---
link: https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths
tags:
  - article
  - culture
author:
  - David Chapman
---
> Subcultures are dead. I plan to write a full  obituary soon.
> 
> Subcultures were the main creative cultural force from roughly 1975 to 2000, when they stopped working. Why?
> 
> One reason—among several—is that as soon as subcultures start getting really interesting, they get invaded by muggles, who ruin them. Subcultures have a predictable lifecycle, in which popularity causes death. Eventually—around 2000—everyone understood this, and gave up hoping some subculture could somehow escape this dynamic.
> 
> (You can read very brief previews of my analysis of subculture dynamics in [this table](https://meaningness.com/modes-chart) and/or [this page](https://meaningness.com/meaningness-history).)
> 
> <mark>The muggles who invade and ruin subcultures come in two distinct flavors, mops and sociopaths, playing very different roles.</mark> This insight was influenced by Venkatesh Rao’s [Gervais Principle](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F9IV64W/?tag=meaningness-20), an analysis of workplace dynamics. [[VGR]]’s theory is hideous, insightful [nihilism](https://meaningness.com/preview-eternalism-and-nihilism "Nihilism is the stance that regards everything as meaningless.  It forms a false dichotomy with eternalism, which sees everything as having a fixed meaning. The stance of meaningness recognizes the fluid mixture of meaningfulness and meaninglessness in everything. [Click for details.]"); I recommend it.