Every cultural and economic change produces the same fundamental fear: that in the unknown future, there will be no place for people like me, or for the things I value.

"The fashionistas dont write books you can refute. They dont quote Rousseau. But if their world becomes the whole world, pretty soon we'll all be changing scarves and looks and personalities every six months in desperate competition for attention and cool. The trivial will crowd out the eternal. We will all have to be cool. We will all have to fit in. No one will have to think."

We know the world through our senses and despite our many protests to the contrary, through our senses we imbue our world with value.

We can let style consume us or we can enjoy the age of look and feel, using surfaces to add pleasure and meaning to the substance
*"TheSubstanceOfStyle: Virginia Postrel*