THE DECADENCE OF ORIGINALITY: WHY YOUNG MEN NEED HIGH CULTURE

The contemporary obsession with originality is undermining young men's capacity for genuine achievement. Creative writing workshops demand that you "find your unique voice" before you can write a coherent sentence. Business culture celebrates "disruptive innovation" over mastering the fundamentals. Self-help literature insists that you "discover your authentic self" rather than learn from those who came before.

This worship of originality is cultural exhaustion masquerading as liberation. Young men are encouraged to innovate before they can imitate, to express themselves before they have learned what is worth saying. The craze for originality privileges easy novelty over difficult mastery, values the new simply because it is new, and severs connection to the cultural inheritance that could develop capability. It is the preference of a late-stage civilisation more interested in appearing creative than in achieving excellence.

The Tyranny of the New

Step into any modern art gallery, and you will find that half the exhibits require lengthy explanatory texts because the works communicate little on their own. Contemporary architectural firms prioritise "boldness" over beauty and "innovation" over human scale. Bookshops stock literary fiction celebrated for "subverting expectations" rather than for telling compelling stories.

When originality is regarded as the primary virtue, we encounter endless novelty but nothing truly worth preserving. This does not imply that all contemporary work is without value. Talented architects continue to design beautiful buildings, serious novelists still write compelling stories, and genuine artists create meaningful works. However, they succeed despite the prevailing ideology, not because of it. The finest contemporary creators understand that they are working within traditions, not against them.

The irony is that artists, architects, and writers whose work endures were not obsessed with originality. Bach perfected existing musical forms rather than inventing new notation, and Michelangelo elevated classical sculpture. They understood something our culture has forgotten: genuine creativity emerges from mastery of tradition.

Formation Through Imitation

Consider how men actually become proficient at anything challenging.

The apprentice blacksmith does not "find his authentic hammering style." Instead, he observes the master, copies his technique, and repeats the same motions thousands of times until muscle memory takes over. Only after years of faithful imitation does his own style emerge, not from trying to be different, but from the accumulated experience of doing the work.

The classical pianist does not simply sit down and "express herself." She learns scales, studies compositions, and practises pieces exactly as they were written. Interpretation follows once technique has been mastered.

The surgeon does not innovate in the operating theatre until he has performed the standard procedures hundreds of times under supervision. Lives depend on his faithful adherence to proven methods.

Why should we expect the formation of a man's mind, judgment, and character to occur differently?

Modern education encourages young men to "think for themselves" before they have familiarised themselves with the ideas of great thinkers, and to "question everything" before they understand why certain answers have endured. This is abandonment, not liberation.

What High Culture Actually Achieves

High culture (such as the great books, classical music, traditional architecture, and timeless art) provides education and personal development, rather than mere social refinement.

First, it develops judgment. When you have read Homer, Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, and Solzhenitsyn, you have encountered human nature at its extremes. You have witnessed courage, cowardice, nobility, depravity, wisdom, and folly portrayed with profound insight. This provides a framework for evaluating character (both in others and yourself) that no amount of contemporary self-help can offer.

Secondly, it fosters cultural continuity. Understanding the intellectual and artistic traditions you have inherited connects you to something greater than your own brief life. You are not starting from scratch; you are part of an ongoing conversation spanning centuries. This stands in stark contrast to the isolated, atomised existence that modern culture often offers young men.

Third, it cultivates sustained attention. Reading War and Peace or listening to Beethoven's late string quartets demands patience, concentration, and a willingness to defer gratification. These are the capacities young men need to achieve anything worthwhile, and they are precisely what endless digital novelty erodes.

Fourth, it expands moral imagination. Great literature does not preach; it reveals human choices and their consequences in all their complexity. You come to understand why honour matters, why betrayal destroys, and why courage is necessary- not through abstract principles, but through lived, dramatic experience.

Fifth, it establishes standards of excellence. Once you have encountered genuine mastery in any field, you can recognise quality elsewhere. You develop taste, discernment, and the ability to distinguish the excellent from the merely impressive.

None of this occurs through the pursuit of originality. It happens through humble engagement with what great men have already accomplished.

The Practical Path

This refers to training that makes you effective in the world, rather than aestheticism or academic posturing.

Begin with the Great Books, but not the entire Western canon all at once. Select three classics you have yet to read and commit to finishing them within the year. Consider Homer's Odyssey to explore themes of journey and homecoming; Shakespeare's history plays to gain insight into power and character; and Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov to delve into morality without easy answers. Read them slowly, reflect on their meaning, and allow them to influence you deeply.

Learn classical music; not as background noise while you work, but as something that demands your full attention. Begin with Bach's Goldberg Variations or Beethoven's Piano Sonatas. Listen to the same piece several times until you start to discern its structure. You are training yourself to perceive order, development, and complexity.

Study traditional architecture. Examine Gothic cathedrals, Georgian townhouses, and classical civic buildings. Understand why they endure, and why people across centuries and cultures find them beautiful. Then observe what modern architecture lacks. You are developing visual literacy and gaining insight into why aesthetic standards matter.

Engage with serious painting; not contemporary conceptual art that requires a PhD to decode, but representational works from the Renaissance through to the nineteenth century. Learn to see what these artists saw: light, composition, the human form, and emotional truth expressed through visual means.

Read philosophy and theology. The big questions about meaning, purpose, virtue, and truth do not have easy answers, but some answers are better than others. Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, and later Christian philosophers grappled with these questions more rigorously than anyone today. Their insights remain relevant because human nature does not change.

The goal is to develop a depth that makes you formidable in business, leadership, fatherhood, and life.

Against the Cult of Innovation

The modern obsession with innovation in business and technology has spread into every area of life. Young men are told they must "disrupt" industries, "hack" systems, and "pivot" when things become difficult- always seeking the new angle, the clever shortcut, or the original approach.

Lasting achievement in any field comes from first mastering the fundamentals. Successful entrepreneurs understand their industry's history and foundational principles. The best military leaders have studied centuries of strategic thought.

Innovation without mastery is merely floundering.

Silicon Valley's most astute figures (Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and Elon Musk) are serious readers of history, philosophy, and literature. Genuine insight arises from synthesising profound knowledge across multiple domains.

The Cultural Foundation You Need

Modern education has failed young men by encouraging them to question everything while providing them with nothing solid to rely on. They are told that values are relative, traditions are oppressive, and authority is suspect- then left to find meaning and purpose on their own.

High culture offers something different: a received tradition that you can interrogate, debate, and ultimately accept or reject, but only after genuine engagement. It provides formation, not mere information.

When you read the classics, you are not merely absorbing facts passively. You are engaging with minds greater than your own, encountering arguments more sophisticated than those typically found in contemporary discourse, and exploring moral frameworks tested over centuries. You may disagree with Plato, Augustine, or Burke, but first you must understand what they actually said and why it mattered. This is the opposite of an echo chamber: intellectual formation through engagement with excellence.

The Gatekeeping Function

Not all cultural products are equally valuable. Some books reward sustained attention; most do not. Some music demands careful listening; most serves merely as background noise. High culture performs a gatekeeping function by maintaining standards, preserving excellence, and filtering out fleeting fashions.

The decadent belief asserts that all cultural expressions are equally valid and that your untrained opinion holds as much weight as expert judgment. This is pandering disguised as principle.

The hierarchy of value offers guidance rather than oppression. The Western canon endures because hundreds of years of serious readers have found these works sufficiently profound to preserve, debate, and pass on. You may trust that judgement or choose to start afresh.

Building Cultural Literacy

Begin developing your cultural literacy systematically.

Literature: Choose one classic novel every two months and read it thoroughly. Do not rush on to the next one; allow each work to settle in your mind. Consider joining or forming a small reading group (not a formal book club, but three or four serious men discussing what you have read over drinks).

Music: Commit to listening to one complete classical work each week with your full attention. Avoid multitasking, just listen. Begin with more accessible composers such as Vivaldi, Mozart, and Handel before progressing to the more demanding ones, including late Beethoven, Mahler, and Shostakovich.

Visual Art: Visit galleries whenever you can. When you cannot, study art books or explore museum websites. Learn to truly observe paintings by spending five to ten minutes with a single piece, noting what the artist has done and how.

Architecture: Pay close attention to buildings. When you are in a city with historic architecture, study it carefully. Understand why certain structures have endured over time. Observe what makes contemporary buildings feel alienating by comparison.

Philosophy and Theology: This is more challenging but essential. Begin with introductory works that explain major thinkers in an accessible manner. Gradually progress to primary sources. If you are serious about understanding Western civilisation, you cannot avoid the philosophical and theological foundations.

None of this requires wealth or credentials. It demands time, attention, and a willingness to encounter greatness on its own terms rather than your own.

Why This Matters Now

We live in an age of cultural decline. The institutions that once transmitted high culture (universities, churches, and civic organisations) have largely abandoned that mission in favour of ideological indoctrination or bureaucratic self-preservation.

Young men who seriously engage with the Western tradition gain a significant competitive advantage. While their peers consume endless novelty, they develop depth. They understand human nature better than those who have only read contemporary psychology. They make wiser decisions because they have studied how similar situations have played out throughout history.

Most importantly, you will be connected to something greater than yourself, something that can withstand the ideological fashions of the moment because it has been tested over centuries.

The Humility of Craft

There is a deeper point here concerning masculinity itself.

I once studied iconography with a Romanian Orthodox monk from Mount Athos. Icon writers never signed their work. The tradition recognised something profound: you were not creating something new; you were faithfully transmitting a sacred form that had been perfected over centuries. Your task was to receive the tradition, master the technique, and pass it on-adding nothing of yourself except the dedication required for excellence.

The monk fully embodied this understanding. In our culture of personal branding and credit-claiming, his approach seemed almost incomprehensible. Yet he produced work of extraordinary beauty precisely because he was not trying to be original. He had spent years learning to see as the tradition taught, mixing pigments according to ancient recipes and applying gold leaf using techniques unchanged since Byzantium. His humility before the tradition freed him to achieve mastery.

The pursuit of originality is often driven by pride: the belief that your spontaneous insights matter more than accumulated wisdom, and that your generation's innovations surpass previous understanding.

True strength includes the humility to receive and to acknowledge that others have thought more deeply, created more beautifully, and understood more profoundly than you do at present. It is the recognition that you stand tall because you are standing on the shoulders of giants.

Conclusion: Form Before Innovation

The way forward for young men demands a serious engagement with the cultural heritage we have inherited, rather than a pursuit of greater originality.

Master traditional forms. Study great works. Cultivate refined taste. Develop your judgment through engagement with excellence. Connect yourself to the intellectual and artistic traditions that have produced everything worth preserving in Western civilisation.

Once you have completed this work (after you have genuinely mastered what preceded it) then innovate. Then create. Then contribute your own insights to the ongoing conversation.

But not before. The desperate pursuit of originality without a foundation produces nothing but noise.

High culture provides an education that enables you to lead in a collapsing society. It offers depth when everything around you is superficial, continuity when everything is fragmented, and standards when everything is relativised.

Your generation faces challenges that previous generations could not have imagined. You need resources commensurate with the task. Such resources exist in the books, music, art, and architecture that our civilisation has produced.

The question is whether you will have the discipline to accept them.

The path to genuine achievement begins not with finding your own voice, but with learning to listen.

Richard Morrissey is a father of nine and a writer specialising in family formation, masculine development, and cultural renewal. Subscribe to ForgeHub for weekly insights on building capability in a decadent age.