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About this quote

What does it mean?
Kael criticizes those who blindly admire the taste of elitists who look down on them.
In plain terms
People who look up to critics who insult them are easily controlled.
What can you take from it?
Do not worship standards that devalue you.

Where it applies

  • art criticism
  • media consumption
  • social class

Putting it to work

  • question authority
  • form your own taste

Questions to consider

  • Who defines superior taste?
  • Why do we follow critics?

Another view

It may oversimplify why people respect expert opinion.

More from Pauline Kael

  1. I regard criticism as an art, and if in this country and in this age it is practiced with honesty, it is no more remunerative than the work of an avant-garde f…

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  2. Citizen Kane is perhaps the one American talking picture that seems as fresh now as the day it opened. It may seem even fresher.

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  3. In the arts, the critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising.

    Permalink to quote #4

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