[/b][b][b][/b]Not many of us are aware that there is a historical support for the idea of the word “culture” brought to our mind. It was in the 19th- century, when Mathew Arnold- (1822-1899) define “Culture as the best that has been thought and spoken in the past”.
Of cause, this is evidence that an eminent thinker considered culture just like “Education”-being defined as a worthwhile, is something which involve the handing on of value. The same is true, that culture is a cumulative thing, with the result that increases in strength or importance. This means that in each generation, when it taught and wrote something that was worthwhile- education, must add something to the existing culture.
The “idea” of value and excellence seems to be clear here, when considered in the perspective of Norman’s definition of culture, as the “pursuit of perfection” and in particular, if we recall “Plato’s Educational ideal for Guardian”. And the ultimate aim of their education was simply the contemplation of the Good of which Nettleship (1938) described as “ascent to truth”. In the same token, Sir R. Livingstone (1944) made the connection between Elites, Excellence and Culture. In his view, the spread of democracy cannot in anyway help in the “standard”-even when democracy is interpreted in social or Educational term. In the same vein, to call masses into power is to dilute the existing culture. This same is true, reflecting in the perspective, he concludes by saying that “Life without standard is the most barren life of all, sweet in the mouth but bitter in the belly”.
And M. Arnold did emphasized a great deal, on the importance of connection between culture and right standards and condemns the upper class of his days, as he labeled them “Barbarians”, of which the reason stern from what he called their obsession with sport and physical prowess. On the part of the middle class, they were not left out of this condemnation in his days, as he labeled them “philistines” simply because they seems to focus too much on material aspect of life to the detriment of every other aspect as we tends to be doing in this current generation.
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