A culture for only the elite

“Mass Civilisation and Minority Culture” by F.R.Leavis

F.R. Leavis states that culture is often thought as being only accessible to a minority in society, saying “it is...only a few who are capable of unprompted, first-hand judgement”. He states that to enjoy are be able to respond to cultural works, a person must be able to connect with the deeper levels of human capability and intelligence:

“it implies responsiveness to theory as well as to art, to science and philosophy in so far as these affect the sense of human situation and the nature of life.”

Leavis then goes on to argue that the minority who have the potential to access the culture of the world are the ones who set the standards in society, and devise the norms and values which are required to be understood and followed in order for culture to be appreciated:

“Upon them depend the implicit standards that order the finer living of an age...”

He then states that it has become well known to this minority that “culture is at a crisis”, which he partly seems to blame on “the machine” – otherwise known as technology. Leavis states that “The machine...has bought about change in habit and the circumstances of life at a rate for which we have no parallel.”
Leavis begins to introduce the idea of mass-production and standardisation having a negative effect on the media world – a criticism made by many modern day theorists –, and he suggests that the worst result of this falls with the “levelling-down” of culture in society. Leavis talks about the different forms of media which are falling into the trap of becoming dummed-down and losing their intellectual grasp on their subject matter. He states that films, with all their influence, are causing their audiences to surrender to “hypnotic receptivity” and “the cheapest emotional appeals” – which are made all the more sinister by the “compellingly vivid illusion of actual life” that they portray. He also refers to the idea that “broadcasting...is in prcatice mainly a means of passive diversion”, meaning that this form of media has also sucumbed to the levelling-down of culture.
Leavis describes society’s constant struggle to wade through the sea of media, literature, art and cultural works which have emerged, and he claims that people are now finding it difficult to determine what makes good culture:

“The landmarks have shifted, multiplied and crowded upon one another”

Leavis goes on to say that the factors described above are what makes the idea that culture is only for the educated minority more solid, and this is what continues to re-enforce the minority’s abiltity to be the only ones who have access to our culture.