At Mere Comments, Antony Esolen asks:

What cultural institution now is genuinely cultural, as springing from a people’s deeply held beliefs and traditions, and is thriving?

I’d reply: Internet/Blogs

To cite Tony’s own recent book: “It’s worthwhile to pause to appreciate this phenomenon, which I’d like to call the Greek Isles Effect. It isn’t perculiar to Greece. We can find it among the Christian monasteries in the Middle Ages, the fledgling states in America, and the Italian republics of the Renaissance. We can find it, though disincarnate, on the Internet. In all these cases there is some form of unity, more cultural than governmental, coinciding with great freedom to experiment” - Esolen, PIG to Western Civilization, p 13