THE CREMATION OF CULTURE ... 1

Mediocrity in music is an ear-sore nowadays. One should study for decades before performance and that, too, if one is talented enough, certified in terms of spontaneous connoisseur approval and not in bloated self-appraisal or follower fancy. Art and culture deserve their name so long as they remain so. The moment they pander to the vanities of the self or to the tastes of the unrefined, they degenerate to something that must be named otherwise.

Culture has been on the decline steadily since the decline of imperialism and the onrush of democracy. While much may be good about the rule of the many, the same does not hold true where tastes are concerned. The refinement of aristocracy gone, refinement of culture is gone with it. The multitude are living doubtlessly a better life in terms of earthly amenities made available to them but their inroads into art and culture have seriously compromised the erstwhile standards associated with them. The classical connoisseur, the critic, the patron par excellence in terms of tastes and choices is gone today as well and the commoner, pretentious to position and privilege, has replaced him to deal the deathblow to all that is hallowed in the traditions of music, art and culture. The consequence has been the continuing precipitous decline in artistic attainments with evaluations ever lowering standards to accommodate such a fall and give it the facade of an altered artistic excellence under the brand of new names and forms. But the shadow is one and the substance another, and the chaff may not be mistaken by the discerning eye still to be the grain.

The sun ever shines in its pristine effulgence, sending out currents of rays and time waves for the earthly clocks to adjust to. Nature functions fine without such human decay, such hypocrisy of hype and hoopla over second-rate performance, and we must go back to our natural roots to check our clocks, to fine tune our sensibilities and thence return to rewrite the next phase of a cultural renaissance. Till we do so, this pretentious panorama we witness as modern culture, dance, music, literature, et al will eat into our vitals reducing us to less than sensitive or sensible human beings, for in culture lies the essence of the social man and in culture lies the possibilities of the spiritual man, too.