Honor The Legacy-
/ @cs_lewis_legacy
In this dense and provocative essay from the "Cambridge Number" of the Twentieth Century (1955), C.S. Lewis discusses the paradoxical relationship between personal culture and the public invocation of it. He begins by addressing why people often go to great lengths to deny being intellectual or cultured, suggesting that genuine qualities of refinement and culture inherently lose their authenticity when they become conscious pursuits or public claims.
Lewis draws parallels to explain his point. First, he compares the social distaste for overtly refined behavior, suggesting that true refinement is natural and unforced, becoming less authentic when it is consciously pursued or bragged about. He then connects this to religion, noting that the most genuinely religious people do not talk about religion because their focus is naturally on God and their faith practices, not on the label of being religious.
Expanding his argument to culture, Lewis criticizes the modern educational push to cultivate a 'cultured' elite, warning that making culture a criterion for social or professional advancement corrupts the true enjoyment of arts and literature. He argues that true appreciation of the arts must be spontaneous and not performed for social advantage or as a marker of status.
Lewis further worries that the cultivation of a culturally elite class could lead to a form of governance ("Charientocracy") where power is held by those deemed culturally superior, which he views as dangerously exclusive and likely to be corrupt. He believes that genuine culture, like genuine faith, should be personal and free from the ambitions of social leverage or power.
Ultimately, Lewis calls for a rejection of the "faith in culture" as a societal measure of worth or leadership capability. He fears that such a system not only misrepresents what true culture is but also undermines the individual's genuine engagement with art and literature. Lewis's essay is a plea for the preservation of culture and art as ends in themselves, not as means to social or political ends.