"I find myself alienated with respect to much modern, popular culture - which seems shallow and lacking in 'texture' to me."

Shimrod, I assume you are using threads like this to help you work out your problem, which based on your last post is evidently a singular issue that you need to resolve. Your resistance to change is obviously a personal issue as evolution continually bring change and the way we adapt to it will progress. You statement about "the havoc that I've seen wrought on the world by uncontrolled, unregulated change" indicates you are blinding yourself from the positive changes that have improved our condition and instead focusing on the issues that have yet to be resolved. You come across as dwelling on the negative and not allowing yourself the opportunity to be positive.   Good luck with working it out.