Matthew Arnold on the True Apostles of Equality

by Don Boudreaux on July 1, 2008

in Education

I love this insight from Matthew Arnold; it’s from his Culture and Anarchy.

This is the social idea; and the men of
culture are the true apostles of equality.  The great men of culture are
those who have had a passion for diffusing, for making prevail, for carrying
from one end of society to the  other, the best knowledge, the best ideas
of their time; who have labored to divest knowledge of all that was harsh, uncouth,
difficult, abstract, professional, exclusive; to humanize it to make it efficient
outside the clique of the cultivated and learned , yet still reaming the best knowledge and thoughts of the time, and a true source, therefore, of sweetness
and light.

(HT to my close friend Lyle Albaugh.)

Comments

{ 5 comments }

jpm July 1, 2008 at 9:32 pm

Just more "right wing Republian Christian" propaganda!

BGC July 2, 2008 at 11:39 am

I like culture myself (I mean 'high' culture of the kind that Arnold advocated), but culture is the opposite of quality-promoting. Because one can only be cultured by immersion, especially at an early age – but by prolonged contact, so that one absorbs the correct manners, style, accent and attitudes. Therefore an emphasis on culture always (albeit often unwittingly) promotes class rigidities.

BGC July 2, 2008 at 4:09 pm

Re: my comment above – I intended to write equality-promoting, not quality-promoting…

Confusing, I expect…

FreedomLover July 3, 2008 at 1:05 pm

God himself decreed inequality by allowing those to be born with differing intelligence, physical capabilities.

jorod July 23, 2008 at 4:44 pm

The cultured person is a curious person. He/she wants more knowledge.

Book for students who are curious about economics:

New Ideas from Dead Economists: An Introduction to Modern Economic Thought
by Todd G Buchholz

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