Matthew Arnold sets out what he sees as the major flaws in the various classes of British society: the aristocrats are too out of touch with mainstream society; the middle class has energy but needs refinement; and the working class doesn’t know what it wants. Arnold worries that democratic freedom will devolve into anarchy, and argues that culture—“the best which has been thought and said”—must be developed in each person in order to achieve perfection. Incubating culture in this way will provide the cohesion needed to keep society together.
Arnold places the collective identity of the people in the State, and yet as a British..." data-title="Книга Culture and Anarchy">