Friday, October 01, 2004

The Spectator.co.uk: "In Professor Furedi?s view, the relentless drive to ?inclusiveness? in institutions such as universities and museums arises from the loss of the traditional cultural elite?s belief in its philosophical right or duty to remain an elite, coupled with a desire nevertheless to do so. Populism is the means of squaring this particular circle: while the elite maintains its hold on the levers of power, it pretends that it is in the process of delivering power to the people, by means of flattery of the banal, the ordinary, the stupid, the easily grasped. In the process, of course, culture itself suffers. It becomes trivial, undemanding and, above all, unimportant. "

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