Neoevolutionistische Kulturkritik — eine Skizze

Abstract

While the traditional, philosophical brand of ›Kulturkritik‹ is diminishing in scope and relevance, there are new forms arising — and circulating with great success in the media. It is the aim of the following investigation to trace the narrative patterns of traditional ›Kulturkritik‹ throughout the semantic transformation they undergo adapting to the new environment shaped by popular evolutionism. Focussing on Jared Diamond’s bestselling book Collapse of 2005, it is shown that evolutionist >Kulturkritik< presents itself as a well balanced and highly credible mixture of seemingly hard scientific fact and method and mythical narrative, well attuned to the highly irritable mentality of the public and to the attention economy of the mass media.