Editing T. S. Eliot’s Conception of Culture (section)

==== Family as the Epicenter ====
Eliot probably drew from his own experiences and childhood when he said that<blockquote>“(t)he primary channel of transmission of culture is the family: no man wholly escapes from the kind, or wholly surpasses the degree, of culture which he acquired from his early environment.” There is a certain undeniable finality to his statement: “by far the most important channel of transmission of culture remains the family: and when family life fails to play its part, we must expect our culture to deteriorate.”</blockquote>While not the only channel, family is central, and supplemented by other conduits of tradition wherein not only skills, but an entire way of life is passed on through the generations. The essence of his argument is that the highest levels of culture have been gained only by small groups of people—either familial or social or regional groups—who have been able to perfect their traditions over long periods of time. In the modern world, where vibrantly religious lives and livelihoods have been replaced by the secular and mundane, parents have increasingly infinitesimal roles to play in the lives of their children, with their duty of cultural transmission outsourced to the State or to private entities. What results is a rapid and obvious withering of societal morality and the disappearance of cultural markers.