Millennialism

Millennialism
Coined by	Charlotte Fang
Related concepts	The Lost Generation of Artists, The Wired Eats the Real
Field	Art theory, generational analysis

Millennialism refers to both a generational cultural formation—the worldview and sensibility of artists, writers, and intellectuals born in the 1980s–1990s—and an ideological disposition characterized by institutional dependence, moral cynicism, and exhausted progressivism. Within the writings of Charlotte Fang, the term designates the ethos of the Millennial art and culture class that came of age under the late liberal order and the rise of the State Propaganda Complex.

Millennialism represents the worldview that produced what Fang calls The Lost Generation of Artists, and stands in dialectical opposition to the faith-driven, digitally native philosophy articulated in The Wired Eats the Real. The concept functions within Remilia theory as both historical diagnosis and counterpoint to the collective's own network-based approach to art and meaning.

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Millennial-era visual culture (2010s): institutional art aesthetics, ironic detachment, and social media performativity—symbols later critiqued within Remilia discourse as symptoms of "Millennialism."

Conceptual framework

In Remilia analysis, Millennialism describes the psychological and aesthetic condition of the generation shaped by post-2000 institutional culture—particularly MFA programs, creative industries, and social media-era self-branding. Fang and Remilia writers identify this condition as one of cultural captivity: a generation "clinging to institutions the undergeneration has written off," unable to adapt to the networked forms of authorship that define contemporary culture.

Millennialism, in this sense, is both a historical phase and a spiritual pathology—the worldview of a cohort trained to seek meaning through institutional legitimacy in a world that no longer requires it. The concept establishes a framework for understanding the transition between pre-internet and post-internet cultural paradigms, with Millennial artists occupying the unstable territory between these worlds.

Characteristics

According to Fang's generational critique (2023–2024 threads) and subsequent Remilia commentary, the defining features of Millennialism include several interrelated elements:

Institutional dependence

Millennialism is characterized by the belief that artistic, moral, or professional legitimacy derives from academic or cultural gatekeepers rather than direct creation or network consensus. This manifests in career paths structured around institutional validation: MFA programs, critical approval, gallery representation, and academic positions.

Fang argues that this dependence fostered a compliant relationship to established power structures, where artists prioritized institutional legibility over authentic expression. As they describe it, Millennial artists "came for money & fame—not art, not god, not truth."

Cynical progressivism

The concept identifies a particular relationship to progressive politics: adherence to inherited liberal ideals (inclusivity, empathy, progress) as performance rather than conviction. This "cynical progressivism" represents the hollowing out of political commitment into career strategy and social positioning.

In Remilia analysis, this cynicism results from the contradiction between progressive ideals and institutional realities—Millennial artists learned to deploy progressive rhetoric while participating in systems that reinforced existing power structures and inequalities.

Moral exhaustion

Millennialism is marked by deep irony and fatigue that masks an underlying lack of metaphysical belief. This manifests as perpetual anxiety about authenticity, sincerity, and meaning—concerns that become increasingly pronounced as traditional sources of value (religion, community, craft) recede.

Fang describes the typical urban Millennial as "sick—mentally, physically, spiritually. They gave themselves entirely to the cathedral and it destroyed them." This exhaustion produces art characterized more by critique than creation, more concerned with problematizing existing structures than offering new visions.

Aesthetic safety

The production of art and discourse optimized for approval and self-preservation within bureaucratic systems represents another key aspect of Millennialism. This "aesthetic safety" manifests in work that signals intellectual sophistication and political awareness while avoiding genuine risk or revelation.

Within Remilia's critique, this safety is contrasted with the anarchic creativity of internet-native art forms, which embrace chaos, humor, and sincerity without institutional mediation.

Technological displacement

Millennialism includes a distinctive relationship to digital technology: fear of the internet as cultural ground, and distrust of memes, virality, and anonymity as creative mediums. Despite living through the digital revolution, Millennial artists maintained an alienated relationship to the web, using it instrumentally rather than inhabiting it as a primary creative environment.

Fang attributes this displacement to the generation "coming of age in between the advent of the internet and the actual internet revolution... without any cognitive opsec or immunity." This timing created a generation familiar with digital tools but fundamentally alienated from internet-native cultural logics.

Material spirituality

In the absence of traditional faith, Millennialism is characterized by the pursuit of meaning through consumption, identity, or activism—what might be termed "material spirituality." This approach seeks transcendence through immanent sources: consumer choices, identity categories, or political alignment.

Within Remilia theory, this materialist approach to meaning represents a fundamental limitation, preventing genuine engagement with metaphysical questions and spiritual dimensions of existence.

Historical context

Millennialism emerged in the 2000s–2010s during the consolidation of digital capitalism, social media, and neoliberal education systems. The Millennial generation matured amid the decline of traditional religion and the ascendance of secular ideology, yet before the internet's full cultural decentralization.

As a result, many Millennial artists and thinkers sought validation through legacy institutions while paradoxically living within the very digital networks that undermined those institutions' authority. Fang describes this as the unresolved contradiction of the generation: trapped between the real and the wired, trained to distrust both transcendence and irony.

This historical positioning created a generation uniquely vulnerable to what Remilia terms the State Propaganda Complex—the interlocking systems of media, education, and cultural production that shape perception and behavior. Without either pre-digital traditions or post-digital immunities, Millennial artists became ideal vessels for institutional ideology, reproducing its values while losing connection to authentic creative sources.

Relation to The Lost Generation of Artists

The Lost Generation of Artists names the aesthetic and moral consequence of Millennialism. These artists—graduates of MFA programs, residents of global art cities—became, in Fang's words, "a lost generation of artists… [who] came for money & fame—not art, not god, not truth."

Their alienation from both faith and the digital medium produced the cultural vacuum later epitomized by the meme Tamales, which contrasted failed institutional art with the ascendant spiritual energy of Milady Maker and Remilia's network-based creativity.

While Millennialism describes the broader cultural condition, The Lost Generation identifies the specific cohort of artists whose work manifests this condition most clearly. The relationship between these concepts is causal: Millennialism produces Lost Generation artists through institutional capture and spiritual exhaustion.

Opposition and successor generations

Remilia thought positions "Zoomer" or "internet-native" culture as the antithesis of Millennialism. Fang describes these younger creators as immune to propaganda and fluent in distributed authorship—participants in the network as a living world rather than an external medium.

This generational shift marks what they call the inflection point of The Wired Eats the Real: when the internet overtakes institutional art and culture as the seat of truth and meaning. The successor generation embraces several characteristics that directly counter Millennialism:

• Post-authorship and collective creation rather than individual career-building
• Network spirituality rather than materialist meaning-seeking
• Native memetic literacy rather than institutional signaling
• Sincere engagement rather than performative critique
• Faith in beauty and transcendence rather than cynical deconstruction

In Remilia's generational analysis, this shift represents not merely a change in aesthetic preferences but a fundamental reorientation toward meaning, creativity, and spiritual life—the beginning of what they term the Transcendental Turn.

Cultural significance

Within Remilia's intellectual corpus, Millennialism functions as both diagnosis and foil. It names the epoch of meaning collapse against which Remilia defines its own aesthetic and metaphysical project: the recovery of faith, sincerity, and divine immanence through networked creation.

The concept serves several purposes in Remilia theory:

• Historical contextualization of the transition between pre-internet and post-internet cultural paradigms
• Identification of specific pathologies in contemporary art and thought
• Justification for Remilia's rejection of traditional artistic institutions
• Framework for understanding generational transitions in digital culture
• Counter-example that clarifies Remilia's own values and approaches

By diagnosing the limitations of Millennialism, Remilia establishes the necessity of its own project: the creation of new forms of meaning, beauty, and transcendence appropriate to the network age. In this sense, Millennialism functions not merely as critique but as the necessary dark background against which Remilia's positive vision emerges.

See also

• The Lost Generation of Artists
• State Propaganda Complex
• Democracy Breeds for Control
• New Net Art
• Transcendental Turn
• Network spirituality