Is cultural decay really the price we have to pay for individual freedom, or is it the result of some insidious form of insanity which is turning our values inside out?
That's a very interesting question, although its terms need some qualifications.
It is an undisputed fact that today there are more libraries, more museums, more orchestras, more theaters and opera houses, more publishing houses, more universities, more schools and high-schools than there were in all pre-1900 centuries put together. The vast majority of the cultural heritage of humanity is easily available to anyone interested.
And this, I think, is precisely the real issue: who is interested? One would presume that, given the above picture, there should be consequently more people interested than were in the preceding centuries and, moreover, that every high-school or college graduate should have developped an interested in, and appreciation for, arts, sciences and philosophy. But reality teaches us otherwise: the percentage of people interested in studying and appreciating mankind's cultural achievements remains low; besides, one can meet no small number of graduates who don't have the slightest interest, let alone appreciation, for culture.
There is something of a paradox in this situation. The educational system of the older times, restrictive, not compulsory, not standardized and not easily available, produced an astonishing percentage of great artists, scientists and philosophers. Our contemporary system, universal, compulsory, standardized and accessible to all, produces an astonishing percentage of "illiterate graduates", whose reading abilities and interests don't extend beyond newspapers and glossy magazines and whose musical culture, for instance, is limited to Marylin Manson or Brittney Spears.
In connection to this, one can also mention an interesting fact: the intellectual and moral quality of the politicians declined sharply. The old educational system produced
statesmen like, for instance, Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Talleyrand, Metternich, Guizot, Disraeli, Gladstone, Bismarck, Count Cavour etc, most of whom were also men of arts and letters, who mastered two or more foreign languages, who could express themselves in a polished and cultured fashion and who possessed strong convictions which they were ready to defend "sword in hand". Comparing them with political products of the contemporary education, like Bush sr. & jr, the Clintons, Sarkozy, Schroeder, Blair, Berlusconi, Putin etc. is futile: the intellectual mediocrity of their discourse, the coarseness of their language, their hypocrisy and lack of authentic convictions is evident.
Bottom line, the old educational system produced, generally speaking, intellectual excellence, moral integrity and strong men. The contemporary educational system produces, generally speaking, intellectual mediocrity, moral dishonesty and weak men.
Why this is so I will not venture to theorize about. It is a dangerous trend and, unfortunately, in the present climate, there is no hope of halting it.
