Summary
The slogan says culture sits ‘upstream’ of politics: culture maintains politics, politics maintains systems, so change the culture. Paddy Loughman used it in 2022, crediting Andrew Breitbart; this is his correction. It slides between three senses of culture – the medium we absorb unnoticed, the agent forming what we value, and the instrument, content an organisation can commission. It holds for the first and fails for the last.
In its place: culture and structure make each other. Indy Johar writes that culture, law, property, accounting and capital “co-produced and reinforced” the order behind climate breakdown. ‘Upstream’ survives as advice on where to invest, and for whoever already owns the channels.
Rationale
Neither article argues this, but both describe the loop: everyday life expresses deep dispositions, and “all have the power to shape them in turn”. One of us once repeated the slogan; this is the correction.