Chaos amongst the authority

“Culture and Anarchy” by Matthew Arnold

Arnold defines culture as being:

“a pursuit of our total perfection by means of getting to know...the best which has been thought and said in the world;”

He claims that culture is often thought to revolve heavily around the written word, but Arnold debates how accurate this opinion is, saying that society and the people within in help to create and fuel culture – meaning that people can find culture without the need for a mass of literature.

“If a man without books or reading, or reading nothing but his letters and the newspapers, gets nevertheless a fresh and free play of the best thoughts upon his stock notions and habits, he has got culture.”

Arnold believes that culture brings people “sweetness and light” in their lives, and this is why society seeks out cultural satisfaction. He says that culture not only seeks to bring sweetness and light into our lives, but that it also seeks to make these elements prevail over our lives:

“It is not satisfied till we all come to a perfect man;”

Arnold claims that we must work for this sweetness and light, and that we must discover it on “broad basis” – without limiting ourselves to selected forms of culture. He believes that this is what makes people happy, and that society is safe when there is a “national glow of life and thought”. But Arnold stresses that it must be “real thought and real beauty; real sweetness and real light” – suggesting that we must have a clear idea of what real culture is in order to appriciate it and have it benefit our lives.
He notes that many of the culturally intellectual will try and give the masses in society “an intellectual food prepared and adapted in the way they think proper for the actual condition if the masses” – for which he gives popular literature as an example of such a method. Arnold also acknowledges that plenty of other people will try to bring the masses round to their way of thinking through cultural works – such as the religous and politcial organisations within society. He says that he doesn’t criticise either approach, but insits that the actual way of culture does not function like this.
Arnold states that culture does not try to dumb down its intellect for the masses or win them over to its own beliefs, as he insits that culture “seeks to do away with classes”, and make what it has to offer avaliable and understanable to everyone:

“This is the socail idea; and the men of culture are the true apostles of equality.”

Arnold then goes on to discuss the way that culture can lead to anarchy within society, even though this is the opposite of cultures orginal intention. He claims that because culture promotes free thought and speech, the masses begin to use this to their own advantage, which inevitably leads to anarchy.
Arnold talks about the similarities between the masses and the other social classes; being that they would all like their own class to rule and that they have no idea of a state ( or the “nation in its collective and corporate character” ) which holds the control.
He dicusses the process by which the laws of our society give opportunities for the masses to decend into anarchy, saying that the working class man will be allowed to do what he likes on many occassions, and when he starts to take these occassions more and more frequently it begins to create a normality and acceptance for other more rebelious souls to do as they please. This then leads to distress within society and increases social anarchy and disintergration to a hightened level.
However, Arnold argues that culture should actually be a force against anarchy, stating that by following culture and its values and beliefs, we are following a type of authority – and therefore culture should teach us to follow authority ratehr than rebell asgainst it with anarchy.

“If culture, which simply means trying to perfect oneself...brings us light, and if light shows us there is nothing so very blessed in merely doing as one likes...that the really blessed thing is to like what right reason ordains, and to follow her authority, then we have got a practical benefit to culture. We have a much wanted principle...of authority, to counteract the tendency to anarchy which seems to be treatening us.”