ts eliot notes towards the definition of culture

There’s much more to Eliot’s book, of course. We like to think better of ourselves than we really deserve. For any individual (or any group, or any society) that goes about it honestly, I believe this will be a fairly demoralizing exercise.

Only then may he render any judgment on his actual beliefs and opinions, because these are only expressed with any accuracy in practice. I’ve argued recently that anyone wanting to know his opinions or beliefs ought to disregard the handy appeal of labels and prefabricated systems and spend time observing himself as objectively as possible: his wants, acts, omissions, regrets, etc. It gives an importance to our most trivial pursuits, to the occupation of our every minute, which we cannot contemplate long without the horror of nightmare.” He writes: “The reflection that what we believe is not merely what we formulate and subscribe to, but that behavior is also belief, and that even the most conscious and developed of us live also on the level at which belief and behavior cannot be distinguished, is one that may, once we allow our imagination to play upon it, be very disconcerting. This, to me, is one of his more striking suggestions.

This is true, per Eliot, whether we’re talking about the culture of a whole society, of a group within society, or of an individual. And all behavior, all action, all belief, all expression of culture, is essentially religious in nature, if only we admitted the fact. Culture, he says, grows out of – and to a degree must always be an expression of – religion. While Eliot insists that culture and religion are not identical, they are, to his mind, inextricably linked.

Ts eliot notes towards the definition of culture