Isn't this the narrative that MAGA/ Proud boys and the KKK (I wont mention NAZIS) before them have always used
The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success
101–110 of 209 posts
Re: The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. I was especially unconvinced at the arguments for "repetition", for example that today's music is separated from the 90s only by "nuance". What? Sure, from up close it may seem that way, but given 30 years I'm sure we can look back and very clearly see the style developments just as we can for the 70s and the 80s. It sounded to me like a case of "back in my day" but with incoherent arguments.
That's the part I completely agree with. Music is absolutely stuck. There have only been micro-genres, such as the many micro-genres of techno/EDM or hip hop. There has been nothing approaching the birth of hip hop, techno/rave, grunge, "alternative" rock, and so on. Those all came of age in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. For some reason after 2000 music died. My personal explanation is the collapse of the record industry. I…
> That's the part I completely agree with. Music is absolutely stuck. There have only been micro-genres, such as the many micro-genres of techno/EDM or hip hop. There has been nothing approaching the birth of hip hop, techno/rave, grunge, "alternative" rock, and so on. Those all came of age in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. For some reason after 2000 music died.
I don't really see this at all. I might agree that mainstream music hasn't changed much since the late 2000s, when synthesizers seemed to mostly replace guitars in popular music. to me, taylor swift sounds really different than she did in 2009, but pretty much the same as in 2011 or so. then again, I don't really pay enough attention to this kind of music to give it a fair analysis.
grunge was certainly a major departure from what was popular in the 80s, but it's not radically different from a lot of less popular music that came before it. I would argue there's much more variation in the last twenty years of hardcore subgenres than there was between hüsker dü, pixies, and nirvana.
Re: The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success
#103I disagree with criticisms of current art or “pop” art like pop music, popular fiction books, etc. To become broadly popular you must appeal to as many people as possible. This is a balancing act between mediocrity and edginess that pushes just the right amount of boundaries to feel “new” and “fresh” without turning off a lot of people. So by definition the most popular song in the world is going to usually be fairly…
>So by definition the most popular song in the world is going to usually be fairly non-offensive. Number one song on Spotify as of this moment: "If he ate my ass, he's a bottom feeder" "Beat it up, n-word, catch a charge" "Never lost a fight, but I'm looking for a beating" "I wanna gag, I wanna choke" "Pay my tuition just to kiss me on this wet ass pussy"
And your point is? Stodgy conservatives being shocked at the cultural shift in what is entertaining vs. out-of-bounds reflected by the younger generation popular art is...not a new phenomenon, nor is popular art deliberately and flagrantly violating the taboos of the stodgy conservative establishment.
Re: The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t disagree with: >world progress can’t be binned into a coherent storyline But if you think SpaceX has anywhere close to the cultural impact of the moon landing, you really need to get out of your bubble.
I'll agree with your point but his 4 other examples were "steamship, railroad, assembly line, and commercial aviation" which are comparable. With that said it felt like everyone I knew watched it (I associate with mostly non-techies) so to each his own. But yes the moon landing was on another level.
> steamship, railroad, assembly line, and commercial aviation" which are comparable
Also pretty dubious.
Regardless of what you and your friends did, you have to admit that there’s a whole wider world that didn’t watch it. Just looking at the numbers, the SpaceX launch got about 10.3 million viewers (https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.space.com/amp/nasa-spacex-as...)
That’s good, but about as many as an important cricket match in India (https://medium.com/@refsrc/indias-streaming-service-hotstar-...).
The Super Bowl often gets 10x that viewership.
Re: The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success
#105> What’s the difference, really, between the music of the 1990s and the 2010s—between the music of Madonna and Lady Gaga, of Mariah Carey and Adele? Between the heavy metal or rock or rap of the 1980s and those genres now? Nuances distinguish them. You don’t need to resort to nuances to tell the difference between the music of the 1970s and 1950s or the 1950s and 1930s.
I find this comparison completely ridiculous. It is not just that I can tell difference between Madonna and Lady Gaga or 1980 metal against todays one. It is also that the actual difference between 1970s and 1950s music is that they changed genre. Metal must be metal, if it was different then metal if would not be metal. It just so happens that new genres did appeared between 1980 and now. Contemporary techno progressive music is incomparable to anything in 1980. Also, 1980 music is ridiculously easy to distinguish as 1980 music. And not just that new genres appeared, the music in 1980 was not consumed the way it is consumed now - all the time for free huge selection by own personal choice. Back then, you had either to pay or listen to one of radio stations. So the people moved more in lockstep.
> Renaissance linear perspective for the visual arts ... By mid-century, with a few admirable exceptions, the modern art world seemed determined to make itself the butt of jokes, as Tom Wolfe memorably described in The Painted Word (1975).
I personally like modern art more then renaissance, but that is personal taste - what I find fun.
The big reason for abstraction being the thing in art is that realism is largely figured out. People can do hyper realistic drawings today, the ones that are hard to distinguish from photography. They are stunning pieces of craft. But, at this point, it is craft that you can learn if you study enough and have talent. You are not discovering something new when you do it - but if they are your thing there are artists focusing on this particular thing. There are books you can read that teach you how to render, analyze and draw.
Re: The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success
#106Isn't this the narrative that MAGA/ Proud boys and the KKK (I wont mention NAZIS) before them have always used
Well, yes, of course, it’s Charles Murray. He shares many of the beliefs of those groups.
Re: The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success
#107This is a fascinating discussion because it hits directly at a topic that civilization-after-civilization has faced throughout history: are we able to reasonably assess whether we are continuing towards growth and progress or stagnation and extinction? Frankly, the historical record is not encouraging. Usually, when this topic comes up people chime in with easy takeaways like "people have always complained about this…
It is interesting to note that if you read Roman generals' letters from the fourth/fifth centuries AD, they seem like they have no idea that their civilization is in the late stages of decline, something totally easy for us to recognize millennia later. It's weird and uncanny, and kind of concerning given contemporary circumstances
Actually, that's reassuring. Virtually everyone agrees we are in a state of decline right now.
Re: The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success
#108I realise this is a review, not the actual text. But still. This is utter bollocks. It's typical of non-technical "intellectuals" to completely ignore the main areas of modern human progress, simply because they don't understand them. e.g. the whole discussion on Art completely ignores Video Games, which are undoubtedly Art, and also an area of rapid innovation and development. Yet they're usually dismissed out of ha…
Video games are indeed a form of media, but I think it is misleading to say they are art in the same sense as this author intends. Art and mass entertainment are only superficially similar, and most video games are made to entertain. Video games are (generally) consumable goods created to provide an amount of temporary pleasure. Good art is recognized not just by beauty or the skill required to create it, but by its…
I would respectfully submit that you're talking from a standpoint of utter and complete ignorance about your subject.
There are a thousand games that have an "ability to engage with some aspect of what it means to be human, in a way that is coherent, mature, and thought-provoking". I've been moved to tears by several (killing the dragon in Minecraft after literally months of effort, This War of Mine). Stupid things like "Clicker Heroes" have reminded me that all life is inherently meaningless and all endeavour is ultimately futile, given meaning only by what we feel about it.
Compare that to some of the utter crap that passes for High Art, and video games are way ahead in mature, thought-provoking exploration of what it means to be human.
Re: The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success
#109This is a fascinating discussion because it hits directly at a topic that civilization-after-civilization has faced throughout history: are we able to reasonably assess whether we are continuing towards growth and progress or stagnation and extinction? Frankly, the historical record is not encouraging. Usually, when this topic comes up people chime in with easy takeaways like "people have always complained about this…
> growth and progress or stagnation and extinction?
A false dichotomy, since humans are uniquely able to harmonize with any environment through observation and planning. The need to buy stuff is the only reason we think of “progress or stagnation”
Re: The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success
#110Unfortunately this site has received the hug of death however anyone that finds such a headline interesting may also find this interesting: "Industrial Society and Its Future" https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/unab... An excerpt from the introduction: > The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life-expectancy of those…
Ah the good old days where 25% of children died before 5