The Politics of Culture

When I heard politics and culture in the same phrase I was stunned, I could not think these two ideals can co-exist. When I hear politics the same rhetoric that comes into my brain is power, money, conservative and liberal, Democrats and Republicans, or any other term that separates society from each other. The term culture I would think promotes unity, respect, tolerance, almost willingness for people to come together as we are all part of human culture. In the resulting discussion in class although, I couldn’t be more wrong. In the past culture had been diluted by politics, In retrospect capitalism (especially in America). There is an undeniable truth that there are the haves and the have nots, but what would that have to do with interests such as music, television, cinema?  In the early part of the last century culture was only permitted to the social hierarchy(rich people) which is actually the minority of society. This was used to surpress the rest of society into perceiving the notion that they could not understand culture because it was only granted to the elite. This expressed in our text as High/Low culture.  As the time went on however a strong change came across as we saw society taking a complete turn from the social norm. We saw culture become rebellious, a means of expression for all peoples,we see this today as culture has become almost inclusive to all.