Transcending Transgression

Candace de Russy has written a spot-on article for NRO, "Grossed Out Yet? Salvaging Civilization." After outlining recent examples (from a seemingly endless supply) of low class behavior masquerading as edgy, revolutionary action, Candace calls for transcending transgression:

If civilization is to be salvaged, we must transcend transgression — “regress,” as it were, to an understanding of culture as famously defined by Matthew Arnold, culture as the repository of humanity’s highest spiritual, intellectual and aesthetic aspirations, or “the best that has been thought and said in the world.”

I'm reminded of an article I've been meaning to write for about 15 years: "Nothing Is More Bourgeois than the Affectation of Despising the Bourgeoisie."