Being Cultured.

Can someone give me an objective definition of being cultured as well as a cost/benefit analysis.

I'll try...

Being cultured means being educated in the most highly regarded aspects of your culture, and most importantly, showing it. The benefits are a greater understanding of the world (as comes with all knowledge) and the respect of people who regard those aspects of culture as a mark of superiority. The costs are the time and effort it takes to learn these things and behave accordingly, and obviously you must also take into account the fact that what the majority regard as classy may not be very similar to your personal interests.

In common parlance, "culture"="high art".

How does one determine a highly regarded aspect, objectively?

You write up your subjective opinion and say it's objective.

How indeed?

edited 2nd Mar '11 7:39:37 PM by MRDA1981

There we get into the definitions of "high art" and "high culture", which are not rigidly defined and basically boil down to consensus. Something is classy if people behave as though it is classy.

I'm still thinking it's a "worthless dickwaving" thing. Haven't seen any counter evidence.

It really is.

It is mostly about dickwaving, yes. Whether or not it's worthless probably depends on your goals.

People have told me that my rabid anti-art plans would result in future generations being completely uncultured. I'd already concluded that it was likely worthless, I just wanted to make sure.

Something is classy if people behave as though it is classy.

Much like how silly noises aren't silly unless laughed at.

Vox populi, vox dei....ironically.

Well, I can't prove to you that art is good. Why do you have anti-art plans anyway?

Hmm... the downsides of being uncultured would probably be more indirect. Since so-called "high culture" is commonly tied to an interest in philosophy and the theoretical, I imagine you might see a decrease in general knowledge and abstract thought.

I think the elimination of culture would likely be all well and good for those who can digest hard facts easily and have no interest in anything more, but not so good for those whose imaginations are fired by less concrete ideas.

Being cultured is knowing where you came from and what is required of you. It is an understanding of how the world you have chosen to be part of functions.

"Chosen to be part of"?

Makes sense to me. You can choose to behave as though cultured or not. If you don't, then you probably won't be rubbing shoulders with elitists any time soon.

I don't think he was going in that direction with that phrasing.

The preceding sentence suggests not, though I don't presume to know Shrimpus' intentions.

Although, it could be argued that there's always a choice. You could drop out of society at any time if you so chose.

Culture could be construed as solely as being a member of 'haute couture' but it is more about knowing how to be where you are at any given time. It is about understanding the paradigm that is being used and functioning to a high degree within that paradigm. Something that requires an understanding of what the origins and mechanics of that culture. High Culture as it is stereotypically defined is merely a set of fashionable ideals but it is based on a more fundamental concept of striving for excellence within the boundaries of a chosen cultural paradigm. That said 'being cultured' is knowing enough of the available cultures to make value judgments.

edited 2nd Mar '11 8:15:36 PM by Shrimpus

Also, one could argue that banning art is "uncultured" because art is a major part of anthropological studies.

A bunch of haughty pricks who work at gaming the system as much as possible, and then distancing themselves from people who don't with elitist snobbery.

Thats unfair. Speaking for cultured elitists we aren't all snobs and we certainly don't mind mixing it up.

Still, haven't seen anything value that's not tautological in nature.