Beware The Cultured Elite
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Published 2024-05-02
/ @cs_lewis_legacy
In this dense and provocative essay from the "Cambridge Number" of the Twentieth Century (1955), C.S. Lewis discusses the paradoxical relationship between personal culture and the public invocation of it. He begins by addressing why people often go to great lengths to deny being intellectual or cultured, suggesting that genuine qualities of refinement and culture inherently lose their authenticity when they become conscious pursuits or public claims.
Lewis draws parallels to explain his point. First, he compares the social distaste for overtly refined behavior, suggesting that true refinement is natural and unforced, becoming less authentic when it is consciously pursued or bragged about. He then connects this to religion, noting that the most genuinely religious people do not talk about religion because their focus is naturally on God and their faith practices, not on the label of being religious.
Expanding his argument to culture, Lewis criticizes the modern educational push to cultivate a 'cultured' elite, warning that making culture a criterion for social or professional advancement corrupts the true enjoyment of arts and literature. He argues that true appreciation of the arts must be spontaneous and not performed for social advantage or as a marker of status.
Lewis further worries that the cultivation of a culturally elite class could lead to a form of governance ("Charientocracy") where power is held by those deemed culturally superior, which he views as dangerously exclusive and likely to be corrupt. He believes that genuine culture, like genuine faith, should be personal and free from the ambitions of social leverage or power.
Ultimately, Lewis calls for a rejection of the "faith in culture" as a societal measure of worth or leadership capability. He fears that such a system not only misrepresents what true culture is but also undermines the individual's genuine engagement with art and literature. Lewis's essay is a plea for the preservation of culture and art as ends in themselves, not as means to social or political ends.
All Comments (21)
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I like this. We are being reminded to avoid people who are joyless Christians. We are told as well to avoid people who allegedly appear to be at the time constant seeking to display their superiority concerning holiness, purity etc. To give them enough space at the time to grow in generosity from the heart to all around them. Insteaed of for example acting like a joyless Christian towards them whenever they seem haughty or with toxic masculinity. The say saint Kateri was really good at giving people enough space through her humble manners. While being told she could not become a nun she made her own veil to wear which covered most of her face. Some said that was to hide her small pox scars. Others said it was because there was something wrong with her brain. Still others assumed many other things while she could no longer have the freedom to ignore all of the dress codes around. The dress codes around which some people say has to include our style of communication to put on in my morning too.
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10:00 "The sensitivity that enriches must be of the sort that guards a man from wounding others. Not of the sort that makes him ready to feel wounded himself."--C.S. Lewis
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This is incredibly prescient. I almost didn't watch because of the length, but thank you for sharing the whole thing. Is that an original recording?
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Refinement is like ideology. Where it is most named, it is most absent:) His discussion of why we should not discuss important topics like culture and religion "from the outside" reminds me of attaching a big ugly handle to a delicate and valuable object.
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This is an extraordinary insight. Since his time, things got much worse. I think Ian McGilchrist is onto something similar. Essentially, we replaced true intelligence with a mechanical one and promote people that excel at absorbing and recalling”facts”.
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I'm always surprised by his true genius and vision from his time into ours
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The man lived and worked around these types. He knew it and warned us of them.
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The improvement of Social Group as an aim in reading the correct novels and admiring the same artistic exhibitions leads to boredom as that Social Group will consist of people with similar aims as your own and you will see that you really need to look for a different Social Group again... and on and on it goes.. The result is dreariness. Read for enjoyment and like the pictures you really like and be damned to the snobs ( excuse the language)
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Where is this from? I searched "Cambridge Number" 1955 and can't find it. Is it in an edited volume?
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I would make all politicians listen to this - before it is too late.
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Quite interesting. Who is Mr Allan?
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"Varnished vulgarity" is hilarious.
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"A theocracy in modern England - such a view is entirely chimerical"?? One wonders if Lewis would be so sceptical these days.
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so we have a choice a tower in the wood,s OR A ONE WAY TICKET TO ICELAND SOma which ?
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Certainly is very interesting like everything this man says.
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🙏🏻
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dont we just love the BARFIELD BOYS
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prescient indeed Mr. Lewis. If only you and your ken had succeeded
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🙏😎
