(2025-06-24) Zeigler Why Im Building A Creative Cult

Matt Zeiger: Why I'm Building a Creative Cult. Individualism is still a new concept to humans. It doesn’t feel like it, but only because we can’t imagine our modern lives without it. The reality is, for most of human history, you were defined by your family first

families of any and all levels of influence loved the cousin marrying option because it consolidated and extended family power.

So the Church breaks up these power structures and of course it has an unpredictably spiraling impact. Within a century you had an explosion of trade posts turned to proper cities, complete with guilds and universities. For the first time ever, people had to find new communities and opportunities outside of blood ties.

This is the greatest disruption in our understanding of the modern self.

Until… now?

Humans made the jump from “Who am I” to “Who ALL am I” relatively quickly. Online, even if you don’t know what a finsta is, it’s easy to fragment into multiple identities. (Society Of Mind)

Classic individualism peaked when we became isolated, shrink-wrapped, mall and credit card trained consumers. But the internet changed everything - suddenly we could be multiple people across multiple platforms, from anywhere in the world.

I didn’t consciously plan this when I named my site “Cultish Creative” (shoutout to Amy Mertz who helped me triangulate on the name). I did know about punk rock economics. I knew about what it meant to grow up and around a scene, and why that could feel bigger, and better, and more productive than scaling something to take over the world. (2023-10-23-ZeiglerPunkRockEconomicShowToStartASceneNotSellOutAndSaveTheWorld)

Post-individuals need to find communities around shared interests and identities, instead of geographies, bloodlines. The internet helps meet these needs with small, intentional groups of all sorts available.

When I say cults, I’m not talking about the scary, controlling cults of the past. I’m directly referring to the intentional micro-communities built around shared aesthetics, values, or obsessions. (scene)

I love creative practitioners for their desire, if not their necessity, to form micro-tribes around their shared values and aesthetics.

It’s ok to rebel. It’s ok to remember it’s punk to NOT make something for everyone. It’s important to remember how it’s punk to NOT scale.

only serve specific identities within the people who show up.

to make sure the people who want to come in feel extra special, and that extra powerful sense of belonging. This is the present, and it’s very much the future. We are all seeking specialized communities for our especially segmented selves

The question isn’t whether we need community (we do), but what kind of communities will crop up to serve our new realities.

The future belongs to those brave enough to build small, weird, wonderful communities for our fragmented selves.