On Mon, 23 Oct 2000, Caio Rossi wrote:
> I was obviously referring to the first meaning: the masses x the elite.
Well, then, this is where I wanted us to get. You are equating elite with
better. Just wanted to get that out into the open.
> The masses have traditionally been a group of people with no or little
> formal education, mostly before the 30's. In the past, only the elite
> was educated enough to even care about the arts ( hard and soft
> sciences included ).
You mean their own arts. I can't believe you are suggesting the poor did
not have any interest in or create art. Crafts are a kind of art, they
just happen to be useful. Of course, if your idea of art requires useless
abstraction, then crafts are just stuff.
> Assuming classical composers had the same background as the populace is a
> historical mistake, and assuming that regardless of that different
> background they would get to the same point is plain mistake.
Art was valued by the rich, but was too ghosh for most rich people to do
as more than a hobby. The professional artists were of poorer classes who
pandered to the rich. Think castrati.
> No, I mean that for you to learn music, arts, acting, languages,etc, at the
> level classical music demands you have to have access to the academy, to
> those who have kept and developed what came before. Do you think people
> working in the fields in the 19th century would ever care about that?
Is it that they didn't care or that they were so incredibly opressed they
didn't have time to waste in artistic pursuits. Has it ever occured to you
that the rich created these pretty things with the money, power, and free
time afforded to them by peasants?
> the Left, which confuses appreciation for popular culture with
> revolution, in a mixture of misunderstood marxism and
> pseudo-anthropology.
Who exactly are you talking about here? You've thrown around a bunch of
terms, but it doesn't sound like any leftists I know...
Speaking of anthropology, it seems you haven't really examined the
cultural biases behind your assertion that elite/rich = better. Are you
wealthy yourself? If not, maybe you've been sucked in to the myth of the
american dream yourself.
Tako
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