then was under that regime. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act adds further chilling effects on the way copyrighted works are shared. All of these laws have global reach thanks to trade agreements.
We wonder where our culture has gone, but the answer is obvious. All art is derivative and if we want people to make new things, Morning Glory must fall into the public domain. We must bring back the 28 year term limit for copyrighted works.
Yes I think this makes it all worse. But the world has got so much smaller, we're so aware of everything that happens, particularly in the US. The positive theory is that we're now all quickly absorbing "best practice" and everything is becoming homogenous but better. Yet where are the Stone Roses, Oasis, the Beatles, of 2024, the culturally particular products of particular places in time? Are we better off now that everyone just listens to overproduced Taylor Swift?
Interesting point!