Post #216524 by mbonga on Wed, Feb 22, 2006 10:33 AM

Unless the USA acquires a new state with a particularly appealing and unique culture as Hawaii had in 1959, which is very unlikely, I don't think any new theme from an existing culture is going to have much of an influence for many years to come, and the tiki-Hawaiiana theme is not likely to undergo any revivals, in my opinion. I think there will always be a group of people who relate strongly to that theme, but like aficionados of square dancing, midcentury architecture, rodeos, Civil War reenactments, Native American arts, Western gunslingers, swashbuckling pirates, and more, those eras have seen their heyday and there's no reason to expect a revival of interest across a large portion of the population. I think the best that can be done for the foreseeable future is to keep the interest going wherever and whenever possible.

Just my two cents worth.

P.S.--My personal prediction for the future, in about 50 years, after the upcoming General Collapse passes, is that there will be a general societal focus on emotional factors instead of the traditional engineering-physics-architecture-money focus. In other words, a science of the emotions and atmospheres and things you can't directly see or measure yet, instead of the naive midcentury philosophy that more gadgets, possessions, technology, and money will make people happier. That's about the time I expect it to be commonplace to map out the interests and tastes of individuals so as to maximize their moods, in everything from decor to friendships to sex. That's when I predict a boom of interest in different themes and cultures, including the tiki culture.

[ Edited by: mbonga 2006-02-22 10:45 ]