MASSCULT AND MIDCULT
·611
XV
This whole line of argument may be 'objected to as un–
democratic. But such an objection is beside the point. AsT. S.
Eliot writes in
Notes Toward a Definition of Culture:
Here are what I believe to be essential conditions for the
growth and for the survival of culture.
If
they conflict with any
passionate faith of the reader- if, for instance, he finds it shocking
that culture and equalitarianism should conflict, if it seems
monstrous to him that anyone should have "advantages of birth"–
I do not ask him to change his faith. I merely ask him to
~top
paying lip-service to culture.
If
the reader says: " The state of
affairs which I wish to bring about is
right
(or is
just,
or is
'n.~vit
able)
;
and if this must lead to further deterioration of culture, we
must accept that deterioration"-then I can have no quarrel with
him. I might even, in some circumstances, feel obliged to support
him. The effect of such a wave of honesty would be that the
word
culture
would cease to be absurd.
That the word now is absurd- priggish, unctuous, worn slick
.with abuse--shows how mass-ified we have become. The great
cultures of the past have
all
been elite affairs, centering in smail
upper-class communities which had certain standards
in
com–
mon and which both encouraged creativity by (informed)
enthusiasm and disciplined it by (informed) criticism.
The old avant-garde of 1870-1930, from Rimbaud to
Picasso, demonstrated this with special clarity because it was
based not on wealth or birth but on common tastes. "Comnion"
didn't mean uniform- there were the liveliest, most painftil
clashes- but rather a shared respect for certain standards and
'an agreement that living art often runs counter to generally
:accepted ' ideas. The attitude of the old avant-garde; in short,
was a peculiar mixture of conservatism and revolutionism' that
had nothing in common with the tepid agreeableness of .Mass–
'cult; · It was an elite ' community, a rather snobbish ' one, but
'anyone ' could join who cared enough' about ' such odd
'things.
