The lifespan of a culture relies on generations passing it down, keeping the same beliefs and values alive for years to come. These beliefs always stem from limits and boundaries, whether they’re imposed by outer society or come from the foundational framework within a culture that sets social rules and defines order. 

What if this framework was abandoned and instead, each time a limit was hit, the boundary was crossed and the belief completely modified?

We would be left with an infinite culture, a cycle of the same cultural objects reworked, redone over and over with no natural endpoint.

Think about ABBA Voyage or the tens of remakes and reunions you have seen this year. Harry Potter remake, Camp Rock sequel, Wizards of Waverly Place spinoff, and Devil Wears Prada 2. Infinity Culture is the condition in which cultural limits become permeable. All endings can be reopened, the dead can return, styles can be resurrected, and completed narratives can continue. 

This doesn’t only apply to entertainment. The speed of a fashion cycle has been dramatically condensed from 20 years to a few months; vintage and archive have become buzzwords for anything over a few years old. Samples and interpolations are losing their essence, the boundaries between creation and recreation are nonexistent, and we’re drowning in nostalgia. Is nothing allowed to die?

I can’t discuss cultural limits without touching on technology and the power it gives the average user. From your palm, you have infinite access to everything; geographic borders disintegrate; you can connect with anyone at any time and learn anything about anything. 

That should be a good thing, but it doesn’t feel like it anymore. 

We have lost the experience of our own limits. Everything is homogenised. Subcultures and underground scenes are now in the mainstream; vernaculars are stretching across time zones. Aesthetics and words are travelling, but their meanings are not. 

Consider the widespread use of AAVE and how the meanings keep changing until terms once only used by those within the community become ‘internet slang’.

Some things can only be truly enjoyed in constraint. We are forgetting_; we are finite creatures with limits that should be respected. These globalised, infinity cultures where nothing has true meaning, and everything is a recycled shell of an idea disobeys cultural limits. By endlessly reopening the past, it is simultaneously becoming trapped by that same past.

I like seeing the advantages of our limits. Community is fundamental and only means something because it cannot be scaled. It is built slowly and forever protected by a framework; whether openly discussed or not, there are societal rules to every community.

Limits force you to look within to understand the person you are rather than picking from a persona online. Boundaries allow you to enjoy something fully and in the moment, knowing you can’t share it with anyone.

What do you think? Should we let everything loop over and over again, slightly different each time, or should we protect what we have, enjoy what we can and let natural endings be just that?