I remember an essay about how, every generation in the modern era, it seems like there's a new crop of avant-gard writers who think they should shake things up and abandon the rules of narrative, or some such. These movements turn out to produce "new and forward thinking" writing that eerily resembles the attempt of the previous generation.

We know from history and even archaeological records, that there have been people trying to start society anew with some idealistic insight or inspiration for literally thousands of years. Most of those attempts resemble each other. Most of them fail within a few generations, and most well inside one. That's not to say that there isn't some kind of progress. However, even the examples of progress can be characterized with common attributes.

Often, in the case of successes, there is often an economic revolution based on technology. There is often some kind of communalism involved, which fails to scale, resulting in some form of hierarchy and bureaucracy. There is almost always some kind of ideology involved as well.