Attitudes alter more slowly than material and cultural conditions.

Evidence

In comparison with the many simplistic, reductive, nostalgic, or empiricist accounts on offer, there is a complex and richly nuanced conception of cultural change at work here. The argument is not driven by simple oppositions between old/new, organic/inorganic, elite/mass, good/bad. He was aware of the unsystematic nature of the “evidence,” sensitive to the temptations to nostalgia: “I am from the working classes … this very emotional involvement presents considerable dangers” (Hoggart 1958: 17). He does not underplay the impact of growing affluence nor exaggerate the pace and degree of change. The language is carefully modulated in relation to the thesis of cultural decline: “The persistence in so strong a measure of older forms of speech does not indicate a powerful and vibrant continuance of an older tradition, but the tradition is not altogether dead. It is harked back to, leaned upon as a fixed and still largely trustworthy reference in a world now difficult to understand” (Hoggart 1958: 28). And: “Attitudes alter more slowly than we always realize” (Hoggart 1958: 13). — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 144

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The lag between attitudes and conditions — tradition persisting as a ‘fixed reference in a world now difficult to understand’ — is an insight with wide explanatory reach beyond Cultural Studies.
• XREF: The persistence-lag idea parallels Bourdieu’s habitus and path-dependence thinking in institutional economics. — connects to: Financialized cultural attitudes may result from, not drive, expanded financial services. — Neil Fligstein & Adam Goldstein, The Emergence of a Finance Culture in…, 49
• SEED: Possible essay: tradition as a ‘harked back to’ reference under disorientation — how the past becomes a stabilizer when the present is illegible.