THE MERGER OF HIGH AND LOW CULTURE

Behind all these cultural trends lies a clear demographic factor: more of us are going to university than ever before. We may fritter away much of our time while we're there, standing in the students' union bar drinking subsidised beer, but at the very least those years plant a seed of curiosity and a sense of possibility. Twenty-five years on, several of my contemporaries are now going back to university for more. Kingsley Amis famously said that in higher education more would mean worse. In fact, more has meant less of the sort of snobbery that he was displaying by saying that. Studies have shown that today's graduates are cultural omnivores, able to enjoy high and pop culture alike. Which is where dumbing down gets it wrong. Catchy as it is, the phrase has a certain dumbness built into it. The real story is more complex and more heartening.

Times
Dec 3 2008