It’s a stunning fact that 4 years on, there’s not a *single* cultural artifact—not a song, a novel, or even a movie—that legitimately captures the attitudes and experiences of 2020 in America. Argue with the values, but we got some really dope music out of the 60s! A sea TikToks with 0 enduring standouts.

Design and software at Apple. Also into AI, philosophy of mind, ethics.

Idk I think Bo Burnham’s Inside is up there

I write about tech + humans + philosophy. Farcaster OG. FID 3305 founder of /theindex 

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I was agreeing with Sam til I read this… That album is genius and does capture that moment.

building /bracket | talking /greatbooks | ex-BCG, ex-PHD | poli + phil + econ

fair enough, I still think the larger point stands that there’s no (or let’s say scant) larger zeitgeisty legitimizing aesthetic to that cultural moment. again I think of the 60s and 80s. maybe that shows the moment’s illegitimacy or moral bankruptcy?

I think it just shows the mundanity of the moment. It's hard to write a rousing song about being stuck in doors and for the most part people who were dealing with covid didn't want to make or consume art about it. But that's not without precedent; how many vital cultural artefacts do we have about the Spanish flu?

Okay and I promise this is the last point I’ll make - think about monoculture. In the 1960s, there was a powerful and defining monoculture that ruled the Zeitgeist because media was centrally controlled by TV/film/radio gatekeepers. Thanks to the internet and social media the 2020s are much more fragmented and decentralised, meaning we have fewer defining cultural touchstones and far more niche / splintered ones.

But I’d also suggest that people in the 1960s weren’t aware of the cultural significance of any works created in that decade, ~during that decade. It’s only in hindsight that we apply or recognise significance. I’d wait until at least the end of the 2020’s and well into the 2030’s before I’d expect anyone to be able to make that cultural pronunciation.