How monoculture became a catchall for two opposing anxieties that we no longer?

"Monoculture is like having only one type of toy in your whole room, it became a way to describe two different worries we had about not having enough variety."

Imagine you're playing with blocks. If you have only red blocks, that's monoculture, everything is the same. But why would that make people worry?

Sometimes, monoculture is like only eating apples every day. You might get sick of them, or maybe a storm comes and knocks down all your apple trees. That’s one kind of worry: not having enough variety makes things fragile.

But sometimes, monoculture is also like being told you have to play with red blocks only. You can’t choose blue or green, that's another kind of worry: not having enough freedom to be creative or different.

Over time, people used the word "monoculture" for both worries, not having enough variety and not having enough freedom. But now we’ve forgotten which one was which!"Monoculture is like having only one type of toy in your whole room, it became a way to describe two different worries we had about not having enough variety."

Imagine you're playing with blocks. If you have only red blocks, that's monoculture, everything is the same. But why would that make people worry?

Sometimes, monoculture is like only eating apples every day. You might get sick of them, or maybe a storm comes and knocks down all your apple trees. That’s one kind of worry: not having enough variety makes things fragile.

But sometimes, monoculture is also like being told you have to play with red blocks only. You can’t choose blue or green, that's another kind of worry: not having enough freedom to be creative or different.

Over time, people used the word "monoculture" for both worries, not having enough variety and not having enough freedom. But now we’ve forgotten which one was which!