For years I railed against "the mainstream", blaming it for all the world's ills, and firmly believing that fragmenting it into a network of overlapping subcultures would allow us to solve those ills. Thanks to mass adoption of the net and the effects of digital convergence, that fragmentation pretty much happened. But the world's major challenges seem as intractable as ever. What now?
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Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Thursday, 26-May-2022 04:59:14 UTC Strypey - Santa Claes πΈπͺππ°π likes this.
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Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Thursday, 26-May-2022 04:59:09 UTC Strypey @esther
Haven't heard of this. Is it related to the Great Reset thing? -
science knower (esther@101010.pl)'s status on Thursday, 26-May-2022 04:59:10 UTC science knower @strypey well, there's the wef's "great narrative"β¦ π
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Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Thursday, 26-May-2022 04:59:12 UTC Strypey @esther
> "the mainstream" was always a network of overlapping subcultures.This too was part of my critique, that "mainstream" was just a story the dominant subculture(s) told about their own importance. Now I'm not so sure, thus the OP. Maybe the whole was more than the sum of its parts? It definitely feels to me like there was some larger layer of cultural cohesion that isn't there anymore, and I'm no longer convinced this is progress.
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science knower (esther@101010.pl)'s status on Thursday, 26-May-2022 04:59:13 UTC science knower @strypey "the mainstream" was always a network of overlapping subcultures. that's what "lowest common denominator" means. what now? mass work, mass culture. we either change the way we live, or fail.
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Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Thursday, 26-May-2022 05:07:05 UTC Strypey Now it's even a struggle to hold subcultures together and I'm starting to miss having a "mainstream" to define myself in opposition to. I guess thoughts like these are typical of aging rebels facing middle age. Most of my contemporaries long ago laid down their rhetorical weapons and started learning to 'fit in'. The remainder are either aging cranks or surviving in one subcultural niche or another while they last. But I can't help thinking, are these really my only options?
Santa Claes πΈπͺππ°π likes this. -
Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Thursday, 26-May-2022 05:08:05 UTC Strypey @voidspace
> I long ago realised that "resistance is futile" ... I found that I couldn't just "suck it up" and get with the program.This is exactly the bind I find myself in. It seems like I was mostly on point about the problems with business-as-usual, but none of the alternatives seem to have legs. This could be a self-limiting belief borne of cynicism, which is why I posted the OP; to see how others in the 'verse have navigated similar crises of meaning.
Santa Claes πΈπͺππ°π likes this. -
Tim (voidspace@mastodon.org.uk)'s status on Thursday, 26-May-2022 05:08:12 UTC Tim @strypey
As someone who is likely a fair bit older than you and has also lived on the fringes of the mainstream for decades, I long ago realised that "resistance is futile".However, unlike some of my contemporaries, I found that I couldn't just "suck it up" and get with the program.
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Strypey (strypey@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Thursday, 26-May-2022 05:08:15 UTC Strypey @polezaivsani
I find this intriguing and original, but I'm having trouble interpreting it. Can you expand on how this relates back to the OP?Santa Claes πΈπͺππ°π likes this. -
Vasilii Kolobkov (polezaivsani@chaos.social)'s status on Thursday, 26-May-2022 05:08:23 UTC Vasilii Kolobkov @strypey I have a slightly different take on opposingβrather than superposition of different forces, it can be viewed as a multitude of sources of light, all acting in the same space, with the benefits of contrarianism being the possibility to glimpse into most or all corners of it.
Understanding this illumination as a metaphor for learning and exploration of you own self, others around you and ultimately the realityβthat is the most cherished part of it for me.