This morning Matt Walsh posted a video essay about the last peak period of movies (“06 through ’08) and the all-but-total disappearance of our shared American monoculture.
This is arguably the best essay Walsh has ever written. The basic thought is “don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.”
Alternate theme or slogan: “Over the last 18 years I’ve been suffering the slow spiritual death of a thousand cuts…blood drop by blood drop.”
8:35 excerpt: “We have lost something very important. We no longer have a shared cultural experience, or what some have called the ‘monoculture’ or what you might just call ‘mainstream culture.’ The monoculture began its march to extinction in 2007. Today the march is over. The process is complete. The monoculture gave way to the fragmented culture…a culture broken and divided into 300 million little pieces.”
HE to Walsh: “I 100% agree about ‘06 through ‘08 being a great movie era, and probably the last great one. But I don’t think that oppressive wokeness started with Barack Obama. The first fumes of wokeness started wafting around in 2016, but it was essentially launched when the Harvey Weinstein story broke in the fall of ’17. But the loss of a mono culture is 100% real, and your lament almost brought a tear to my eye.”
AI sez: “The monoculture was killed by the rise of the internet and digital streaming services, which broke up mass media consumption and allowed for a more personalized and fragmented media landscape. Factors like streaming algorithms, social media, and a greater focus on niche interests replaced the shared cultural experiences of the past, leading to a decline in a single, unifying mainstream culture.”
“2007 is the New 1999,” posted on 4.17.99. “25 in 2007“, posted on 9.21.21.
Key factors in the death of monoculture [AI-sourced]:
(a) Streaming services: Platforms like Netflix, Spotify, and others offer on-demand, personalized content. This replaced the shared experience of watching a TV show at a specific time or listening to a particular radio station.
(b) Algorithms: Streaming algorithms and social media feeds are designed to cater to individual tastes, creating personalized media bubbles. This means users are often shown content they already like, rather than a universally popular show that everyone is discussing.
(c) Social media: Platforms like Twitter, TikTok, and others allow for the formation of niche communities and the spread of trends that are specific to certain groups, rather than the entire population.
(d) Individualism and personalization: There is a greater societal emphasis on individuality, with people preferring to curate their own experiences and filter content that doesn’t resonate with them.
(e) Decline of traditional media: Traditional media events, like the Super Bowl or award shows, are no longer the singular cultural touchpoints they once were, as fewer people tune in to a single event.
(f) Accessibility to niche content: The internet has made it easy to find and consume content related to very specific or niche interests, which no longer need to rely on mass appeal to survive.