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Culture matters.
And not just high culture. Don’t get me wrong — I love to talk about Shakespeare just as much as the next female Catholic English major on campus. But my goal here is something different. I propose popular culture matters. For better or worse, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” the Cracker Barrel fallout, and our frenzy over Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement both influence our national character and tell us something about who we are and where we’re going.
These are more than just passing trends to be scoffed at. Politics, after all, is downstream of culture. Or is culture downstream of politics? No matter which way the currents flow, the whitewater at their intersection deserves our attention.
I’m The Collegian’s executive editor, Moira Gleason. Welcome to my new column: Culture Shock.
I write this column as a young person invested in both the future of my generation and the endurance of our intellectual and cultural inheritance. The current cultural moment is many things: good, true, beautiful, evil, false, and horrifying. As a student, it’s OK to delete X and stop looking at the headlines. But liberal education demands we reenter the secular world at the conclusion of our studies, shocking as it may be. Retreating from a world drifting away from “the tradition” will not save it, and right-wing outrage at the wokeification of American cultural institutions only gets us so far. Rather, there is space to find common ground and move toward a positive vision for our culture. It’s not all bad.
Culture Shock will be my biweekly attempt to engage with relevant topics at the intersection of politics and pop culture in a positive and nuanced way. Expect to read about popular ideas, trends, media in all forms, dating, health and wellness, technology, arts, and more. These are things each of us encounters daily, at Hillsdale and beyond.
In that vein, this column will ask:
In an online environment of streaming services and algorithm-curated social media feeds, is there a common “culture” to speak of in America? How do we tell what’s worth our attention?
What are the most influential cultural trends of the moment, and what do they say about our national character?
How do tools like social media and artificial intelligence alter the way we communicate and form relationships?
And, most importantly: How do we, as students, engage the culture in a meaningful way at Hillsdale and afterward?
Culture Shock is not necessarily religious or conservative, though I am both. Topics will be driven by current events. In just the past few weeks, KPop Demon Hunters swept the internet, Sabrina Carpenter released “Man’s Best Friend,” and the original Ronald McDonald returned to the Golden Arches. We have a lot to talk about.
The stakes are higher than you think. Pop culture may be ephemeral, but it has a profound influence on how we see ourselves and how we will be remembered. Even Shakespeare was pop culture to the groundlings.
Moira Gleason is a senior studying English.
