[https://notnottalmud.substack.com/p/on-high-context-and-low-context-environments]

At Metrograph—a movie theatre for obsessive film nerds in NYC—I can comfortably shush someone who is talking. I can do this safely because, even if I don’t know the person I’m shushing, I know the established norm of the community, and I know the rest of the crowd will be on my side. If I try to shush someone at a midtown AMC, I might get assaulted in response. High-context environments are one of the main sources of escape from the general status competition of life. Not that high-context environments don’t have their own fierce status competitions—often more intense than the general public one—but it’s through people pursuing status within a given high-context community that society enables multiple status hierarchies. Instead of everyone competing for the same scene, people can opt out of the greater struggle and instead decide to be cool to a much smaller and niche group. Critically, the existence of these high-context communities gives people confidence to be different when they return back to general society.