Saturday 16 July 2016

Culture and society: the meaning of elitism

Interesting review of a biography of Klaus Mann, one of Thomas Mann's sons: 


Quote:

"Of the recent books on the family, the most original is Evelyn Juers’s House of Exile, which deals with the exile of Heinrich Mann and his second wife and, in passing, tells the story of a generation of Germans who tried to make a home in America. Instead most of them lived in exile, often penniless, on the edge of despair, destroyed by the knowledge that the very culture they, in all innocence, had helped to create had meant nothing against the unspeakable cruelty and violence which seemed to have won the support of the majority of their compatriots."

What can a high culture do in a society where a majority is not ready to understand its implications? And not interested in it, anyway?

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