In the editorial of the second-anniversary issue of Monocle Magazine, Tyler Brûlé ventures what may be a new pattern of global culture:
In a world where everything is starting to look more alike rather than unique, each person or company is an outpost that challenges convention and points to a new way of marketing, selling and building community.
This assertion based on the experience of their many correspondents dispatched around the world may be a sign of the times: as we grow aware of the world around us and educate ourselves in the ways of other peoples and cultures, we can’t help but notice that things abroad are not too different from things around the corner.
In the midst of a global recession it’s easy to panic if we are all doing things in the same ways, buying the same products, asserting the same way of live. After all when the entire boat is going down, you don’t want to be where the majority of the crowd is (pardon the extreme analogy). Instead each one of us will look at doing things a little bit different, trying to use all those lessons on global culture to create a unique mix that will allow us to become unique actors in a complex stage where the rules are about to be rewritten.
From the variety of our lifestyles and chances we take on unique ventures and projects will be born the post-crisis generation. And if the global aristocracy (those who have the privilege of roaming the globe for one or another reason) has any saying there will be a renewed attention on good, long-term value over cheap, short-minded pragmatism.
So look around, figure out what is that unique opportunity that you can devote the next few months to and embrace it. Indeed, as Tyler suggests, this is going to be one Happy New World.
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