Culture is the process by which a person becomes all that they were created capable of being. - Thomas Carlyle
In my freshman year of high school, when my English teacher told me that Shakespeare's work represented some of the best humanity had to offer, I'm pretty sure I just laughed at her in my head, and dismissed that as nonsense. Who could read that dry, dull, drab prose? I swear I wanted to tear my eyes from their sockets rather than have to sit through another class reading of the stuff. It was just so snooty and snobby, so high and mighty, so arrogant and egotistical; as my old history teacher would say, it was "mental masturbation at its best". Looking back now, though, was that really so bad? Forcing ourselves to read such difficult material, to wrap our brains around it and really comprehend what he was telling us?
Back in my hometown, rural ol' Washington, a lot of kids simply didn't care about what they were doing in school. They shrugged off assignments, claiming that they'd "never use this stuff in real life," or "never have to deal with this [insert your favorite descriptive expletive here] stuff again." Of course, then they would go on to talk about something ever so exciting that Snooky did to The Situation, or gossip about Britney Spears' shaved head. I mean, while I really disliked having to sit through the boring stuff we studied in school, I still appreciated it for what it was: an attempt to teach us something, a light in the dark that was our lack of knowledge, our ignorance. It was this stepping stone we could use to achieve something greater, and they were willing to just throw it all away because they thought: "it's hard" or: "I don't like it". I didn't like to admit it, but boring old Shakespeare really was a building block for a large part of culture as it is today, and our society as a whole.
Fast forward half a decade or so, and I'm now sitting at my computer, pondering this idea of 'High' vs 'Low' culture. We always see those rough and tumble characters in movies calling people who listen to Beethoven or read Shakespeare snobs, and we kinda agree with them. But who are we to claim that liking such enduring masterpieces makes someone a 'snob'? After all, there has to be some reason that this 'High' culture is still around, right? Well, let's take a look at some of this 'Low' culture, because lots of people like it, it has to be pretty long standing, too, right? Wheel of Fortune? The show's been around for 37 years now, not bad. Professional Wrestling has been around for a few decades, too. And Jersey Shore's been running since.... well, since it's just been canceled, that makes a few years, and I guess American Idol is pretty dead, too. Maybe this 'Low' culture stuff doesn't really have what it takes to be lasting. Everyone's forgotten about The Hangover: Part II, and mostly about Lindsay Lohan. But then we see Beethoven's music, and Shakespeare's plays, and those plays have been around for the better part of half of a millennium Even The New York Times has been around for a good century and a half or so. But why?
When we look at demographics for these shows, we see that The Jersey Shore, American Idol, and The Real Housewives of New Jersey (which trust me, isn't very much like what housewives are like in Jersey) all pander to the middle class or poor, who just don't want to think about what they're doing, they already have to think too much during the rest of their lives. But in looking who's kept alive Shakespeare and Beethoven, the New York Times and the works of Emily Dickenson, and Jules Verne and Herman Melville, we see lots of intellectuals and those who've received higher education. Snooty folks? Maybe, but then again, who have been the ones to make the biggest contributions to society? Take Bill Gates, who gave us the first personal computer. He is an avid fan of Leonardo Da Vinci, one of the greatest artists and scholars of all time. Even looking at Da Vinci, we can see that he was heavily influenced by his upbringing in Florence, being bombarded by a multitude of classical culture, works that survive to this day. These intellectuals gravitate to this type of culture, and who wouldn't want to be Bill Gates?
After thinking about all of this, I've come to the conclusion that maybe, as a society, we need to get our heads out of this new fad-centered culture, and value things that are lasting and great. While some may think of people who do this as snobs, sometimes it's those 'snobs' who make the greatest contributions to our society, and to humanity as a whole. So maybe it would be good to start kids younger, to help them develop a love for the classics, and the critical thinking they induce. In doing so, maybe we can produce another da Vinci, Shakespeare, or Tesla.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/culture.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates#Personal_life
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci#Florence:_Leonardo.27s_artistic_and_social_background
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