Dear J,
I don’t want to mention my name; I would rather describe myself simply as a management trainee. I conduct classes for senior management professionals and entrepreneurs, and this has given me an unusual opportunity to observe a section of Tamil society that is rarely discussed.
What strikes me most is the astonishing cultural and intellectual naivety of a large part of the Tamil upper class. To me, this may be one of the greatest curses facing Tamil society today. After listening to people in these classes, I sometimes feel that we have very little reason for hope in the present period.
Many of them come either from wealthy, established families or from backgrounds of newly acquired wealth. Their entire intellectual training is directed towards making more money, managing wealth, expanding businesses and achieving greater economic success. But there is almost no corresponding curiosity about Tamil culture, Tamil literature, world literature, the arts, history or ideas.
This is not merely a lack of knowledge. What is more disturbing is the absence of any sense that such knowledge matters. They can be extremely sophisticated in business and finance, yet remain astonishingly innocent when it comes to culture and intellectual life.
I see this repeatedly in my classes, and it has made me think that the cultural poverty of our affluent classes may be a much deeper problem than we usually recognize.
Thank you for sharing that video. It articulated something that I have been observing for some time.
Best,
R
