Scott Matter on Nostr: It’s a classic structure-agency paradox. As individuals we can make choices about ...

It’s a classic structure-agency paradox. As individuals we can make choices about how to behave, but those choices are constrained (and enabled) by the system in which we behave.

Our actions reproduce (and can subtly evolve) the systemic structure around us.

Cultural politics is a thing (loosely defined as the continuous making and evaluation of claims about what sorts of behaviour and values are legitimate and acceptable), in which we all participate by virtue of living in a social system.

But not all actors have the same influence in cultural politics and in the reproduction or transformation of the system.

In our current situation, we have a very small number of highly influential actors (including organizations as actors), which use wealth and political connections to bend structure in ways that enable behaviours that continue to benefit them.

The mechanisms they use range from advertising / influence campaigns (propaganda), to regulatory capture, to outright violence.

The who’s-to-blame conversation really has to be a both-and, not an either-or.