Imitating Europe generates both loss and the drive to transcend the imitation.

Evidence

It was precisely the demand for such a revival that Horkheimer criticized in the neo-Thomists as being not merely hopeless but even damaging, since such attempted revivals only accelerated the decay of what had actually survived of the good old days. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 369 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The double movement can convert even robber-baron capitalism into genuine institutional mutation — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 158; Imitation and distinction operate as complementary forces rather than opposites — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 165; Imitation among firms can produce either stable niches or disastrous crowding. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 1227 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Attempted revivals of a lost past accelerate the decay of what survives of it. #complicates (0.73) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 369