Have you ever felt like you were trapped in timeloop of culture that has completely come to a halt? Like everything is being re-created over and over and over again?  That mainstream media is no longer designed to inspire, but instead, to discourage and dishearten? To lower your level of consciousness?

It’s as if we’ve entered an era where creativity and originality have been sacrificed upon the alter of predictability and profit.  The once vibrant and daring spirit of media has been replaced with a monotonous echo chamber, recycling the same tired tropes and ideas.  We are constantly bombarded with remakes, sequels, and formulaic content that fails to challenge our minds or uplift our spirits.

Our mainstream media doesn’t challenge us or seem to represent the higher ideals of people anymore. While parroting endless corporate narratives, all mainstream music literally sounds the same, and every TV show and movie seeming to build off the nostalgia of previous works, our mainstream channels have abandoned authentic creation for control and economic aimless profit.

If you’ve felt this way, you aren’t alone in this experience and you aren’t hallucinating.  Our culture has completely stopped creating anything of substance and it seems to have gotten stuck in the mud.

In terms of the horrors of modern mainstream music, I credit Thoughty2 in his YouTube video, “Why is Modern Music so Awful” for originally bringing this to my attention years ago (Video).

To summarize the video, in studies done by the Spanish National Research Council in 2012, the conclusion that music is getting objectively worse was quantified through a few methods:

• Timbre Decline: The texture, color, and quality of sounds of music peaked in the 1960s and has been steadily declining ever since.  This includes less variation of instrumentation and recording techniques, including a drastic decline in the use of actual instruments.
• Homogeneity in Melodies and Rhythms: Since the 1960s, melodies, rhythms, and vocals of songs have become increasingly similar, resulting in music that is less harmonically complex and more familiar and repetitive.
• Loudness and Compression: Music producers have intentionally been making their songs louder by using compression effects, resulting in a reduction of timbral quality of music.
• Lyrical Homogeneity: Lyrics have become more mundane, homogenous, and self-degrading. Lyrics Lab did a great study on lyrical complexity and themes in modern music and found a vast decrease in complexity and more negative themes in music, usually associated around sadness, anger, and fear, compared to songs from earlier decades (pre-2010’s).

A lot of this has been formed as a method of creating media that sounds similar and to create nostalgia for previously released music, as it’s easier to hook the lowest common denominator in and rely upon the selling of familiarity instead of taking economic risk to create innovative and revolutionary art.  In my opinion, a parasitic form of brainwashing keeping people listening to the same repackaged slop repeatedly and infantilizing them as a result, strictly for short-term economic gain.

It may be easy to say, “Oh, well mainstream music isn’t geared towards actual cultural innovators”.  That’s a reasonable response, but when compared to the instrumental or lyrical complexity of mainstream music of the past, the difference is striking.

Take, for instance, the intricate arrangements in Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles.  This not only showcased six instruments played by the band members themselves, but included a 40-piece orchestra of strings, brass, woodwinds, and percussion.  Consider this with innovative recording techniques and thought-provoking lyrics.

Looking at Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, which used advanced studio effects, diverse instrumentation, and complex time signatures.  Or looking at Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life, blending elements of jazz, soul, and classical music to deliver socially conscious and uplifting messages.

The list goes on, but the point stands, mainstream music in the year 2024 is monotonous, brainwashing, slop.

It’s not necessarily that this music isn’t being made, it’s just that mainstream funding and production is not moving towards similar levels of complexity in artistic creation that was once an esteemed part of American pop culture.  There is no bottom-line incentive to produce something with character when you can just deliver re-packaged nonsense with an updated label. 

Moving beyond music, and to highlight the broader trend, let’s look at the Disney acquisition of the Star Wars franchise. While I’m not a die-hard Star Wars fan, the transformation of this once-beloved franchise into what is now a “woke joke” underscores how corporations have exploited and degraded successful cultural icons.  This trend of artificial and disconnected mainstream media production shows time and time again of corporations parasitically feeding at the nostalgia of once successful franchises, seemingly aiming to cater to the few rather than inspire the many.

The separation between mainstream media narratives and actual cultural sentiment is stark.  For instance, most Americans hold a very grim view of the economy, however, stock prices are at all-time highs and mainstream puppets such as CNN and MSNBC are gaslighting Americans into thinking it’s great.  

We are told that inflation isn’t that bad anymore, but the cost of essential items like a pound of beef has more than doubled over the past four years.  This discrepancy between reported statistics and everyday experiences illustrates how inflicted inflation continues to impact Americans, as much as corporate pundits want us to believe the opposite.

The overall economic numbers are staggering:

• Nearly 1/3 of Gen-Z adults live at home because they can’t afford a house or the cost of rent.
• Three-fourths of employment growth since 2019 went to immigrants and not native-born citizens.Immigrants getting jobs is great, but not at the expense at the decimation of economic opportunities for American citizens who have fueled the economy through taxes their entire lives.
• The older population is only getting richer and richer, with 40-year-olds owning 25% less wealth compared to older generations when they were the same age.

But why is this?  Is it the republicans?  Is it the democrats?  Is it the dirty commies?  Or is that every economic crisis that has occurred over the last two decades, of which both parties are guilty of, has concluded with printing endless money to bail out banks, airlines, and provide artificial stimulus to consumers.  These actions may taste sweet in the short term, but are extremely bitter in the long run.  As they say, “money printer go BRRRRRR”…

The Occupy Wall Street movement of 2011 was a direct response to these economic practices.  It highlighted the growing discontent among Americans about economic inequality and disproportionate influence of corporations on government. Protestors famously rallied against the “1%”, being the wealthiest Americans who benefited the most from the bailouts and economic policies, while every day Americans faced and continue to face, stagnating wages and rising living costs.

      I’ve had a running theory for years now that the more money we print and don’t produce through legitimate time and energy, the more artificial our culture becomes. The marketplace of ideas is usually a pretty great place to see the cream rise to the top, however, with artificial stimulus going to failing companies and people that haven’t done the work to produce legitimate value, we end up with products, ideas, and trends that normally wouldn’t last in the social “survival of the fittest”.  This artificial support undermines the natural economic and cultural evolution, leading to a society where mediocrity is sustained at the expense of innovation and meritocracy.

      This environment of artificial support and fake value not only promotes mediocrity, but also fosters an increase in fraudulent activities.  As financial safety nets and bailouts become more common, there’s less accountability and greater opportunity for deceitful practices to thrive.

A few examples of recent artificial social movements are:

• The 2017 Fyre Festival, a highly promoted luxury music festival in the Bahamas, which was heavily funded and utilized influencers and paid social media campaigns to create fake hype, turned out to be an absolute disaster.
• The 2020 Ladders’ Salary Survey put on the popular job site “Ladders”, claiming that many job seekers were landing six-figure jobs, using manipulated data to paint an overly positive picture of the job market.
• The Theranos fraud.  A blood testing company led by Elizabeth Holmes, once touted as the “Next Steve Jobs”, which was exposed for fraudulent practices and claims about the technological capacity of her company, leading to immense legal consequences and collapse of the entire company.

While fraud has existed since the beginning of mankind, it’s only getting more elaborate, sophisticated, and absurd. Without forms of artificial stimulus, a majority of these movements wouldn’t have the habitual reflex behind them that they seemed to have. Each day, we are only condoning and normalizing this behavior more and more, resulting only in world that is increasingly plastic, fake, and predatory.

But this issue isn’t just a recent development. Historical precedents show that artificial influence on culture has long been a tool for various agendas.  For instance, during the mid-1900s, the CIA secretly funded the Jackson Pollock/American Abstract Expressionist painting movement.

This manipulation of cultural trends for political purposes raises important questions about authenticity in our current society. With today’s advanced technology and media capabilities, we must ask ourselves: is what we’re seeing even real? Is the hype surrounding various trends and movements genuine, or is it manufactured?

Through the actions of stealing from the future to provide for the now, we have gotten ourselves into an unproductive set of habits that have allowed us to live in such a way that is not in alignment with natural economic principles, and I believe this to be one of the largest reasons are culture is in such disarray.

In today’s world, it’s increasingly difficult to discern what is real.  The rise of advanced technologies, particularly in artificial intelligence, adds another layer of complexity. To this issue.

For instance, in a research study done at Notre Dame where individuals were told to determine whether they were chatting with a Large Language Model (LLM, think ChatGPT), or a human, individuals were incorrect 58% of the time.

As AI continues to evolve, it becomes ever more critical to develop a discerning eye and the critical thinking skills to navigate this landscape.  The challenge lies not only in recognizing and resisting artificially manufactured trends and misinformation but also in leveraging AI’s potential responsibly to foster a more authentic and sustainable cultural and economic environment.

 According to Cloudflare, one of the largest content delivery networks in the world, an estimated 15% of the accounts on social media are bots.  Now this isn’t the most graceful math, but just to paint an image, imagine that with the average person, over half their interactions with 15% of the accounts they interact with are not real.  They’re talking to 1’s and 0’s behind a screen that is most likely designed to inflame rage, sow social discourse, or push artificial trends.

Through our own inability to responsibly deal with the consequences of our actions, and to understand the natural progression of technological development, we are creating ideas, social movements, media, and art that are not authentic, and this is only accelerating.

This pervasive artificiality, driven by both technological advancements and economic misalignments, underscores the urgent need for a return to genuine, value-driven creation and interaction.

The battle for your mind is arguably what I see as the actual World War III today.  Wars may be happening on thebattlefield right now in Ukraine and the Middle East and I don’t mean to downplay those brutal realities, but the real battle happens every day in your head when you plug into the system.

 There are countless companies trying to sell you on a product or a lifestyle, there is endless media coming from mainstream institutions trying to sell you on the “current thing” and there are literal multi-national corporations and nation-states pouring millions of dollars into psychological warfare techniques against certain populations.

There was a program started in the 1950s called MKUltra, which was a series of experiments conducted by the CIA on unwitting American citizens, in order to develop mind control techniques.  This included the use of drugs such as LSD, hypnosis, and other controversial methods to influence human behavior.   A large amount of the documents were actually destroyed, but the ones that weren’t were very revealing as to what intelligence agencies are willing to do to their own citizens in order to gain and maintain power and influence.

In 2021, it was released that the IDF, the Israeli Defense Forces, used psychological warfare on its own citizens in order to increase support for Israeli operations on the Gaza Strip. Now imagine the American example of the false “weapons of mass destruction” and how much funding went into media and propaganda to support American influence in the Middle East.

We have also heard of the countless examples of foreign influence in our elections and our media by China and Russia. Whether for sowing social division, increasing support for foreign operations, or other economic purposes.

 Knowing this and knowing the artificial influence of our social media channels, what are us individuals supposed to do against these influences?  What are we supposed to believe?

Well, we should not support politicians that allow for the destruction of our dollar through the printing of endless money. We need to deal with the consequences of our economic irresponsibility, even if it means short-term economic pain, to prevent more severe long-term economic consequences.

I believe this starts locally.  Supporting local politicians that stand for the principles laid out in the Constitution, who support freedom of association, that aren’t bought out by foreign interests, and who advocate for freedom of speech and the numerous ideals that make America great, even with our flaws and mistakes.

At a certain point, the system does seem to have fallen off the tracks so far that it seems impossible to redirect.  Debt is literally parabolic and looks like Bitcoin does when it peaks and TikTokers are telling you to go all in. While this may seem frightening at first glance, I believe that one can at least prepare for the potential economic inefficiencies and the devaluing of our dollar, and potentially even thrive in such an environment.

Our culture, as a result of garbage economic and social policies, is suffering from atomization.  People are becoming increasingly isolated from one another and from traditional social structures.  This fragmentation has led to weakened community bonds and decline in social cohesion.  The prevalence of digital interactions over face-to-face connections, which many will view as a luxury in the future, only exacerbates this issue.

Atomization diminishes the ability to mobilize collective action and weakens the influence of community-based initiatives.  This further adds to the power of large, centralized institutions that may not have the communal interests of the people at heart.

I believe that local and decentralized creation is the only realistic way out of this predicament.  We are already seeing this with the advent of podcasting, non-mainstream media creation, and even cryptocurrency.  These decentralized platforms empower individuals and communities to create and share content and value without the gatekeeping of traditional institutions. 

We need to begin developing our own methods of creation and build networks that empower the local community.  Whether through word, media, or product, we must support initiatives that prioritize genuine value and community well-being. The current institutions and powers that have repeatedly shown their inclination towards the abuse of power and influence, making it crucial for us to vote with our wallets and attention to support institutions that genuinely care about our cultural development.

A lot of this is the reason why I’ve decided to create this blog in the first place.  You never truly know how your words and actions can influence the people that you associate with and bring light to their own thoughts and ideas.

Lastly, we must put our money where our mouth is. Through the creation of alternative economic systems, whether using blockchain systems leveraging decentralized finance mechanisms, investing in local businesses, and finding ways to contribute to our local economy through our own ventures, we can reduce our dependence on a corrupt system destined to continued degradation.

I highly urge you to pursue that business idea, attend local political events, or create content around the topics that are important to you. We have the capacity to influence the world around us and create systems that are better than those we inherited.

Self-sufficiency and communal sufficiency are key strategies for navigating this age of economic and social artificiality. While investing our time, energy, and resources into empowering our local communities may represent more cost in the short-term, the long-term benefits of reliability and authenticity will prove to be extremely valuable.

It is up to us to create a new narrative for our generation and to provide the opportunity for future generations to create their own stories as well.  By fostering local innovation, supporting authentic initiatives, and building resilient communities, we can pave the way for a brighter, more empowering future.