It is becoming redundant because millennials are fulfilling a technological prophecy of corporate rule. Our materialistic needs our widening as they become more individualized. The teleology of someone like Marx or de Saint-Simon accurately envisioned some of the underpinning developments of the past century. In my opinion, after the enlightenment (although it could obviously have affect earlier, early as Byzantium trade developments, just not as great of an influence), western civilization was essentially economic. Currency was not only widespread and necessary, but gained a meaning within our daily lives. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, we can see a leap of values towards what our national investments are. Nothing is free, most things cost money. How does a Marxist historian perspective connect to our egalitarian herd morality becoming redundant? I will say first of all, I am a millennial, so I already see patterns for the lifestyles of my generation. Obviously there is ‘good’, and with a critical mind, an incredible amount of ‘bad’. Trending technology and corporate rule has already taken a huge step toward becoming part of our everyday (every hour I would argue) lives. For example, although this a personal example I will give better ones (more practical/applicable to others), if I stand in a line for coffee for more than one minute, at least 75% of the people standing in the line will pull out their phones (to go on snapchat, to text someone, to continue shopping online, to do ebanking, to read an ebook, etc.). I am identifying this as a social phenomena with far reaching impact. Never before has there been such a continuous need to feel busy and comfortable with yourself by having an intimate relationship with a technology or brand. Along with this technological crutch, my generation is growing into an extremely diversified meta-culture of prejudice against prejudice.
This will eventually lead to a culture of no culture because we our so disgusted by anyone who violently upholds a belief system that shows prejudice to another. This is one of the fundamental aspects of what I mean by egalitarian. Although I personally believe egalitarianism to be fallacious (we are looking for pure equity not equality, of course we cannot all be equal), our herd morality (being constantly subject to a technological crutch which we enjoy) has driven us to be so diversified and so densely coerced, that we have met some of the standards set by those who had a futuristic teleology of a final stage in human development. This includes Marx, but many others, which identify this valuing of values to be the last step in the evolution of the intellect. ‘Teleological apocalyptic’ would mean meeting the final end for which the means have brought us too because of these egalitarian redundancies on such a large scale. As a result, there has been a growing polarity between that which is moral and that which is instrumental; not that the two cannot coincide in a hybrid form, but that the two, from a collectivist perspective, have ultimately reached news means to new ends. Corporate globalization, heightened security measures, and the masses for which socially moral standards and technological needs become high priorities, reveal a new development of human civilization. Towards ‘teleological apocalyptic’, on one hand, we have become so narcissistically and morally indulged as Westerners, that it is a moral obligation to employ an exported, manufactured version of Democracy to third world countries. Simultaneously, this exportation also serves the needs of those who are completely instrumental, economic one percent who own much of the global wealth. When I say ‘our’, it is aimed at millennials, not the whole of humanity at the present moment. I do have a bit on what kind of ramifications will concur with the baby boomer-millennial population gap.
By the way, your picture is fuckin’ awesome!