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Stars in the Net sky

By Chris Berg - posted Friday, 28 December 2007


Even television, that passive, much-reviled entertainment, is getting richer and more complex. The undemanding plots and one-dimensional characters of a typical television sitcom 30 years ago contrast poorly with the multiple, interlinked storylines and highly developed characters of today's programs. Compare for example the basic linear narratives of early Simpsons episodes with the intricate structures of the show's more recent outings. Television is becoming more engaging and, indeed, more mentally challenging.

Nevertheless, cultural pessimists argue that our ancestors were better off. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Lessing argued, the literate classes were respectful of great literature. Similarly, T.S. Eliot surveyed Western culture 50 years ago and famously wrote that "our own period is one of decline; that the standards of culture are lower than they were 50 years ago; and that the evidences of this decline are visible in every department of human activity". Even earlier, Plato criticised his fellow Greeks' love of the emotions in theatre and poetry, believing that what he considered serious thought was dying out.

But when cultural pessimists reminisce about earlier times, they are too often highly selective. The 18th century gentlemen who respected literature were a small minority of the total, mostly illiterate population. And cheap, poorly written paperbacks were just as large a portion of the market for books as they are today.

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Doris Lessing and Andrew Keen compare the best of the past with the average of the present. With a formula like that, it's no wonder today always loses.

People are resistant to change. During the industrial revolution, British textile and agricultural workers destroyed the new labour-saving machines, as they saw them as threatening their jobs and the world they were comfortable with.

Of course, their predictions of doom turned out to be inaccurate - the introduction of those machines was the beginning of a massive spurt of economic growth that raised the wealth and living standards of the working class.

When Lessing condemns the Internet as full of mere inanities, she similarly ignores the exciting possibilities of culture now that the Internet has freed it from scarcity.

But cultural pessimism is not just resistance to change. What is most striking about contemporary cultural pessimism is just how elitist it is. Not everybody can be a novelist, but anyone can write a blog.

We should be glad that cultural pessimists have found a new target in the Internet - it means that our culture is becoming even more diverse, anarchic and, best of all, truly democratised.

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First published in The Age on December 16, 2007.

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About the Author

Chris Berg is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs and editor of the IPA Review.

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