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

==== “Unity” is Overrated ====
“Fortunate the man who, at the right moment, meets the right friend; fortunate also the man who at the right moment meets the right enemy.” Eliot convincingly puts forth the argument that a healthy amount of friction should exist in society, and that from the point of view of the survival of culture, such varying animosities and loyalties between individuals and groups, class and region is actually a positive.
 “A nation which has gradations of class seems to me, other things being equal, likely to be more tolerant and pacific than one which is not so organized.” Eliot also acknowledges that “either religious unity or religious division may coincide with cultural efflorescence or cultural decay.”
In the evolution of civilizations, a greater and greater distinction between religious and non-religious activities was drawn, until they began to contrast, and even oppose each other.<blockquote>“The sort of identity of religion and culture which we observe amongst peoples of very low development cannot recur.. For the more conscious becomes the belief, so the more conscious becomes the unbelief: indifference, doubt and scepticism appear, and the endeavor to adapt the tents of religion to what people in each age find easiest to believe.”</blockquote>