Culture Vulture 1

What is Culture? No. 1. On Culture and Anarchy by Matthew Arnold. In which Martin Robinson reads a few excerpts and offers some reflections. A Trivium 21c TV production.

[@jenniferhawkins3550]

Thank you for making me think, Martin! Interesting that Matthew Arnold on culture faced all the dilemmas that we do now but in a different age, with different pressures, memes and vibes! I suspect that humankind has faced these problems for millenia. Why don't the phillistines and barbarians care about society? In my opinion it's because we all by nature tend to conform to the 'law of first comparisons' because we assume 'different' ideas, contexts and people are a threat. In my opinion, although we should appreciate, teach and love perfection, this concept will vary for different people. For example, tyrants (including dicatators and even some mothers!) may think perfection for them is power over others - anything other than that is a threat. Perhaps the fundamental attitude we need is the acceptance of our own constant ignorance about many matters at any given point in time. We need perhaps to start by valuing ourselves and the best of our culture for us and yet be curious about what others know and value. We might then be able to teach children to value themselves and what they know and be curious about what they can learn from others!