Originally Posted by Marie Monday

The impression I have from my experience is not as bad as that, but I'm also unsatisfied by the music/culture most people around me like. I think things have always been that way for the most part, but it seems that there used to be much more subcultures, I think you're onto something there. Maybe the internet destroyed that. In a way that's sad, but then again I suspect that those subcultures were almost as shallow and conformist as more mainstream popular culture. Most people are mediocre, and so are most people in alternative subcultures. Communities full of interesting people are very rare, and I think they're only possible if there's something interesting about what binds the community. And even then it often doesn't apply: art communities are full of posers, science is full of bland people who happen to have a specific kind of intelligence, etc. I guess I'm trying to say that linking culture to identity isn't much help when good culture doesn't ensure a nice or interesting identity. On the upside, that means that interesting people can be found everywhere