Cultural stagnation is reversible political choice rather than inevitability.

Evidence

In my previous book Status and Culture, I argued that the easy acquisition of information and goods on the internet destroyed an important source of cultural value and elevated money to the supreme status symbol. … Capitalism may seem inevitable, yet political parties around the world organize to reform it. Environmentalists don’t throw up their hands and say, “Who knows what might flower if we embraced the boiling oceans?” — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 848

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Cultural stasis may be the historical norm, not the exception. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 798; In cultural study, arbitrariness means another choice could serve equally. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 115