Has America reached a point of cultural stagnation?
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The United States in terms of infrastructure is in danger of becoming a 20th century relic. I think a whole lot has changed culturally in only 10-15 years, but with the rise of economies in other countries, the highest quality of life won't be in the USA unless Americans develop big ideas, and are allowed to implement them.
Do any of you feel that any cultural stagnation (which is the topic of this thread) is tied into or related to the US's status as a remaining sole superpower?
I think the reality is that you can never really get a grasp of the changes in culture while you're in the middle of them. Many people thought the same thing in early 2005 that the 00s were identical to the 90s. But even in the OP, it's now easy to recognize that they were very different.
Give it time, when 2025 gets here, I'm sure we'll think the 10s were very different from the 00s
One of the greatest men said: "Fighting and painting are better seen at a distance". We live as we used to and meanwhile the science makes the discoveries. Often this happens just in America. Examples?
- The 2000s - beginning of shale gas production in USA;
- The 2000s too - development of the private spaceflights (SpaceShipOneetc);
- And quite recently we all heard the news about the appearance of the laser weapon in the American army.
The world changes bit by bit for the better and it happens to a large degree in the USA.
This is what I'm seeing. As far as culture goes, things have changed. Things go faster. I think one thing about culture changing is that certain things go really fast. The nature of the media has changed, so things from all over the world are heard about faster.Things go obsolete faster.
If by culture you mean music, movies, fashion, hair styles etc it seems like not much has changed since the late 1990s.
When I was growing up in the 1960s and 70s, fashion, music, and movie content changed rapidly, like every couple of years. The difference between the year 1965 and 1970 was substantial. Same with 1970 and 1975. You could look at a movie or TV show made in those years and almost pinpoint the exact year.
To me, there has been virtually no change in anything in the last 5 years. Does 2015 seem much different than the year 2010? Can you tell the difference in a movie made this year and 5 years ago? Not me. I look at movies made even 15 years ago, around 2000, and things don't look much different to me. The music doesn't seem much different either.
Some things like social media has exploded, but not so much the content in that media.
Do any of you feel that any cultural stagnation (which is the topic of this thread) is tied into or related to the US's status as a remaining sole superpower?
I think the US' cultural influence peaked in the mid-90s (World Wide Web), and has entered a diminishing returns phase-- more evolution than revolution. Maybe the US' cultural influence on the rest of the world lasted so long, because they helped win WWII, and were able to prosper for decades without any wars fought on US soil.
The world has moved on from WWII, and formerly developing countries are on the rise economically. If those countries move to first world status, they will build their infrastructure using 21st century technologies and QOL standards, while the US sticks with 20th century standards for rail, housing, energy, transportation etc. China has the fastest rail in the world, South Korea has the fastest telecom networks in the world, etc.
The US can innovate ahead of other countries, but we need to take a critical look at ourselves, instead of insisting that we're still the best in the world, period.
Go on youtube and express a benign opinion. You'll have a crowd of people telling you you're wrong and should keep your mouth shut in some very rude yet creative ways. This decade has seen a breakdown in basic civility.
We've become a culture that sees basic social norms fly out the window under the cloak of ananymity the Internet now provides. Who cares about your neighbors when you'll never meet them in real life.
We are already four years into the 2010's decade. But, it is just me, or is there absolutely nothing culturally distinctive about this decade?
The 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's were all extremely culturally distinctive. When people think of the 60's, they think of dirty Hippies, LSD and colorful psychedelic imagery, Volkswagen Buses and Beetles, the Civil Rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr. & Malcolm X, the sexual revolution and free love, the Beatles, Motown etc.
When people think of the 70's, they think of bellbottoms, platform shoes, afros and thick sideburns, leisure suits, Blacksploitation films, Disco, Soul music, Classic Rock etc.
When people think of the 80's, they think yuppie culture, Reaganomics, the crack epidemic, tough city streets rife with crime, Adidas tracksuits, the formative years of Hip Hop in NYC and the rise of Gangsta Rap in the inner city streets of California, loud colored clothes, acid wash denim, the hairband era of Rock music, Madonna, Thriller era Michael Jackson, Nintendo.
When people think of the 90's, they think Nirvana and the Grunge Era, the golden era of Rap music, the height of urban crime and blight, the advent of the internet, dial up service with AOL, baggy jeans and oversized t-shirts, the prosperous Clinton years, The Simpsons etc.
But for quite some time now, there has been a large cultural stagnation in America. Nothing is new anymore. America is pretty much the same as it was in 2009. A lot of it has to do with the economy not improving much since 2008. There have yet to be any widespread vast improvements in technology since the dawn of the new decade.
When you look at the bigger picture, American innovation in technology has been stagnant for decades. Besides advances is technology in cellphones and the internet, life is really no different than it was back in the 80's other than the fact that people are getting fatter. When I was a kid in the late 80's, my father said that we would have flying skateboards and flying cars like Back II the Future 2 and food replicators like Star Trek: The Next Generation in 2014. And my father was not a dumb man. He was a tenured professor who taught biochemistry. But he was wrong about that technological prediction for this decade. Today, the average age of a car is an all-time high in America because most people can't afford to buy a new car. Not only that, but America's infrastructure is crumbling, large cities like Detroit, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New Orleans continue to deteriorate and our airports are compared to that of those in third world countries by world class travelers.
Fashion nowadays is hardly distinctive. Everything is retro and re-hashed. Kids today are wearing the same re-released retro Air Jordans that Michael wore back in the 90's. At the dawn of every new decade, the fashions and styles of the decade 20 years prior come back in style. The 70's saw 50's nostalgia with movies like Grease and shows like Happy Days. The 80's saw 60's nostalgia with the Rap group De La Soul embracing Hip Hop Hippiness. The 90's were about 70's nostalgia with movies like Dazed and Confused. The 2000's were about 80's nostalgia with Lacoste polos and Adidas track suits popping up again in the earlier part of last decade. But the current 2010's nostalgia for the 90's seems more desperate this time around. Young people these days aren't inspired by the 90's, but actually wish they could get in time machines and go back and live in the 90's because economically this has been dubbed the worst era since the Great Depression:
It seems like the current rough economic climate has birthed a complete cultural halt in America. There is no new great genre of music today. The last new form of music with the largest cultural impact worldwide of Rap music is already about 40 years old. Rap has been hijacked by corporations and is a dumbed down former shell of itself. Even newer underground Rap no longer packs the punch that it did 20 years ago. Rock music has been dead since the 90's as well. There is no new huge cultural movement in America today. I don't think Instagram counts. Occupy Wall Street was short lived and fizzled out too fast and can't be compared to the magnitude of the Hippie movement of the 60's.
So what really defines this decade as being different or progressive in any way? We are already four years into this new decade and I see no changes culturally or economically since 2007. Is this a sign that America may be on its way to declining from its position as the leading economic and sociocultural force in the western world? Or do you think as the decade progresses, technology, the economy and culture will catch up? Or do you think that America is headed for some rough times ahead in this decade as things will get worse, not better?
Didn't really read your post in detail, but I think it's just your opinion. And I disagree about the technology. Nothing besides the internet and smart phones? lol. The internet and having it at our disposal 24/7 has changed how we live significantly unless you choose for it not to. Fashion? Distinctive. Imagine skinny jeans bearded hipster compared to 90's baggy pants. Music? EDM/dance music compared to pop...big difference. etc etc. I'd argue if you take someone from 1980 and put them in 1950 they'd notice fewer differences and adjust better than taking someone from today and putting them in 1980. It'd be an adjustment. And about the US specifically, that's just because every day the world comes closer together. In fact you could argue the biggest change is that now there's more of a global pop culture that everyone contributes to than one purely ours or another countries.
Yes, I would say we are stagnate. There really haven't been any fresh and exciting ideas or art for a while but a lot of rehashed ideas with a new twist instead. There also doesn't seem to be much imagination for tackling our problems. We are technologically advanced but it seems we still cling to old fashioned ways of doing things.
What America needs now is something new to be excited about.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
