Are Corporations Destroying Culture? Are They Preventing Us From Developing A Refined Culture?

I guess this pertains more to the U.S. and other Anglo colonial nations like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc. Other colonial nations like those in Latin America tend to have more interesting cultures with some native influence, so I don't think they really count. Europeans, Chinese, Indians, and basically every other Old World society don't count as well due to them having each a cultural tradition spanning back thousands of years before corporations existed and could have an effect.

Now what I'm saying is that as someone who is from the U.S. I don't really think we have a culture. And not because we haven't been around for too long but rather every time we try to make some kind of basic cultural construct, it immediately gets hijacked and coopted by large corporations who stunt it into a purely kitsch form. Essentially making the construct soulless and tacky while depleting it of all ideas and risks only to pump it dry for the sake of endless profits. A.K.A Hollywood, record studios, music distribution companies, media conglomerates, and Disney all contributing to this horrendous "CELEBRITY CULTURE" which just drains the living souls out of everyone and makes everyone stupid, blind, soulless consumers. Often times with the celebrities themselves being stupid, worthless, and basically contributing nothing of value say for the propaganda purposes of megacorps who need the blind masses to CONSUME!!! never question these corporations taking advantage of us, and making us too dumb and distracted to care about politics or notice the neoliberal elites taking away our rights for these corporations.

I feel like this might actually be what is contributing to our societies apathy towards things like mass shootings, violations of civil liberties, rogue cops, etc. Because I feel like this might be the single contributing factor as to why America has no morality to defend it's republic and egalitarian liberties for which the very base of it's culture should represent. Because we have no culture! Therefore we have no way to stand up to fascists or any other subversive groups, and we become more radicalized and polarized by the day due to a lack of a foundation from which to fall back upon.

Am I crazy? Is this a moot point? I can't help but notice that Biden brought Lady Gaga to sing for his inauguration, which only seems to me to cement the idea that our neoliberal rulers want us to consume and be pacified by celebrity culture. Also when was the last time you saw good architecture built here in America? Not just bland warehouses, and cheap prefab schools and corporate HQs? Or bland single story suburban homes? Is Architecture also dead?

 

Good architecture? Yeah, probably. It's mostly hideous, pre-fab, cookie-cutter crap, or its purpose is to serve as a propaganda statement.

That's not to say that architecture-as-propaganda is a new thing. It's been around for millennia, as ancient kings and emperors built grand things to help immortalize themselves and their lineages.

 

What are your thoughts on celebrity culture?

 

Not terribly impressed, mostly. For one thing, there are many American celebrities who I have no clue who they are, even though I've heard the names many times. For that matter, ask me to name any Canadian rock bands, and I can name exactly two (and just had to concentrate to recall the name of one of those two). I'm not a fan of either of them. It's been over 20 years since I last saw a movie in the theatre, and the only concerts I've ever gone to were either folk music or the symphony. I've never been to a rock concert in my life - the closest that comes is watching clips on video, or working on productions of various rock operas.

I think I'm past the point of succumbing to the idea that celebrity spokespeople genuinely agree with the merits of the stuff they pitch on TV or in print or online ads (ABP is one of my best friends), as they're paid to endorse this stuff whether they like or use it or whether they don't.

The culture of celebrity politicians is a bit murkier, at least in my case. Yes, Justin Trudeau has a celebrity following. Some non-Canadians on various forums who know I'm Canadian were enthusiastic about his election back in 2015, because "he's so handsome/good-looking/sexy/cute". But he's done a lot of stupid things over the years, a few of which make me furious. It's annoying that the alternatives are either not helpful or they're much, much worse.

 

The commodification of everything is definitionally a major part of western culture. . . If you find yourself apathetic towards that reality then I'd say you are just apathetic towards modern western culture. You are not alone in that. . .

We got good music!

 

yeah I'm gonna stop you right here, this is the equivalent of "I don't have an accent"

 

Well maybe more in a figurative way. Rather do you think America's culture is worse than older cultures?

 

Given cultures are all constantly changing, and can't really be ranked, I'm not sure I accept either of the premises of that question

 

I take it you've never been, well, many places, but we will start with DC?

 

Debateable...

 

The US definitely has a culture and it is one that has been and continues to spread itself world wide. T shirts, jeans and rock music plus Coca Cola launched it 50 years ago. On top of that we have added celebrity, greed, evangelical religion, and consumerism. Within the country, there are certainly regional cultures too. We are too big and too diverse to have a single culture. Oh and guns and cars are part of what America is. Maybe those will change though.

 

Idk man considering the depth and spread of choices I'd think there is something for almost everyone. The advantages of being a mosaic of so many other cultures.

 

American culture wasn’t created in a vacuum and comes from an older cultural heritage, so I don’t know if it really makes sense to think of it as a young culture. Maybe in some ways, like national identity or an awareness of heritage.

Ironically, having lived in Iraq it seemed to me like there was very little visible history there. This is just my perspective and maybe some other parts of the country I haven’t seen have more historical areas. There are residential complexes with villas that are all exactly identical and they’re high-end places to live.

 

And flags. Honestly, I'm flabbergasted at how many flags are all over the place down there, all the time. Someone's going to invent US-flag-shaped breakfast cereal that's red/white/blue, is full of sugar, and will turn the milk purple.

(unless someone already has? )

You've produced some excellent filkers (composers and performers). The only Canadian filkers I know of are either Gordon R. Dickson or they're people I met at SF conventions (plus myself, though I'm nowhere near the league of people who can come up with "Hope Eyrie" or those fantastic Dorsai songs based on Dickson's novels).

So, basically like some North American gated communities where the residents have to put up with draconian rules that says nobody is allowed to express creativity or individualism for "aesthetic" reasons?

 

is that an endorsement of 'cultural appropriation'?

 

Your OP is pretty typical fascist ideology lol
But I guess this is pretty par for the course for postmodernism. "Degenerate cosmopolitans have destroyed the resiliency and refinement of our culture! How will we resist fascism?"

 

What we think of as "historical" cultures is the stuff that survived and was remembered - largely a culture by and for the elites of their times. We get some popular work that survived, eg, Shakespear, but by and large it's a fraction of what they made.

It was also much slower paced due to slower diffusion of culture - it would take decades for a movement to spread enough to create its counter movement. Now this happens in a few years, months even, as ideas spread like lightning.

The old stable forms of culture are not coming back. They never really existed in the first place (they were far more diverse than what survives tody), and to the extent they did exist, they relied on a much slower world to remain stable.

 

While the US at least has it's own culture, I think that it isn't the kind of culture (whether that type actually existed or not is another issue) of so-called "high civilization". But that isn't strange, given that by now the vast majority of people are not expected to make any difference, and science depends on a tiny fraction.
Life is such that, even without taking account of bad accidents, one has too little time.

 

Yea I'm note concerned, the only cultural appropriation that I think is a concern is the insulting kind. I girl in a geisha outfit for Halloween is only appropriation if she means it as insulting. Jsut my two cents on it. That said I'm happy with my high fantasy and nerd culture.