Culture is the name for what people are interested
in, their thoughts, their models, the books they
read and the speeches they hear, their table-talk,
gossip, controversies, historical sense and
scientific training, the values they appreciate, the
quality of life they admire. All communities have a
culture. It is the climate of their civilization.
-- Walter Lippmann
1889-1974, American
Journalist
Eclecticism is the degree zero of contemporary
general culture: one listens to reggae, watches a
western, eats McDonald's food for lunch and local
cuisine for dinner, wears Paris perfume in Tokyo and
''retro'' clothes in Hong Kong; knowledge is a
matter for TV games. It is easy to find a public for
eclectic works.
-- Jean François
Lyotard
1924-, French
Philosopher
If
mass communications blend together harmoniously, and
often unnoticeably, art, politics, religion, and
philosophy with commercials, they bring these realms
of culture to their common denominator -- the
commodity form. The music of the soul is also the
music of salesmanship. Exchange value, not truth
value, counts.
-- Herbert Marcuse
1898-1979, German
Political Philosopher
The
ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the
ruling ideas, i.e., the class which is the ruling
material force of society, is at the same time its
ruling intellectual force.
-- Karl Marx
1818-1883, German
Political Theorist, Social Philosopher
