BarkellWH -> RE: Elitism in the world of Flamenco (Jun. 20 2017 15:15:14)
|
quote:
The Spanish have huge egos in General and so do the Gitanos especially towards Flamenco. (even rumba) Properly defined, there is nothing wrong with "Elitism." It is not a matter of what you are born into, or how much money your family has, or what clubs you belong to. Nor does it have anything to do with (the Spanish, Gitanos, or anyone else) having huge egos. Elitism is the sense of having truly accomplished something that took effort. It is the sense of having mastered a skill and obtained knowledge that is leagues ahead of and beyond that of the average person. One of my favorite writers is the late art and cultural critic Robert Hughes. I quote Hughes below on the subject. "I am completely an elitist, in the cultural but emphatically not the social sense. I prefer the good to the bad, the articulate to the mumbling, the aesthetically developed to the merely primitive, and full to partial consciousness. I love the spectacle of skill, whether it is an expert gardener at work, or a good carpenter chopping dovetails. I don't think stupid or ill-read people are as good to be with as wise and fully literate ones. I would rather watch a great tennis player than a mediocre one. "Consequently, most of the human race doesn't matter much to me, outside the normal and necessary frame of courtesy and the obligation to respect human rights. I see no reason to squirm around apologizing for this. I am, after all, a cultural critic, and my main job is to distinguish the good from the second-rate." That is as good a definition of "Elitism" as I have come across, and it applies to flamenco as well as anything else that requires effort to master rather than just reach the level of the second-rate. Bill
|
|
|
|