Perpetuation is the name of the act of making something go on for a long time — especially something we wish would stop. A film can help the perpetuation of a silly idea about a group of people. A cruel joke, a fear, an unfair rule: if it keeps being passed along, that keeping-on is perpetuation. The verb is perpetuate ("this story perpetuates a myth"); this noun names the keeping-alive itself. It is a serious, rather formal word. You meet it in essays, news, and talk about society, not in chat about watering a plant. Though actually, people sometimes use it as if the harm were being done on purpose; often nobody sits down and chooses it — the attitude just keeps travelling.