TL;DR: A look at the cultural impact of the GameStop from a global and local perspective related to culture, economics, and politics divided across sentiments of both modernism and post-modernism. Where the future beyond both of these movements in society is argued to exist at the next iteration, commonly known as “Metamodernism”.
———————————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————————————The goal of this post is to introduce an emerging cultural movement and philosophy called “Metamodernism” and how it relates to the saga of $GME shareholders on global scale for change and impact.I will present a thesis that the GME saga has provided enough evidence to be considered the most potent and prominent version of this Metamodern movement since the idea emerged in the 1970’s.The next step is to connect this correlation between the idea and the cultural journey of GameStop.We will take a deeper look at cultural examples which provide support of the emergence of Metamodernism related to GameStopFinally, I will address why this matters and how the future might look as $GME goes to the moon, MOASS kicks in, and the world will finally see the explosion of financial, economical, political, technological and cultural shifts on a new global scale.Last but not least, I hope this gives a fresh and new perspective of wrinkles to apes about what we are currently experiencing amongst this journey.
———————————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————————————I. Purpose

A. New Ape Purpose

II. Vision

A. Visions of Society Post-MOASS

III. Mission

A. Mission the the edge of the universe

IV. Observation

A. An intoxicated banana juice observation

V. What is Metamodernism?

A. WHAT IN THE CRAYON EATING SMOOTH BRAIN GARBAGE IS ‘METAMODERNISM’?

VI. Examples

A. Examples of Metamodernism to $GME
B. EXAMPLES OF POST-MODERNISM TO $GME GAMESTOP
C. EXAMPLES OF MODERNISM TO $GME GAMESTOP

VII. Making sense of the Metamodern Examples of GameStopVIII. $GME Disruption Examples

A. $GME Disrupting Economics
B. $GME Disrupting Technology
C. $GME Global Impact
D. $GME Local Impact

IX. The TransformationX. The New WorldAppendix

Metamodern definition and sources
Post-modern definition and sources
Modernism definition and sources

———————————————————————————————————————— ———————————————————————————————————————— The purpose of this writing is to look at cultural movements, in particular, how the cultural movement of $GME Apes can be observed and measured. The purpose is also to provide awareness and insight to current and future $GME Apes related to these observations.
———————————————————————————————————————— ———————————————————————————————————————— The vision of this writing is meant to enlighten and inform $GME Apes about how this story effects and impacts cultural history on a greater scale. To observe and examine various ways in which apes will shape and move humanity forward from an underlying sentiment rooted within Metamodernism.
———————————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————————————The continued mission of this writing and work will capture, revise and improve upon the observations and evidence currently presented. Over time the observations and sentiments will grow by continuously revising and updating this post.
———————————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————————————Metamodernism has been an emerging idea. Noted earliest in the 1970’s and sometimes referred as post-postmodernism. GameStop is the most prevalent, global and heightened example of Metamodernism.In the not so distant future : As $GME rises in price, popularity, sentiment, visibility and headline news through an unprecedented MOASS, shocking the world, a new sense of humanity will emerge through a Metamodern lens that becomes evident, but widely unaware, by the mainstream public.MSM, leaders, politicians, talking-heads and cultural tastemakers will try to make sense of the new “grand narrative” shift. Theorizing across many ideas, yet, the emergence of Metamodernism is, and will be, the way in which we might describe what has happened. A new world will emerge built on sensibilities found in “both / and” of modern and post-modern sensibilities and ideas.
———————————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————————————Simply put, Metamodernism states we live in a world where sincerity and irony (modern and post-modern) are emerging as a combined new sensibility of the world. Where an oscillating feeling between sincerity and irony occurs, together. Where we experience both/and like a swinging pendulum. As the modern and post-modern are not “either / or” but happening simultaneously within global, local and individual understandings. Previously, during the rise of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, we saw modernism (sincerity to build for the “dignity of man”); and then progressed towards disruption and fighting the systems in the 60’s hippie movement and into the 1980’s and 90’s of the post-modern movement. Long story short, this Metamodern theory emerged in the 1970’s to ask “what comes next after post-modernism tears down all the systems?” – where both modern and post-modern might exist at once in culture. Technology has rapidly induced this new sense of Metamodernism.To read a very deep dive on the idea… scroll to the bottom and read all the research under the “Appendix” section. Quotes, links, definitions, etc.Or, keep going and see how GamesStop exists as the most evident and potent example of “Metamodernism” today.
———————————————————————————————————————— ———————————————————————————————————————— To explore the Metamodernism of GameStop, we need to look at both modern and post-modern elements that exist within the context. Below are examples of high level ideas around the irony vs. sincerity that we are experiencing in real-time of this journey. Simultaneously, apes are both drawn to the outlandish meme-driven absurdity of our social connectivity, combined with the bullish sentiment about the company, analysis, data and future outlook related to $GME’s global impact in technology and business. These two elements, from both irony and sincerity, have created a perfect and unique example of the most potent evidence of Metamodernism. Where the experience of shareholders is emotionally oscillating between two polarities (sincerity and irony) and making personal sense of their own ape identity within the journey. The emotions swing back and forth like a pendulum. Between the hope and desire to dream of a better life, combined with the desire to see the current state of economic, political and global structures be destroyed and revised at massive scale.
———————————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————————————

EXAMPLES OF POST-MODERNISM TO $GME GAMESTOP

Broad examples illustrating how post-modernism has an influence on the cultural elements of GameStop. Post-modernism is the disruptive, rebellious and destructive notions around $GME (Not limited to)

Memes
Bananas in assholes
Drones watching buildings
Ape culture
Not giving a fuck and buying more
Disregard for standard market and financial expectations of retail investors
Anonymity to protect identity
Slang lingo and a newly defined cultural ape-space tribe
Revealing the cracks and holes against the backdrop of a global financial system
Pursuit of exposing corruption of market leaders, corporations, hedge funds, political interests and banking systems.
GME social media embracing cultural impact, memes, rockets, moon landings and MOASS
YouTube jokes and absurdity from DFV and his early DD about the opportunity of GME
Ironic Shitposting and subtle trolling via RC on Twitter
MetaVerse platform and experience
Weird obsessions with meanings (ex: 741)
Use of vintage nostalgia.
Vintage video game aesthetic to communicate heavy financial issues
Vintage film to create meme narratives about the current state of the financial markets
Unraveling the truth about Zombie Stocks
Market wide observations about connected and corrupt practices.
Cats, space, moon, apes
Unearthing the corrupt politicians who are profiting off of trading *cough* Pelosi *cough*

———————————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————————————

EXAMPLES OF MODERNISM TO $GME GAMESTOP

Broad examples illustrating how post-modernism has an influence on the cultural elements of GameStop. (Not limited to)

Serious due diligence
Technical analysis
Applied trading fundamentals
Economic theories
Review and peer-reviews of data, due diligence and analysis
Anonymous analysis and critique from top minds
Debunking Mainstream media, CNBC, MarketWatch, Motley Fool, Seeking Alpha
Online news outlets bearish against stock sentiment
Bearish sentiment
House Committee hearings
SEC report
Gary Gensler, the clown puppet
Jim Cramer telling everyone to sell
Sound business practices and fundamentals
Zero company debt
Acquiring infrastructure assets for distribution, shipping and logistics
Acquiring top talent.
Hiring of top executives and directors of corporations
Building new systems for one of the largest industries in the world (gaming)
Transformation of business
Expansion of products and services online and in-store
Building better and faster logistics
Financial experts, day traders, mathematicians, engineers, data scientists and intellectuals unpacking and studying the stock

———————————————————————————————————————— ———————————————————————————————————————— Combining both modern and post-modern sentiments around the cultural impact of $GME GameStop, we can derive some high level evidence of where Metamodernism exists within the current landscape and future trajectory of the $GME journey.

Sincerity of building an innovative business combined with the irony of embracing the culture of apes who aspire to launch into orbit (financially and metaphorically)
Irony of the brand’s own self-awareness about the internet meme culture, MOASS, naked shorting and playing into these tropes within social media, new products on their website and conversations with customers.
A digital platform or eco-system where gaming, MetaVerse interactions and storage of value provides a new path for humans to connect
Sharehodlers who defy normal conventions because of loyalty and emotional connection to the vision and future of the company
The loyalty and sincerity of customers and shareholders built from an online, anonymous and non-human platform to communicate and convey sentiment.
Playful experiences to enrich lives and build a better world for their customers
“Power to the Players” : we have yet to see the fruits of the companies labor over the last 12 months – but it may be
Implications of market wide economic reset
New tech LRC crypto NFT
Anonymous apes helping other anonymous apes in need across the globe. Whether it’s raising money for shelter, bills, food, causes, hospital bills, families in need, holidays, or hunger. Anonymous people who have come together around a sentiment and a company that represents the slighted, cheated and disenfranchised are helping each other anonymously, in good faith. Where the sincerity of doing good is combined with irony of the medium in which good is being done though.

$GME Disrupting Economics

Exposing and shining light on manipulated and unethical financial market practices
Advocating for DRS, breaking away from brokerages to hodl actual shares in the shareholders name.
Data proving SI%
Volatility of stock
CNBC addresses stock that was a dead / dying brick and mortar
Bill Gates addresses GameStop on television
Most powerful and wealthy people and funds are effected
Billions are lost from the closing of hedge funds
Hedge funds closing
Michael Jordan losing half his net worth through Melvin Capital
Archegos goes tits up
Shift in gaming / digital
Reverse Repo
Evergrande / China
Banks
Calling out the corruption of media outlets such as MarketWatch and The Motley Fool for being arms of hedge fund interests and sponsorships
Jim Cramer multiple meltdowns
Melissa Lee mentions “Naked Shorting”

$GME Disrupting Technology

NFT Marketplace
Information available to educate
Reddit allows free speech for ideas to exchange
Web3 exchange
Crypto
Innovative platform for future digital economics

$GME Global Impact

Global retail investors
Global funds going long against shorts
Global economic impact and implications across huge financial markets
Short risk of investments across multiple global banks – Credit Suisse, BoA, JPM, etc

$GME Local Impact

Brand loyalty to local GameStop stores (unprecendented)
Hype and acknowledgement of GameStop locations, improvements, increased shopping
Lines outside stores to buy new products
A revived and new sense of belonging for customers and employees

———————————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————————————Many attempts to explore or embrace the idea of Metamodernism have quietly emerged across niches within culture. We can find Metamodern evidence in art, music, technology, and culture. However, I believe that this story of GameStop has shown that the strong sentiment of GameStop shareholders embracing both the irony and sincerity is the most prominent example of Metamodernism thus far.

What does this mean?

A new future emerges where tired old money and ideas are displaced into the hands of many. The new money is combined with a massive sense of self-awareness, empathy and philanthropy to create a truly better world.

Humanity collectively driving a new sense of reality. Derived from the understanding that old power and gatekeepers have not done a good job of leveraging funds for collective change, but to empower themselves and hinder the many.

Technology improving the lives of many through new ways of decentralized forms of speech, Web3 evolution, and building new ideas with the means to finance.

Alleviating poverty by side stepping the tired idea of “trickle down economics” and using funds to help upward class mobility.

Where social constructs and better systems reconstruct.

The shift of humanity will truly be the “power to the players”

GME has been the catalyst of technology and education helping to liberate and redeem society from the trappings of economic corporate slavery, oppression and moving forward to greatly better the lives at a global level.

The idea of those with few are given access to liquidity and funds, using these new means to better finance a brighter future that would have been locked and held at ransom by corporate oligarchs, governments, and powerful elites who seek to only control and minimize the expansion of humanity.

Landing on metaphorical moons to rebuild a new and brighter future.

A future world where culture is hilarious, ironic and absurd, but is paired with sincere thoughtful due diligence to improve mankind.
Thoughtful consideration to communicate new ideas and sentiments.
Memes drive culture and influence more than ever before as a form of art, communication, sentiment and truth.
Technology becomes a tool of decentralized liberation of free speech (related to ideas, economics and new policies)
Paradigm shift from destruction to reconstruction.
Apes rebuilding new worlds through financial vehicles and liquidity, on their own terms.
Philanthropy to a new world.
Oscillation between modern and post-modern values and sensbilities.
Political disruption for good.
Religious disruption for good.
Economic disruption for good.

Metamodern Defintion:

“Metamodernism is a proposed set of developments in philosophy, aesthetics, and culture which emerge from and react to postmodernism. One definition characterizes metamodernism as mediations between aspects of both modernism and postmodernism …The prefix “meta-” here referred not to a reflective stance or repeated rumination, but to Plato’s metaxy, which denotes a movement between opposite poles as well as beyond them. Vermeulen and van den Akker described metamodernism as a “structure of feeling” that oscillates between modernism and postmodernism like “a pendulum swinging between…innumerable poles”. According to Kim Levin, writing in ARTnews, this oscillation “must embrace doubt, as well as hope and melancholy, sincerity and irony, affect and apathy, the personal and the political, and technology and techne.” For the metamodern generation, according to Vermeulen, “grand narratives are as necessary as they are problematic, hope is not simply something to distrust, love not necessarily something to be ridiculed.” (“Metamodernism”, 2020, Wikipedia)———————————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————————————“This structure of feeling puts us in a place of uncertainty. And they like it that way. (They being those who influence us). We are tossed around like emotional rag dolls trying to make sense between truth and fiction. One side holds truth and the other fiction, until we discover the fiction is everywhere. And the truth may have been lost along the way.”(“Metamodern Design”, 2020)———————————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————————————

Additional Defintion:

“In short, cultural philosophies help us make sense of our times by seeing patterns in how entire cultures (and individual subcultures within those cultures) operate. And because American culture, like any culture, has political and economic subcultures as well as ones in which new art is regularly being made, metamodernism gives us a lens through which to consider nearly everything that’s happened in America since the invention of the internet: political, socioeconomic, and sociocultural.” (Abramson)———————————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————————————

Additional Quote:

“The ecosystem is severely disrupted, the financial system is increasingly uncontrollable, and the geopolitical structure has recently begun to appear as unstable as it has always been uneven. This triple crisis infuses doubt and inspires reflection about our basic assumptions, as much as inflaming cultural debates and provoking dogmatic entrenchments. History, it seems, is moving rapidly beyond its all too hastily proclaimed end.” (“Notes on Metamodernsim”, 2010)———————————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————————————

Additional Quote:

“Since the turn of the millennium, moreover, the democratization of digital technologies, techniques and tools has caused a shift from a postmodern media logic characterized by television screen and spectacle, cyberspace and simulacrum towards a metamodern media logic of creative amateurs, social networks and locative media – what the cultural theorist Kazys Varnelis calls network culture.” (“Notes on Metamodernism”, 2010)———————————————————————————————————————— ————————————————————————————————————————

Sources Examples of Metamodernism in art and culture:

Films by Wes Anderson
Low brow / High brow aesthetics mixed to create new sensibilities in art and culture
– aesthetically borrowing from low end cheap design mixed with high end luxurious brands. For example, a partnership between KFC and Gucci would be considered very Metamodern. Taco Bell commercials looking high end and luxuries combined with late meals.
Shia LeBouf memes and art installations, see also: the film Honey Boy
– his work expresses the vulnerability and sincerity as an artist combined with his exploration of digital technologies to convey true emotion
The Office television series
Rick and Morty television series
Metaverse
Progressive auto insurance car commercials where irony and sincerity exist.
Taco Bell commercials
Flea Bag Television show
Honey Boy film starring Shia LeBouf

Sourced Examples of Modernism:

Art: Abstract art, Cubism, Pop art, Minimalism, Dadaism
Artists: Picasso, Braque, Matisse, Kandinsky, Mondrian
Literature: “Ulysses” James Joyce, “Metamorphosis” and “The Trail” Franz Kafka, “The Waste Land” T.S. Elliot, “Crime and Punishment” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, “Diabolidad” and “The Master and Margarita” Mikhail Bulgakov
Architecture: Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe

Modern ideas:

Faith in science
Development and progress
Democracy
The individual
A meritocratic social order
Humanity can recreate nature by virtue of her reason

Sourced Examples of Post-Modernism:

Art:
Artists:
Architecture:
Literature (“Postmodernism”, 2020): “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote” Jorge Luis Borges’. Samuel Beckett, Vladimir Nabokov, William Gaddis, Umberto Eco, Pier Vittorio Tondelli, John Hawkes, William S. Burroughs, Giannina Braschi, Kurt Vonnegut, John Barth, Jean Rhys, Donald Barthelme, E.L. Doctorow, Richard Kalich, Jerzy Kosiñski, Don DeLillo, Thomas, Pynchon, Ishmael Reed, Kathy Acker, Ana Lydia Vega, Jåchym Topol, Paul Auster (“Postmodernism”, 2020)
Music (“Postmodernism”, 2020): Terry Riley, Henryk Górecki, Bradley Joseph, John Adams, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, Lou Harrison, John Cage, Art Rock genre, Talking Heads, Laurie Anderson, The Pet Shop Boys, “Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating in Space” Spiritualized, “Disco Volante” Mr. Bungle, “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” Kanye West; Current artists who embrace post-modernism within their work in “pop culture” Billie Ellish, Kanye West, Nirvana, Seattle Grunge Music, My Bloody Valentine, shoegaze
Television (“Postmodernism”, 2020) (IMDB, 2020): Portlandia celebrating postmodernism Family Guy, Modern Family, Community, South Park, Bob’s Burgers, Breaking Bad, Ed Edd & Eddy (Deeley, 2016) (“Postmodernism”, 2020)
Film (IMDB, 2020): Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, Watchmen, American Gangster, Inherent Vice, 3 From Hell, Paris Texas, Payback, Jawbreaker, Far From Heaven, Titus, Close-Up, Youth Without Youth, American Desert, Being Black Enough, Jealous Gods, Phantom, Diamonds in the Sky, Fragile Machine, The Postmodern Pioneer Plaque, The Next Scorsese, Haemophobia. (“IMDB”, 2020)

Post-Modern Ideas:

Critical questioning of all knowledge and science
Suspicion towards all grand narratives about “progress
Emphasis on symbols and contexts
Ironic distance
Cultures have been oppressed and ruined by modern society
Reveals injustice in “democratic” societies
Relations create the individual
A multicultural order where the weak are included
Humanity has destroyed the biosphere

Source: Freinacht, “2017″

Links and further reading: Reference List

Abramson, Seth. (January 9, 2017) “What Is Metamodernism?” [Website] Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-is-metamodernism_b_586e7075e4b0a5e600a788cd
Associated Press (2020) Divided America [Website] Retrieved from https://www.ap.org/explore/divided-america/
Bogdan, C. (2012, August 14) New French Extremity: An Exigency for Reality. [Website] Retrieved from http://www.metamodernism.com/2012/08/14/new-french-extremity-an-exigency-for-reality/
Clarke, J (2015, April 16) “The Role of the Graphic Designer in a Metamodern Structure of Feeling”. [Website] Retrieved from https://www.metamodernism.com/2015/04/16/the-role-of-the-graphic-designer/
Cooper, Brent (April 10, 2018) On Metamodern Leaderhip [Website] Retrieved from https://medium.com/the-abs-tract-organization/on-metamodern-leadership-87bcf9ada5f9
Cooper, Brent (April 10, 2018) The Metamodern Condition [Website] Retrieved from https://medium.com/the-abs-tract-organization/the-metamodern-condition-1e1d04a13c4
Lee, Jordan (2020) Metamodern Design [Website] Retrieved from https://jordanwlee.com/metamodern-design-entire-book-text/
Deeley, D. (September 26, 2019) Five Examples of Postmodernism in Television [Website] Retrieved from https://www.theodysseyonline.com/examples-postmodernism-television
Duignan, B. (September 4, 2020) Postmodernism. [Website] Retrieved from
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Gordon Worley III, G (2017, Aug 18) Embracing Metamodernism. [Website] Retrieved from https://mapandterritory.org/embracing-metamodernism-5d4ebe8a8ddf
Ghosh, Iran (September 25, 2019) Charts: America’s Political Divide 1994-2017 [Website] Retrieved from https://www.visualcapitalist.com/charts-americas-political-divide-1994-2017/
Harari, Y.N. (2018, May 15) Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
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“Modernism” (September 2020) In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernism
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