Discussion about this post

User's avatar
HARLEM LAMINE's avatar

I love the idea of socials democratizing culture but also giving everyone a stage to show their work. But, I agree that anyone can feel entitled to talk about anything without having the background or the insane amount of work, experience, reading that require to be insightful. Yet in the end, I believe there's a natural selection of people who can echo the work of creatives/researchers striving to elevate, and push the standards higher. Recently I came across a phrase from Susan Sontag "I don't write because there's an audience. I write because there is literature." Reading those words helped to reset and focus on what's essential. To create for the sake of it. To keep experimenting. To keep struggling in my creative process. Not to position myself in a market but because literature or whatever other art I might delve into enables me to explore who I am. To be honest, I am quite pessimistic most of the time. Because clearly this is a topic that extends to the society. I am more concerned to see people idolising or dreaming about things that are an ocean of emptiness than having a deeper view of what it means to be part of a community. I am not looking to blame anyone, but sometimes I feel disarmed when I see that things that are popular are actually rubbish. So, is it us as a society that has declined or is it the industries that are driving everyone down by not promoting innovative ideas. I don't know. I don't even know if this is how I should frame the question. Perhaps in this huge democratization of culture, where the opinion of an acclaimed professor is equivalent to the opinion of an influencer, it is crucially important to differentiate and prioritise. We are drowning in such quantities of information, opinions, and images that it is now even more important to be able to sort things out. For me, this is the most important task on a daily basis. Also, the move from a high culture to a fast-food culture served on a tiny digital screen doesn't help creative people to experiment and try to immerseve themselves in a topic and create something valuable that might last. This is becoming a luxury now that everything has to move fast to feed the audience. And I doubt things will get any better over time. For me, this is literally a political issue. As a group of human beings, what do we value ? industries crushing individuals or industries promoting individuals (very pessimistic on this one) ? What do we aim for ? better world or better sales figures (also pessimistic) ? How do we want to relate to each other ? But looking at the political climate around the world, we still have a long way to go. That said, I still believe that it is worth trying to work towards what we think is worthwhile. Eventually, that might change in the end. Anyway, I'm done rambling. Thank you for your post.

Expand full comment
Eatingpopos's avatar

"writing, in its purest form, remains a honest tool for expression." <3

Expand full comment
3 more comments...

No posts