Steve Schwartz, commenting on the ignorance regarding the arts of even
those presumed to be well educated:

>I've just had an argument with an old friend about whether 'twas ever
>thus.  I tend to think so.  What strikes me as new, however, is that
>these days, most people have no embarrassment at all about their own
>ignorance.

It would be interesting to see some research on this.  While it doesn't
count as research, I can remember how amazed I was, when browsing through
middlebrow magazines (e.g., TIME) from the 1950's: the amount of space
devoted to covering classical music was astonishing.  There was clearly
a period, and it was only half a century ago, when magazines for the
general reader assumed that one of the areas said reader wanted to be
kept abreast of was classical music.  It is hard for me to believe that
the drastically diminished coverage classical music receives today in
the same magazines does not result from a change in the interests and
level of knowledge of the average educated reader.  Maybe things were
always the same as today, but, if so, they were making some very peculiar
editorial decisions half a century ago.

Nick