The Cultural Discourse: Why Your Choices Are Not Your Own

An Engagement Between One Aspect of Culture and the Individual

Think about the last decision you made today. It doesn’t have to be a big decision or anything major. It could have been about dinner or how to approach your boss or how to feel sexy for the date you’re going on tonight (congratulations by the way). Regardless of the scenario, the decision you made was not your own. It was a mixture of cultural influences that layered on top of one another throughout the centuries that nudged you towards wearing your strapless black cocktail dress instead of that white silk blouse and red pencil skirt. You were an active participant in the decision making process but it was your culture that set the parameters for your choices.

An active participation in any culture requires a conscious decision to engage with that part of it while being influenced by the choices it presents. A strapless black dress requires an uncomfortable strapless bra but the choice might be worth it if the results are what you want…whatever that might be.

In our modern commerce-society, our buying decisions derive from a mixture of cultural influences in marketing that masquerade as the buyer’s own freewill. This consumer choice results in the exchange of resources like money, effort, and time for what economists call “utility” or for the purposes of this article, satisfaction.

We can see these active choices in a variety of industries.

The Fashion Industry

People proactively choose to spend billions each year on fashion labels rather than non-label garments. In 2023, the global fashion industry made over 1 trillion in revenue. A pair of pants cover your legs but the designer name stitched on the inside of those pants conveys a decision to participate in an aspect of culture that’s more exclusive to the buyer. The fashion consumer has paid the price to join the fashion conversation within that culture. The non-label consumer has saved themselves quite a bit of money and could care less about their contribution to the fashion culture’s discourse within society. At the end of the day, their discount clearance pants cover their legs all the same.

The Premium Electric Car Industry

Twenty years ago the idea of owning a Prius conjured up images of a wimpy compact sedan with the acceleration of a golf cart. Now people openly brag about owning a Tesla. The brand, Tesla, is just a name attached to an electric vehicle. Those interested in saving the environment could opt to purchase a cheaper EV alternative or even bike to work. It is the exclusive nature of the Tesla purchase that initiates the individual into the premium electric car cultural conversation. For those other individuals who cannot afford, or wish to avoid said purchases, they are left outside of the conversation.

The Real Estate Industry

For nearly a century, the American housing market was the cornerstone conversation starter among the national population. Discussions about homeownership still continue, though the select population that make up that conversation are shrinking every year. Despite the housing market in America, it still stands that the individual with the bigger house must have the larger budget to afford it. Thus, whoever owns the larger house must be successful. Those who are left to rent, or possibly stay at home with their parents, are excluded from this aspect of the cultural discourse entirely.

There are endless examples for each industry, in depth analysis for each population within those industries, and an even greater insight on consumer behavior when considering the debt those decisions create. A common question presents itself after all these considerations: who would pay such a cost to be a part of something so…trivial?

You’re On the List

Everyone, whether they want to be or not, is part of the cultural discourse at large. The moment anyone enters the world and begins to engage with it, they have entered the cultural conversation. Granted, at birth, an individual does not have much to contribute, but as they grow and develop within the environment, their contributive power increases. This can be seen in all stages of life. From the declarative independent toddler who wants to close the door by themselves, to the rebellious teenager who refuses to wear a dress shirt for the family photo, to the bratty Baby Boomer who throws a fit in line at the Applebee’s because they are a gold card member of the AARP network and feel they should not have to wait for a table.

Each of these individuals are expressing their response to the culture in which they are immersed and also contributing to it at the same time. It is reciprocal in nature, and with our smart phone enabled society, a rather instantaneous feedback loop.

A Baby Boomer, Applebees, and TikTok

For example, the Baby Boomer throwing a fit in line at Applebees is recorded by a fellow patron standing in line. The Baby Boomer stomps around, shouts, demands free food to assuage their mood, then assaults the individual recording the incident before calling them a racial slur and leaving the restaurant. Twenty-four hours later, the Baby Boomer is known throughout the digital world via TikTok. Cultural commentators and influencers reveal the Baby Boomer’s identity, where they work, who they are associated with in their town along with a call to action for their immediate termination from their workplace. Twenty-four hours later, the Baby Boomer is fired, humiliated, and exiled from their friend group. The Baby Boomer chose to actively participate in the culture by throwing a fit and leveraging bigotry to make themselves feel powerful. The culture responded to the Baby Boomer’s actions by leveraging technology to get the Baby Boomer (who was so close to retirement) fired from their workplace. Applebee’s bans them for life.

The viral Baby Boomer video is then reposted with younger generations commenting on the behavior of the Boomer. The younger social media communities agree with the commentator which causes the stigma of self-righteous Baby Boomers to grow among the American culture. The younger generations feel vindicated for their broad prejudice against an older generation. The older generation grows more bitter, which leads to a short-fuse when they’re being served by them in restaurants. The feedback loop continues.

Newtonian Physics and Choice

When individuals begin to make active choices in the cultural discourse an inherited responsibility for their actions is part of the package. We can set this in a pre existing context with the action and reaction physics paradigm. For every action an individual takes within their culture, a reaction will arrive instantaneously from that culture. We can replace the term “action” with “choice” or “conversation”, the “reaction” can be replaced with “responsibility” or “response”, from the culture itself.

Action -> Reaction

or

Choice -> Responsibility

or

Conversation -> Response

The ramifications of knowing this particular paradigm is crucial in being a responsible participant in the cultural discourse. Many individuals live their entire lives without the slightest realization that every action they choose not only derives from something else that’s influenced their decision but also goes on to contribute to the surrounding culture in which they live. Whether that contribution is good or bad depends entirely on the context of the cultural norms…but I digress.

Either way, the individual who understands they are part of an active cultural discourse can now navigate the world with a bit more awareness of not only the responsibilities their choices incur but the influences from other cultural contributors that are influencing their side of the conversation. At this point, the realization begins to creep in with a hint of existential dread: the individual’s thoughts are not entirely their own but a mixture of cultural conversations overlapping throughout their entire lives, shaping, and molding their take on life and how it should or should not be lived. Free will begins to break apart and BJ Skinner starts to crawl through the cracks.

Identity and Control

Cultural discourse occurs across every aspect of life in a society, influencing everyone’s life who is remotely connected to that society. Take a moment and think about your life. Think about the various layers of social participation: your religion, your sense of justice, your take on politics, your ideological sense of truth, family, friendship, intimacy, sexuality, identity. None of those things derived from you nor did you have complete control over their influence in your life. As a matter of fact, your life is not technically your own since you’ve shared it with everyone around you in some form or another the moment you arrived. That means, you have a cultural responsibility in the way you conduct yourself, make your choices, and respond to the world around you because consequences are rippling your way, whether you like it or not.

*Side note: human social culture requires at least two participants. With only a single person, human social culture cannot exist and is merely the individual’s response to the environment. The culture is based on that environment (if it’s a jungle or an abandoned Mars base) they are engaging with the jungle-culture or the abandoned Mars base culture, not human social culture.

Of course, there are many individuals within society that don’t care for the cultural discourse (or are entirely unaware of it) and choose to live their lives without the slightest consideration of others or themselves. This underlying belief system, that one is entirely independent of and/or entirely individualistic, is an illusion. Even the shut-in at the end of the street is part of the cultural discourse. The decision to live where they do, the clothes they wear, the fear that keeps them inside, it all comes from the culture. Even their food preference, basic sanitation, and electricity comes from their social culture. Which means, the kurmudgeon has to pay the bills and is required to engage with the commerce-society around them or die.

Modern Day Cultural Discourse in Commerce.

Throughout this article a subtle set of implications might have been growing for the reader. On the large perspective, cultural discourse seems abstract, conceptual, even ideological but not something that can be all too detrimental to everyday life. On the smaller perspective, cultural discourse is woven into the foundations of modern commerce, making it a major consequence to everyone.

Buying Decisions: Money

The notion that one’s buying decisions are influenced by the cultural discourse seems a bit obvious (if you live in a capitalist society) but what about behavioral decisions? The way one acts at work compared to the neighborhood bar compared to a Chappell Roan concert is obviously influenced by the cultural environment. However, what about the decision to go to work in the first place or drop by the bar for a few drinks or spend the cash on tickets to see Chappell Roan? What about the choices that went into applying for the job, what was the motivation to get drinks at the bar, why go see Chappell Roan live?

The job position might have stemmed from a need for more money to afford living in downtown Chicago and making the car payments on a new Tesla. Why a Tesla? Because they’re good for the environment or because they imply the driver is wealthy and ambitious about tech? Where does that implication come from? The society that contributes to the cultural discourse, that influences the response from the individual, who then finances a Tesla.

What about the bar? A visit to have a few beers requires minimal decisive consideration but deciding to get dressed up, and take a few shots before attempting a conversation with an incredibly attractive individual, that requires considerably more consideration. Why speak to an attractive individual while slightly intoxicated? Is it the possibility of getting laid or finding the next relationship? Why is one motivated by sex? To feel wanted? To feel valued? And by whom would one feel valued? The society engaging with the cultural discourse that determines these factors, that’s who.

Seeing Chappell Roan live does not require an explanation.

Ok, fine. Let’s explore that particular buying decision. The cost of the tickets is easily near a thousand dollars (depending on the venue), along with the added cost of parking, transportation, hotel, and merch. Why would one decide to participate in the live event at such a given expense? To be a live participant in a cultural practice, shared with thousands of people, who have formed their own subculture around Chappell Roan’s music. The attendee has paid the cost of entry and is now participating in a more explicit cultural discourse of the Chappell Roan culture.

Effort Decisions: Time

Given the factors of modern day commerce it is best to view the acquisition of capital and the expense of that capital as a unit of time. The resource everyone has but no one can produce. There are ways of maximizing effort and time management (I can hear the LinkedIn keyboard warriors stirring at the last statement) but no one can actually create more time. Thus, it is a limited resource, even further limited in the fact that anyone’s time can be up at any point in time. This means that unlike other resources like land, water, air, or bitcoin, individual time as a resource is dependent on random factors that cannot be controlled by the individual. I’ll save the mortality part of this statement for another article…you’re welcome.

Effort decisions are made at the expense of time first, money second. With enough wealth, one can afford to save time with the expense of money but the decision itself takes time, doesn’t it? Every decision an individual makes requires the expense of a resource no one is making more of and no one is guaranteed. Furthermore, the influencing factors on these decisions are the direct manifestation of the cultural discourse in which the individual finds themself. A cultural discourse that is reciprocal, dialogic, powerful, and most importantly, required by every person in it.

The Cost of Living Attenuation

To live in a modern society is to be in a perpetual state of expense. Everything costs something and nothing goes down in price. Thus, an active participation in the cultural discourse is all the more important for those searching for value in exchange for their time. An astute awareness of the influences around one’s self will not only save time and money but life itself. The careful choices one makes in their behavior and their response to society, can afford them a safer position at work, a more respected position in the family, and even greater peace of mind. No matter the take one has on society itself, it does not stem from that individual alone, but is part of a greater, collaborative response to the past, on behalf of the future, made in the decisions of the present.

Let’s make sure the consequences are beneficial to the conversation.