The mediocratization of the world

This article will be dedicated to an idea that has been remarkably captured in Mario Vargas Llosa’s book-” The Civilization of the Spectacle”, a literary masterpiece that deserves far more recognition than it had received. Dealing with a critical issue of contemporaneity, that of the decline of culture in its pure sense, this is a manifesto against the status quo of our times.

The book's main point is that the word “culture” lost its previously high standards interlinked with engaging in literature, philosophy and the arts, and has become something much more semantically ambiguous. The word “culture” is now interlinked with a number of topics unrelated to its original sense, such as Cancel Culture, to name one of them. Subsequently, the previous definition of culture could be called in today’s terms high culture. This cleavage shows the transformation this word had through the decades and thus the greater implications outside semantics this implies.

Progress and empowerment always come at a cost, and only through analyzing this cost can one decide whether it is better to reform or to maintain what still exists. For example, when planes were invented and massively produced, that was considered a major leap for humanity since transport became faster than ever before. But this innovation utterly tainted the inviolable and quasi-mystical flight of the dove; if humans manage to fly too, then all “magic” related to such a bird is lost forever. The same could be said about the number of published books. Each year, more and more books are published, thus making it harder for a good book to prevail in a sea of market-oriented books that tackle immediate subjects. That could be an explanation for the fact that almost all the classics we learn about in school are long-dead.

This was also the case for the huge empowerment the middle class saw after WWII, especially in Europe. As part of its aftermath, the whole continent saw a drastic change in the quality of life of the average man, with the introduction of modern housing with electricity and sewage systems, more jobs on the market, higher literacy rates, and stronger welfare states. The elitism, both cultural and material, of the ancienne regimes was now eliminated, and workers finally had a voice. But at what price was this accomplished?

With this empowerment of the middle class, however historically needed and sought after it might have been, came about the end of the so-called “high culture.” This democratization of society, as in a microrevolution from below against the traditional hierarchies that existed, even in authoritarian regimes such as those in Eastern Europe, was not limited only to the political sphere. Culture was naturally affected as well. The gradual rise of access to television and to newspapers lowered the quality of the produced content to mere entertainment. The worker, after all, wants to relax after his long working hours, and what was an easier way to do so other than through some good old-fashioned, cheap and immediate entertainment? Intellectual depth of any kind is now absent on any major news channel. Journalism, currently, is very much plagued by scandals and gossip, and not on a small scale. There are always people, see Murdoch, who capitalise on these very human needs for entertainment and immediate gratification. Contemporary literature is, similarly, plagued by the law of supply and demand, as I have mentioned above.. Art has become the playground of impostors and also a means to escape taxes. Everything must be immediate and, most importantly, one arm away reachable. The greater threat was not totalitarianism, as Orwell thought, but the irremediable attraction of the immediate and the always reachable, as Huxley proposed in his dystopia, Brave New World. We are definitely not that far from that.

On an ending note, the easiest way to actually get a grip on this decline is by analysing how journalism, specifically, evolved. Specifically, because newspapers catch almost perfectly the Zeitgeist of an era. Thus, one could open any mainstream news outlet, such as The Guardian or The New York Times and read any article there and compare it with those of any newspaper from the 20s, 30s, or 40s. A very quick analysis would highlight that les anciennes did not just report on x events—they were not just simple accountants of facts, stern and emotionless. They were active participants in the society they were a part of, fighters for their own ideas and principles, and never afraid to show their opinions on the current events of their world. This tumultuous and never-ending passion, this combativeness that does not settle, this have we forever lost.

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