Monkey See, Monkey Do: High Culture

Hello fellow bloggers :D, this week we have to use a sociological perspective and discuss the forces and institutions
that help shape popular culture. Instead of using the typical Marxism, Functionalism, or Symbolic Interactionism to answer this question, I've decided to use high culture :D.

High culture, developed by Matthew Arnold, is the theory that a superior form of culture serves as the premise for virtue, reason, and human excellence. "The best that has been thought and said in the world", is laced within high culture. Those who exist outside of the "higher culture", are considered to be the common folk or, in other words, the average individual. Through the use of institutions and forces such as the educational system and the mass media, the higher culture imposes certain principles and beliefs into the common folk resulting in the shaping of the popular culture. Popular culture are those things that are considered trendy and valuable by the common folk. What are the things that are considered trendy? Things that are most likely held by the "higher culture". Ultimately, in this tense, popular culture serves as slaves to the dominance of the higher culture.