Commerce and Culture

Commerce and Culture

A ten-lecture course presented by Paul Cantor, Clifton Waller Barrett Professor of English at the University of Virginia, and a pioneer in literary criticism from an Austrian perspective. Having studied with Mises, he is working to counter the Marxist understanding of culture that dominates the humanities today.

Download the complete audio of this event (ZIP) here.

Paul A. Cantor
"Sure, maybe capitalism produces more goods more affordably," the Marxists say, "but it corrupts our souls." In this 90-minute lecture, English professor Paul Cantor discusses how culture has become the "last frontier" of Marxism.
Paul A. Cantor
This is a great example of commercial art and a great commercial artist – Shakespeare. Nobody does like competition, but competition, like Marlowe and Johnson, is healthy for culture. Shakespeare had to approach entrepreneurial backers in London who had surplus wealth to invest in a capital project...
Paul A. Cantor
The motion picture is purely commercial art. Lack of taste can earn a producer a fortune. This is the perfect intersection of commerce and culture. Most movies are bad, but many are very good. The movie form is so recent, that its history is right there to see. It was just a novelty item at first.
Paul A. Cantor
Television is not better because you don’t want it to be. The relation of government and television and movies are certainly not free markets, just relatively free markets. TV has always been in a regulated environment. TV is licensed by the federal government.
Paul A. Cantor
We have such a bias against commercial art in our culture that Cantor tries to show that some of the great art of the past grew out of commercial activity. Cantor had never played a video game, so he had to work through those. He sees that this is where things are going.