We all have people in our lives who have the admirable and sometimes irritable ability to dissect, analyze, compliment, and condemn with uncanny accuracy.
Some are close friends or colleagues. Some are strangers to us and remain at a distance in the public sphere. Critics of art, literature, or film, fashion editors and media publishers, political pundits, experts (real and so-called)–we know who they are. We know what they do.
What they do is act as tastemakers and gatekeepers, arbitrarily blessing the talented and favored or banishing the incompetent and unworthy. Like it or not, their comments carry weight, and they know it.
As their tastes are held to be more refined than the masses, they assume an elevated position in society. While they may inform public opinion, they remain distanced from it. Theirs is not a two-way street. Theirs is not a democracy.
We often refer to them as snobs. This is rarely a compliment, but in the article below we learn that it might be good for us to have them–and listen to them–even if we don’t always like them.
Country Life on Snobs and Snobbery
Enjoy.
- BGT