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

==== Culture as an Instrument of Policy ====
<blockquote>“Any local ‘cultural revival’ which leaves the political and economic framework unaffected would hardly be more than an artificially sustained antiquarianism what is wanted is not to restore a vanished, or revive a vanishing culture under modern conditions which make it impossible, but to grow a contemporary culture from the old roots.”</blockquote>Eliot makes a cheeky comment that culture attracts the attention of politicians, not necessarily because they are men of culture, but because culture is a socially desirable instrument of policy that the State makes its business to promote. While the sciences are judged for their utility, valued for making life less laborious, culture is overlooked, and often left to individual choice, and the arts no longer receive patronage on a large scale. But culture impacts governance in substantial ways. Colonial powers were aware of the necessity of observing cultural differences, and today, culture-consciousness feeds movements such as communism, nationalism, etc. by emphasizing separateness.