But categories are now less clear. They have multiplied and in some cases collapsed. And this makes the world buzz with imprecision. A FTL teenager looks into the social world and goes, “Oh please. I’m supposed to navigate that? What do I aim for? If there’s an identity waiting for me out there, I can’t see it.”

A profusion of categories multiples the opportunities for human happiness. On the other hand, if you are 18, this explosion of categories may strike you as a new and daunting order of complexity.

Our competitors are looking not just to beat us but baffle us. So, yes, the new American culture makes even business more changeable and chaotic. And culture, those underlying assumptions, are the culprit.

“Apps monitor you. They report on you. They shame you.” At the extreme, apps make somethings a little like a police state.

This is too many things. The chances of finding someone prepared to chat about something mutual (like, baseball) are small. When we stop chatting round the water cooler (and its social media equivalents), our world gets less clear, less organized, less cooperative, and less mutual. This threatens the American “we.”

We no longer see things as culture dictates we should. We are now getting closer to see the thing itself. Culture is breaking as we attempt to use it. In these few instances, it is slipping away before our very eyes.

In our culture, trends die young.

The university that cannot fix itself is disqualified from educating our young.

After all, the point of culture is often less the content than the sharing of the content. Entire communities, substantial, lasting communities, spring up from shared shows to say nothing of the tribal pleasures of shared lifestyle. The failure of sharing comes from a failure of culture and that makes culture a problem.