Glimpse a culture's future by observing which purposes are gaining new specific labels. Beyond the specifics — explanatory models, chosen labels, new interests — we can glean more insight from the structural. The real question is, "what question of purpose is being scoped down?" In recent examples, newfound labels are being used to scope "how should I spend my time?" down to "how can I make my time most efficient?" or "what is the value in these ideas?" down to "what do I think is the value in these ideas?"
This essay itself is describing specific explanatory models for the question "how do language (labels) constrict cultural questions?" This is a scoped down question following Wittgenstein's sketch of "the limits of my language are the limits of my world" ****and Foucault's concept of the episteme in *"*ways to think about truth and discourse." **We can observe that our ways of thinking are focusing on pursuing deeper specifics and convoluted dimensions. Foucault described the foci of the Renaissance's as resemblance and similitude, and the foci of the Classical era as categorization and identity. Now, modern culture will be defined by relabelling, testimony, and affiliation. This is a result of the Internet's all-engulfing effect of particular self-awareness. “What am I?”
The individual's mental state is broadcasted to relabel and reinterpret psychological specificities, and this testimony is what we give our ultimate respect. Furthermore, our society is going through a vicious unhinging of meaning as we transition into a post-scarcity, information society — due to the overpowering connective chaos of the Internet, pockets of truth grounded in physicality will be rare. Our mental energy will largely be consumed by interpreting reality via pure affiliation.
Observing this pattern of unhinged specificity is a bit like seeing an ideological mirror for the first time. We notice what was previously unseeable or in our blind spots — like an eye noticing the eye-sockets and face, we can see the immediately adjacent paths of ideas that our specificity has condensed and cauterized.
The tips of thought at these paths, in the process of being scorched, are what we recognize as art at any given time. If we recognize it as art, it means that their level of specific identification and negative space (lack of focus) they employ (regardless of their subject of critique) necessarily reflect details about what is immediately growing and irritating us — at this window of time.
Within what we perceive as "art," its specificity is inversely proportional with its potential. Less specific art invites curiosity with a surface-level specificity hinting at underlying secrets. One current example, strong on both fronts, is art exploring community. One instance being "WHAT IS THE NEW RITUAL SPACE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY?" by Dorothea von Hantelmann — it and similar works are often heavy with vague words that, in our language, imply hidden specificity underneath: energetic intensity, potentiality, ritualized. These linguistic flares are a prerequisite for ideas to engage us as they await our more specific interpretation. Our culture will play in their vague complexity, our language poking at it like they are oysters potentially holding hidden pearls, which will depend on what people identify with testimony.
On the other hand, more specific art is nearing the end of its lifecycle as art. With respect to testimony, one current example of discourse at this stage is our culture's understanding of depression. It was once more vague in the earlier eras of the field of psychology. This progressed as stories were shared, understanding frameworks were being built, and we began to take measurements with electric technology. Eastern cultures have historically been less specific with interpreting what Western societies label as depression — instead they have a more holistic approach. This example of electricity being applied to the topic is the ultimate marker that our culture's understanding is reaching the end of its lifecycle of specificity.
This particular study appears it will be fruitful. For these topics and others (like equity of all forms and work life balance) that are reaching the end of their Classical specification, the incoming jump towards Modernity will begin to see an emphasis on the testimonial and affiliation. Soon there will be services, interpreters, social clubs, and administrative bloat built atop the specifics we choose.
As we look to the future, we can observe the various paths of specificity we have decided to pursue. Looking back a bit can inform our creativity — even as our culture "rebels" and breaks "boundaries," descending knowledge has largely been entrapped by acknowledging those boundaries' existence in the first place.