Was it the intellectuals who replaced Toscanini and "Playhouse 90" with "Mr. Ed" and "Gilligan's Island"? Was it the intellectuals who shifted resources away from opera reviews in Time magazine and toward celebrity puff pieces in People and its various epigones?

Ultimately, it was the bottom line that destroyed American middlebrow culture.

I have to wonder how many questions on standardized tests are devoted to appreciating the works of Faulkner or Hemingway. How can we expect children to establish a love of learning when we take all of the exploratory fun out of it? Not everything can be boiled down to a multiple-choice question.

In the 1950's and 60's, the middle class looked longingly at the upper class. Now, the American middle class aspires not to the values and sensibilities of the privileged classes of half a century ago, but to the wealth and power of the new class of celebrity rich.