Hannah Arendt: The Crisis in Culture

Concepts to look at:
*Colere - Roman word and concept meaning to cultivate, to dwell, to take care, tend and preserve. Originally used in relation to agriculture - as means of tending and cultivating the land hor human habitation. Represents an attitude of loving care. Cicero is responsible for first using colere in terms of the human mind and spirit with the term "excolere animum" and "cultura animi".

*Culture- [as defined by the Greek] the attitude toward, or more specifically, the mode of intercourse prescribed by civilizations with respect to the least useful and most wordly of things.

*Paideia - Opposite of being a fabricator or creator of art works. In ancient times, things that were of culture, were supposed to rise naturally out of nature. And so, as an artist that fabricates works of art, the art itself was admired, but the artist was looked upon skeptically in terms of technique and skill which was in direct opposition of how 'art' and essentially 'culture' was to come to being.

*Philistinism - described below

Arendt runs through several ideas throughout this article. The common view of this article has been that she is criticizing mass society and mass culture. But to read the article and to understand it through her definitions of mass culture, culture and society, it becomes clear that she is not criticizing per se, but distinguishing the difference between traditional culture and mass culture. In the center of this dichotomy lies philistinism, which Arendt is most critical of.

Historically, culture was reserved for the privileged few who were not tied to the burden of physically exhausting labor.[Marxist ideas here] In past societies, there were significant distinctions between each class in terms of their leisure time. In this sense, with leisure came the luxury of [appreciating] the arts - culture. With modern times, the concept of one's leisure time [in a western/european context] has expanded across the classes as the lines, although still existing, are blurred between where each strati meets. In the increase of leisure among the working class, culture is now accessible to them as well. Arendt clarifies that the type of culture that the working class is now open too is still limited in forms of entertainment rather then true [lasting culture]. With the present society being that of a consuming one, the entertainment sought is also consumptive in nature. The 'culture' being produced for this purpose, therefore, is not designed to last. In Arendt's definiton of true culture, the ability to outlast human life is its primary defining characteristic. And so, this is how the line between Mass culture and culture is drawn for Arendt.

So, Arendt does not attack mass culture as being the destructive force of traditional culture, as some have interpreted her works as saying. The destructive force is actually what she calls "philistinism". This is essentially the act of people who strive to be more 'cultured' by simply absorbing culture for the mere sake of it. To read the classics in literature, because one is expected to read them when one is cultured. Arendt describes that the "trouble with the educated philistine was not tha he read the classics, but that he did so prompted by the ulterior motive of self-perfection, remaining quite unaware of the fact that Shakespeare or Plato might have to tell him more important things than how to educate himself..." (203)

And so, this education without depth is truly what kills culture, not mass culture - which creates and consumes its own form of culture as entertainment.

The article continues to describe why and how culture and concepts of beauty and taste are political in their true form. This idea comes from Platonic theory of law and society (and perhaps further back) that the polis was the realm which set the limits to the love of wisdom and of beauty. This goes back to a political structure that was based on cultivating human virtue. [i knew that plato course would come in handy some day!!]

The dangers of philistinism in the context of political concepts of culture, is that culture is supposed to be useless except to cultivate the mind, spirit and soul. Philistinism takes this concept and puts utility in the mix [for social advancement] and by adding utility, the attitude of culture is then destroyed by its very nature. Politically, this has consequences because the philistines will "judge action by the same standards which are valid for fabrication, demand that action obtain a predetermined end and that it be permitted to seize on all means to further this end." Culture is also threatened by philistinism because it will be judged in terms of utility essentially leading to a devaluation. By definition, things that are of culture are to carry their own, independent - intrinsic worth. Philistinism takes this away forcing art and culture to have utility - which further means that once its function has been fulfilled, it can be cast aside.