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David Hugh-Jones's avatar

I have a lot of sympathy, but you can't determine your aesthetic principles by your political needs.

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Eugine Nier's avatar

If your aesthetic principles brought you to this, of what use are they?

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Eugine Nier's avatar

> Scruton doesn’t need to define ‘beauty’ because he has said it against a dismissal of ‘kitsch’.

I've come to the conclusion that 'kitsch' is merely the term for beauty that's been made affordable to the masses.

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Eliot Wilson's avatar

Agree with the whole sentiment. There is an interesting sort of flipside, which is the insistence that politicians cannot understand the lives, views and aspirations of voters, whether Shoreditch hipsters or Deano, without being exactly the same as them in origin and background. Which would have baffled Stanley Baldwin and Clement Attlee equally, before one even thinks of Churchill.

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Simon Cooke's avatar

Very much so. I sit firmly in the classical music and cathedrals camp but I get why my neighbours have plastic grass and a garden bar! I don't think my cultural preferences should be forced on folk. Gentle persuasion maybe.

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Brettbaker's avatar

Also as Oren Cass has pointed out, a lot of leadership types don't want to do anything about restricting immigration because "what about our nanny"?

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