ccccultura

People are always seeing and being seen, and in some ways, owning products does constitute one form of cultural participation. Yet it is also clear that owning goods alone is not a really significant sort of participation.

“the concept of authenticity is increasingly deemed inauthentic.”

Today, social media has become a more perfect tool for culture than Arnold could have imagined, and its use a science of penetrating the mass mind.

We are transitioning out of the era of Lifestyle, and into an era where the production of culture is valued—both subjectively and financially—on its own terms. From an era where brands are designed to sell products to an era where brands are designed to be culture, to transform lives, to instill beliefs.

The realization that producing culture is about producing types of personhood is the central issue of this new cultural economy.

Class still exists, but there’s no longer just one aesthetic per class. Instead, “class” is expressed merely by price points that exist within consumer subcultural categories.1