Cultural ecosystems need high-complexity margins to stay fresh

Evidence

While kitsch and extravagance have their charms, an ecosystem solely composed of low complexity culture quickly becomes stagnant. Even the most conservative humans seek some amount of surprise. Cultural ecosystems that encourage symbolic complexity solve this problem: innovations of high complexity trickle down and “refresh” mass culture. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 824

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Marginal figures more naturally produce radical symbolic invention — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 828; A music culture’s vitality can depend on intense local territorialization rather than global flow — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1262