George Walden

In this book Walden writes about the damage wrought by populism, consisting partly in a lowering of standards, partly in a blurring of distinctions, both carried out with the arrogant elitism of the anti-elite. To the extent that "anti-elitism is a euphemism for resentment of excellence, everyone will lose."
“Access has come to mean lowering intellectual as well as other barriers, and, as cultural condescension has become official policy, pissing on the masses -- smilingly, as if dispensing champagne - is now standard practice among persons of authority in the arts.... Under New Labour, a kind of intellectual soft porn has come to permeate the ether, which makes it possible for a BBC arts correspondent to declare... that a photo-montage in a department store by Sam Taylor-Wood bears comparison with the works of the Renaissance because Renaissance patrons, too, commissioned large works for public places”.… (más)