Apologies for getting back on topic, but my main beef re Scruton’s “Point of View” was that it was boringly unoriginal & intellectually lazy, repeating familiar old tropes decrying aural pollution which have been around longer than “muzak” itself, & containing little original thought. Much more entertaining rants from across the pond.
Or indeed this gentler very English version from our own ubiquitous cause-celeb-ers
How sad for the great public philosopher RS to languish behind the curve, panting to catch up with Fry & Lumley. I search for adjectives -- shaming ? ignominious ?
On a more serious note, Scruton’s espousal of practical music education as a solution to the problem of an aurally apathetic & ignorant public is extremely hypocritical given his track record as one of Mrs. Thatcher’s cheerleaders in the 80s, when she removed the obligation for County Councils to ring-fence money for County Music Services, so that instrumental tuition increasingly became the preserve of the privately-educated. Now we’re having to import “Sistema”-type initiatives to repair the damage.
Or indeed this gentler very English version from our own ubiquitous cause-celeb-ers
How sad for the great public philosopher RS to languish behind the curve, panting to catch up with Fry & Lumley. I search for adjectives -- shaming ? ignominious ?
On a more serious note, Scruton’s espousal of practical music education as a solution to the problem of an aurally apathetic & ignorant public is extremely hypocritical given his track record as one of Mrs. Thatcher’s cheerleaders in the 80s, when she removed the obligation for County Councils to ring-fence money for County Music Services, so that instrumental tuition increasingly became the preserve of the privately-educated. Now we’re having to import “Sistema”-type initiatives to repair the damage.
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