In today's NYT, Deborah Solomon interviewed Douglas Coupland, the originator of the term "Generation X." Her interviews usually seem to be edited to make the interviewee come off as a hypocritical demagogue, but Coupland holds up well. He seemed prepared.
This part of the interview caught my attention:
How would you define the current cultural moment? I’m starting to wonder if pop culture is in its dying days, because everyone is able to customize their own lives with the images they want to see and the words they want to read and the music they listen to. You don’t have the broader trends like you used to.
Sure you do. What about Harry Potter and Taylor Swift and “Avatar,” to name a few random phenomena?
They're not great cultural megatrends like disco, which involved absolutely everyone in the culture. Now, everyone basically is their own microculture, their own nanoculture, their own generation.
It reminded me of our discussion of the twilight (in my opinion) of the yogi megastars. I thought his comments, in reference to popular culture, was also relevant to the yoga world. Do you?
4 comments:
Hey Brenda!
This definitely seems to reflect what you were saying... I guess we'll see what happens. However I was growing up in small-town Ohio during Disco and one time when my Uncle was giving me a ride somewhere he made me promise that I didn’t like Disco. “We like rock-and-roll here,” he said.
It also makes me think about how as a culture there was a time when we trusted government and believed in authority and super heroes could be really super. There was a place in our psyche and attention for widespread approval of things. So as our changing beliefs manifest different habits of consuming media there will continue to be observable changes. That makes sense.
But this is also a vision of increasing fragmentation, and I’d like to see us come together and really be able to honor our own hearts as well as those around us. So around specific things differences are cool and interesting, but when it comes to our sense of care among people we need to close those gaps, open hearts and CARE about each other.
So there is a place for a universal message even as our tastes become ever more specific and distinct. Now we might need it more than ever.
Thanks for sharing this!
What an interesting idea, Brenda! I think each yogini makes her practice her own, and has since for the last 5000 years, or at least once women were "allowed to practice." Yoga teaches independence, so in many ways I think the "fad" will subside like all others, and true students will keep on truckin'. Love this blog! xo kitty
Brooks made me laugh! "We like rock-n-roll here!" that's awesome. We like to rock here, too! A very smart comment beyond that as well, Brooks! xo kitty
amen! RIP celebrity yoga teachers, RIP popular culture.
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