If you want to understand the transformation underway in our culture right now, you have to read Ted Gioia. A jazz critic and music historian, he’s one of the sharpest observers of the warp speed changes underway in our culture, from why “entertainment is dead” to how web platforms became “digital internment camps.” And he writes about all this in his excellent Substack, The Honest Broker.
Ted’s latest essay is about what he calls “the biggest news story of our century”—a story so big, most people can’t see it. Culturally, writes Ted, “we are experiencing a total shift.” Something like the Renaissance, or the Enlightenment, except this shift “doesn’t even have a name—not yet. So let’s give it one. Let’s call it The Collapse of the Knowledge System.” We’re thrilled to be reprinting his essay in our pages today.
—The Editors
Would you believe me if I told you that the biggest news story of our century is happening right now—but is never mentioned in the press?
That sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But that is often the case when a bold new worldview appears.
Think about it: How long did it take before the Renaissance was mentioned in the town square? When did newspapers start covering the Enlightenment? Or the collapse in mercantilism? Or the rise of globalism? Or the birth of Christianity or Islam or some other earthshaking creed?
The biggest changes often happen long before they even get a name. By the time the scribes notice, the world is already reborn.
You can take this to the bank: If The New York Times notices the Buddha, the enlightened one has already left town. For example, the word Renaissance was introduced 200 years after the start of the Renaissance. The game was already over.
The only experts who still possess authority are blue-collar ones. The public still wants to hire the best plumber or car mechanic or hair stylist.
The same is true of most major cultural movements—they are truly the elephants in the room. And the elites at the epicenter of power are absolutely the last to notice. Tiberius may run the entire Roman Empire, but he will never hear the Good News.
There’s a general rule here—the bigger the shift, the easier it is to miss. We are living through a situation like that right now. We are experiencing a total shift—like the magnetic poles reversing. But it doesn’t even have a name—not yet. So let’s give it one. Let’s call it The Collapse of the Knowledge System.