Culture Is Not Downstream From Politics; It Is Downstream From Power

For years, the phrase “Politics is downstream from culture” has been a rallying cry for those hoping to change the world through art.

The idea is as simple as it is appealing: If you win hearts and minds through movies, books, and songs, political transformation will follow naturally. Change the culture, and the politicians will eventually catch up.

It’s an attractive slogan, but the fact is, it’s never been true.

For most of recorded history, the cultural output of a civilization was guided, commissioned, or outright controlled by its rulers. The most striking symbols of ancient Egypt, its temples and tombs, weren’t grassroots art projects. They were state-sponsored monuments to divine kingship, funded by the Pharaoh’s power and built by his subjects.

The same was true in Greece, where temples and statues were civic expressions of piety, order, and hierarchy—each one a tangible manifestation of who held authority.

The Middle Ages and the Renaissance followed suit. The cathedrals that still dominate European skylines didn’t spring from a democratic cultural ferment; they were financed by popes, bishops, and merchant princes. Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo worked at the pleasure of their patrons (as do I). The Medici family’s sponsorship of the arts was an expression of their power.

The pattern is clear: Culture historically flows down from the top. Those who hold authority decide which visions of the world deserve to be built, painted, sung, or told. You don’t have to like it; I don’t have to like it. That’s how it is.

Nonetheless, it’s become common to think that culture became democratized under liberal democracy. But that false perception comes from a misreading of recent history.

In the United States, the government and its economic arms have long exercised a quiet but decisive influence over what gets made and what doesn’t. It’s a matter of record that Washington has subsidized favored films, studios, and media companies—whether through tax incentives, selective funding, or direct cooperation with intelligence agencies.

For decades, the Pentagon and CIA have reviewed scripts, edited scenes, and lent equipment in exchange for “favorable portrayals.” Meanwhile, projects critical of those same institutions often faced “bureaucratic resistance.”

Screen shot: Columbia Pictures

The fable of a purely free cultural market is just that. Even the supposedly private sector depends on state-sanctioned access to capital, global licensing, and infrastructure. When you trace the flow of money, you find the same pattern that shaped the art of Pharaohs and Premiers: cultural power aligned with political control.

And it’s not just the arts. We have the hard numbers. Princeton and Northwestern University jointly published a major study examining the relationship between public opinion and legislative outcomes in the U.S. over several decades. Their conclusion was damning: There is “no statistically significant correlation” between what the average American wants and what Congress actually does.

In plain English, the voters’ desires have zero impact on federal policy.

So if politics is defined as the mechanism by which the public governs itself, then it no longer exists in any meaningful sense.

What we have now is management, not representation. The real levers of power lie elsewhere; behind boardroom doors, within regulatory agencies, and in academic institutions that shape public thought long before anyone reaches a voting booth.

From that perspective, the old slogan needs revising. “Politics is downstream from culture” was an understandable mistake. But the reality isn’t as simple as flipping it to “Culture is downstream from politics.”

Because the political class, as most people understand it, no longer exercises independent power. They take their cues from the same financial, bureaucratic, and ideological elites who control the cultural apparatus itself.

A more accurate formulation would be: Culture is downstream from power.

And that brings us to the modern era—after Cultural Ground Zero.

Related: Cultural Ground Zero

For centuries, the ruling classes of the West cultivated a unified aesthetic tradition that informed civilization. The Church supported sacred art; monarchs funded grand architecture; princes patronized heroic literature.

But in the twentieth century, the cultural elite stopped reinforcing shared values and began dissolving them. The monoculture that once bound the West together was intentionally dismantled.

Many interpret this disintegration as a loss of control, as if the powers that be were overwhelmed by chaos. But it’s far more plausible that this change was a deliberate pivot; a sign of confidence, not weakness.

When an elite feels threatened, it promotes order. When it feels secure, it can afford to promote disorder. A class that believes its position unassailable no longer needs art to uphold its authority; it uses art to erase the notion of authority.

That’s why the postwar West abandoned beauty in favor of irony, worship in favor of mockery, and heroism in favor of cynicism. Cultural Ground Zero wasn’t an accident; it was the victory lap of a ruling class that had consolidated total control over politics and culture.

Yet no establishment is eternal. History moves in cycles, and every age of decay gives rise to its replacement. The current elite are already showing cracks: Their narratives no longer persuade, their art no longer inspires, and their ideologies collapse under the weight of their own contradictions.

That’s where independent creators come in.

When power ossifies, new life stirs outside its reach. Independent authors, filmmakers, musicians, and artists have more tools at their disposal than any generation before them. The centralized system that once dictated taste and access is crumbling, and its replacements: small presses, digital distribution, crowdfunding, and direct audience connection, are proving far more resilient.

Always remember that we are going to win. And when we do, leaders who actually share our values will, at long last, not just level the cultural playing field, but tip it decisively in our favor.

So keep creating. Don’t wait for permission from institutions that no longer believe in their own mission. Because when this decrepit cultural order finally collapses, we’ll need new books, new songs, and new stories ready to take its place.

Empires may commission art, but art outlasts all empires. And when this one falls, the creators who kept their craft alive will inherit the ground on which the next civilization will be built.

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Brian Niemeier is a best-selling novelist, editor, and Dragon Award winner with over a decade in newpub. For direct, in-person writing and editing insights, join his Patreon.