Culture no longer exists in our reality today because most of the actors responsible for it have long been deprived of their livelihood.
What is sold as culture today is just that: a product; a derivative of humanity, sold by the world's most successful companies as a hollow substitute, but one that sells like hotcakes.
Can’t wait for this thread to be deleted as OP realizes he’s a wee bit ignorant
We all know art is hard, artists gotta starve
The real deal will always be there and never be easy. Fuck "content", fuck entertainment, fuck packaging yourself for sale. To know and be known is the most human thing there is. Genuine self-expression was never commercially viable and isn't going anywhere as long as there are two people to engage with one another. That's art. It's not something you can be "good with LLMs" at, no matter how technically proficient their output
This is an incredibly myopic view of what's considered "culture." If you're only looking for culture on TV and mass media, then you're going to find products, because that's exactly what those things were designed and optimized to sell. But culture definitely still exists, and it's exactly where we left it: In the genuine interactions between the people around you.
Mass market products are still culture.
I think you’re looking in the wrong places. Culture is everywhere. The mediums and groups of people that propagate culture shift over time, but humans are inherently creative and will always develop it.
Try looking in places where there is a focus on community, connection, and the art itself—not places that focus on producing “content” for profit.
There are many people who make a living from it. Where else do you see them earning a living?
I’m not sure what you’re asking.
Culture is around all the time, we’ve just denied ourselves the right to use it because we started believing people could own ideas and let copyright/IP laws act as a gateholder.
Is dictated make-believe still culture? I don't think so, but that's what it boils down to.
Honestly, I can't understand how you can't see that, because it's been the case all over the world for a very long time. Take a look at the so-called social media applications. Do you seriously believe that what people see there has anything to do with who they really are? With their every day lives? What they understand as culture based on their experience there?
Yes, of course, the real world still exists, but do you really think it's independent of what people see online?
What do you think culture is?
To me culture is the shared stories, history, values and ideals of a group. So yes those make belief stories reflect people’s daily lives because they touch on themes that resonate with them.
I see no distinction between online or offline in terms of “real”, it’s the human that matters not the medium their idea is spread in.
We will always have art because it is a fundamental human thing to do no matter if we do it for money or just for ourselves. What we lose is the potential output of artists who could make a living making great things all day every day and feed themselves doing it.
What makes you so sure, when there's not even the prospect of making a living from it anymore? Do you think most artists do it as a hobby?
The vast vast vast majority of artists create art with neither expectations of payment nor the ability to do it full time, yes.
Not as a hobby by choice. They would love to do it and pay the bills but given no other choice they will work some other 9 to 5 and work on their passion in their off time. That's why artists are always taken advantage of so often. They know artists do it because because they love it and can be paid and treated like shit. Just look at the video game industry.
The great superorganic, in modern terminology we might say the metaorganic, its above us all. Personality writ large. That which we learn and share, that which helps us survive into the future.
The question is what the future will look like when culture is created by machines. This is already very evident today with all the social media bots and the logic that directs the attention of the remaining human users. The result is already quite dystopian, don't you think?
Is Mozart's music culture?
He was doing his stuff almost 100% for profit and was seen as a sell-out by a lot of the musicians at his time. He wrote his songs in German instead of Latin because he wanted to make essentially pop songs that were sung by kids on the street, and the musical establishment derided him for it, because they didn't think what he was making was actually art.