202. What stays alive at the edge?
(morning thinking)
Is it normal for things that begin as edgy and exciting to become the establishment?
Punk becomes fashion.
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival became the Festival.
In Born Standing Up, Steve Martin describes fresh on the scene HBO as “experimental”, a good home for his risky, creatively alive comedy. In the UK, Channel 4 launched with a similar energy. It existed to be different. It was meant to challenge, provoke, represent voices that weren’t being heard.
Now both are institutions. They still make good things, great things, but they dont feel like they’re breaking anything. The dangerous energy has been ground down.
Is that just what happens? Is there a name for this shift? Corey Doctorow called out enshitification. Is it that?
Google suggests it might be “institutionalisation”. Or, it might be Max Weber’s “routinisation of charisma”.
Something starts wild. It draws people in. It builds momentum and then, in order to sustain itself, it starts to organise around policies, stakeholders, board meetings, brand guidelines. Slowly, the thing that was once outside the system becomes part of it. Or takes over the whole thing.
It isn’t just a media thing. It’s religion, art, politics, activism. Even personal transformation. Edgy ideas ossify, they don’t stay edgy. We get comfortable. We Like and Subscribe. The fringe gets sponsored. The algorithm absorbs.
It's creepy Borgy.
And it's a process that's noticeably speeding up. What used to take decades can now happen across months.
Not very long ago Substack felt like an anti-Socials pirate ship with weird howling voices, outsider thinkers. It’s a place to say things that didn’t fit anywhere else. Now it’s celebrity laden and edging into the mainstream. Established media noticed and began moving in. And the tone is shifting, from wild experiments to brand curation. From risk to polish.
This doesn’t mean it’s over. But it’s a familiar pattern. The edge becomes the centre. The centre becomes the status quo.
Is the deeper question, “where’s the edge now?”
And how long can we stay there before the algorithms, advertisers, and legacy players turn it into another comfortable, cautious home for content?
What stays alive at the edge? Those thorny lizards? Or the ones that do the bird dog yoga dance, lifting two legs off the hot sand at a time. Or the bacteria that lives around deep sea thermal vents.
Where do we go after Substack?
I've been writing less. No journaling, no stories, no scripts. I'm struggling to finish three poems. Four really. All without conclusions. Mostly I'm thinking - not doing.
This was an enjoyable distraction.
How was it for you?
Please share, restack, subscribe. All that. It might push me to pick up a pen or rattle a keyboard more often.
Thanks for reading.
I’m grateful and I appreciate you giving me your time.
Paul.
Linked to the monetisation of art, where cash offers validity and the amateur is scorned. Capitalism runs like water, looking for opportunities, unconcerned about its impact. Is that the edge that creatives need to stay ahead of?
nice write up. I think it's part of evolution, the changing and shifting. I like you wrote about this point. I remember just five years ago, then, and now, how many things have become somewhat expanded into the collective. it's a cheesy example, but I think it fits. FB live video. 5 years ago, it was new, and I actually took part, unknowing it was something new. I recall seeing pretty good profiles speaking and/or sharing pretty good, valuable content. Now, just five years later, although it is more widespread, and that is lovely to see many other people taking the courage to put themselves out there, but I agree, it has lost something than when it began. the excitement factor has lessened. I think thats due, partly, to those that went first, maybe that paved the way for others to jump on live. maaybe those that went first calmed the stream, talked others from the edge of the diving board. It is actually a pretty freaky thing at first knowing, it may be seen more broadly than you think, and that is alive in your mind when you hit that "go live" button. And, now, as the evolution takes place, there are more tuned alogrythyms...making being seen, if thats what you're intention is, to greatly decline. The social platforms have evolved as well.
i like your analogy of the green moss, or how you put it , on the vents somewhere deep in the water somewhere...made me laugh. I enjoy reading your writings! great to see something thoughtful out there, thanks, Paul!