I really liked this question and the breadth of interesting answers.
I want to add a mechanism which might contribute to a weakening of institutions that is related to the ‘stronger memes’ described by ete (I have not thought this out properly, but I am quite confident that I am pointing at something real even if I might well be mistaken in many of the details):
In myself, and I think this is quite common, while considering my life/career options, I noticed an internal drive (think elephant from elephant in the brain) that made me focus on the highest-prestige group that seemed like a viable option. A natural choice is an institution at the highest (available) power level/size.
I think that modern communication technologies are strong enough to capture that drive by giving (felt) access to the most prestigious groups from around the globe.
As a consequence, I expect that the emotionally impactful access to global culture/‘tribes’ decreases the felt importance of, and thus the effort put into local institutions, culture and tribes. (Related topics that come to mind would be the loss of spoken languages or local newspapers)
I really liked this question and the breadth of interesting answers.
I want to add a mechanism which might contribute to a weakening of institutions that is related to the ‘stronger memes’ described by ete (I have not thought this out properly, but I am quite confident that I am pointing at something real even if I might well be mistaken in many of the details):
In myself, and I think this is quite common, while considering my life/career options, I noticed an internal drive (think elephant from elephant in the brain) that made me focus on the highest-prestige group that seemed like a viable option. A natural choice is an institution at the highest (available) power level/size.
I think that modern communication technologies are strong enough to capture that drive by giving (felt) access to the most prestigious groups from around the globe.
As a consequence, I expect that the emotionally impactful access to global culture/‘tribes’ decreases the felt importance of, and thus the effort put into local institutions, culture and tribes. (Related topics that come to mind would be the loss of spoken languages or local newspapers)