Culture is technically defined as the characteristics or knowledge of a specific group. Whilst this knowledge may vary from, among many other things, language, foods, music, dances and religion; the characteristic aspect of it lies in the ideology of the group. Characteristics such as clothing, social interactions and art represent much more than mere knowledge. It exhibits the historical presence, moral direction and when put all together, they make up a prosperity of diversity.
If we look at any cultural community, in any part of the world, we can understand who they are. If not through their language; their skills, behaviours and ethics will point us in the right direction. Take, for example, the Bayaka community. Their knowledge of natural medicines, their skills of carpentry indicate that they may be from a rainforest. The Himbas who live in tents made of mud must be from the desert or that the skilled Kazakh eagle hunter tribe is from mountainous terrains. What remains a void in the world of cultures, is Europe: a black hole which violently exploits anything original to fill the emptiness it’s standardized, carbon copy monotony world.
Whilst in other parts of the world, the abundance of tribes is being newly discovered; the entire continent of Europe is in a crisis of no culture. Let’s start our analysis with the youth.
In 2016, 91 % of young people in the EU made daily use of the internet, compared with 71 % for the whole EU population. In the U.K. alone 99% of those between the ages of 16-24, use social media once a week or more, an average of 2 hours 26 minutes a day.
It is not hard to identify that a majority of European youth dress the same, speak the same, have similar senses of humour and even think the same. The mundane uniforms are sold to the working class as clothing -the driving force of the economy- in huge quantities; whilst, the fat and prosperous petty-bourgeois, the of the ‘fashion’ industry become a marginalised, influential class. The cherished dictators of digital media wander the earth of the world, taking as they see fit, and everything that is rare and atypical is plastered over the billboards of the world, in every magazine, newspaper or even advert. Cultures belonging to ethnic minorities, who commonly earn close to nothing at the factories at of the very same exploiters, are sold at ruthlessly deceitful prices. The more expensive the product, the more it is desired.
The beauty of this culture is now propertied: it belongs to the rich and influential who would so much as oppose the political rights of these people, had they mattered so much as to appear on the world’s agenda.
This is why the youth remain the easiest target of capitalist exploitation; they are predictable and trained to be, practically, identical. In any circumstance where an infectious trend from the U.S.A reaches the soils of European countries, where capitalism is at a point of no return, every young woman or man grips on to it, such as if their life would be dependant on it. But this is the crucial point to analyse here, while this is obviously not physically realistic, less could be said for their social – or as we call it: digital- lives.
The agonizing truth that a Kurdish woman dresses the same as a German woman, that this German woman has the very same face as an American woman who, in fact, exhibits exploitative imitation of African beauty is a deep crisis that must be stood against. And in fact, the most dangerous aspect to this is that this piggishness exploits all other aspects of the cultures of its infatuated aspirers, not just their clothes. This extends to music, to art, to characteristics and even speech.
The fact remains that capitalism has stolen the clothes off our backs. But the source off such a passive, liberal, slave-like acceptance of this, amongst many of other things, has given way to catastrophe. While the characteristics of the youth are namely dynamism, decisiveness, radicalism and hopefulness; one look at the face of a young Europeans tired, blank and even depressed face proves otherwise.
This is part of a cycle which starts and ends with exploitation; it is the wheel of capitalism beating humanity with fear of unemployment, of detainment, of unacceptance and worst of all: failure. In this, everything unjust in the world is normalised to an extent where nothing is abnormal.
