The Gullible and "Art"

Is democracy responsible for the current debasement of art?  The debasement, of course, is not unquestioned; it is a matter of subjective judgment; and those of us who shudder at its excesses - its meaningless blotches of color, its collages of debris, its Babels of cacophony - are doubtless imprisoned in our past and dull to the courage of experiment.  The producers of such nonsense are appealing not to the general public  - which scorns them as lunatics, degenerated, or charlatans - but to gullible middle-class purchasers who are hypnotized by auctioneers and are thrilled by the new, however deformed.

Will and Ariel Durant, “The Lessons of History,” p.78