Everywhere you look, someone’s lamenting that our culture is dead: no masterpieces, no movements, no zeitgeist. But is this really a sign of...
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The original was posted on /r/collapse by /u/Embarrassed_Green308 on 2025-07-07 11:09:41+00:00.

Everywhere you look, someone’s lamenting that our culture is dead: no masterpieces, no movements, no zeitgeist. But is this really a sign of decay—or just a side effect of a fractured, hyper-accelerated world?

This longform piece breaks down the “end of cultural history” narrative and argues that what we’re seeing might not be decline in the classic sense, but something more disorienting: culture splintered across a thousand subgroups, spinning faster than we can narrativise it, unable to stabilise long enough to produce lasting forms.

Some key points:

  • Cultural eras used to last centuries. Now it’s down to weeks, memes, and micro-trends.
  • The US no longer holds cultural monopoly—K-pop, TikTok, and Skibidi Toilet point to a new multipolar order.
  • Subcultures now coexist without merging. Everyone consumes everything, but nothing sticks.
  • The endless remixing creates hybrid “mule cultures”: sterile, directionless, impotent.
  • But maybe this is just what cultural transition looks like in a declining empire? Or is the term “decline” even valid anymore?

Would be interested to hear what others here think: Is this just postmodern flux, or are we witnessing cultural systems collapse in real time?

https://thegordianthread.substack.com/p/the-culture-that-couldnt-find-itself