Plutarch,

The quote from T.S. Eliot almost brought tears to my eyes. Here I am perusing dictionaries and thesauri and, low and behold, the voice of the poet from the din. Sigh...

The notion from Themilum that there is a consensus understanding of 'mad-kinds' ever changing culture ties right into the notion: the actual idea of a consensus. A consensus understanding of something can only be rendered such by a power elite (or someone who deems themselves so). By stating such as an absolute, you've actually lixiviated dissent. Insert smiley face, I don't know the code.

While I may not be considered a deep thinker, I am observant. What I have observed is that there is a Burger King in Baghdad. We (speaking from the soil of the U.S.) export our excess waste. As the U.S. is composed of cultures from everywhere else, this is perhaps the one thing that could be considered 'culture' in the U.S.

My spouse used to work as a buyer for Macy's. The buyers would travel all over the world, looking for those unique little cultural icons, bring them back and mass produce them. Eventually, those little icons ceased to have meaning. They were just 'exotic' imports from somewhere else. It continues to happen on a larger scale today. The transformation is currently taking place.

The term 'gentrification' is close from a sociological context. The people in the poorer parts of a city have cheap real estate. Artists move in because it is cheap; it becomes 'hip' and suburbanites go urban slumming, causing property values to rise. The poor can soon no longer afford to live there. That is a process with a name.

I think the reality of the transformation as process is the fact that it is happening. Insidious, yes. If we take it to a logical conclusion in a complete and absolute linear sense, it is not too difficult to envision the end of culture as all will be the same.

'When everyone knows good as good, this is not good.' Tao Te Ching