This is a false syllogism. When the best that last night's TV can manage is the umpteenth re-run of Fawlty Towers and David Bowie is still the headline act at Glastonbury, it is hard to take some of the claims made for the cultural industries seriously. The figures do not lie. We run a massive balance of payments deficit in film, a smaller deficit in TV and our share of the world music market is falling. There could be the simplest of explanations.
Conflict is good for creativity, blandness deadens it.
But, for the sake of argument, let's assume that this is not the case, or even if it is that the forces of globalisation will result in the rejuvenation of western culture rather than a creeping homogeneity. Two immediately spring to mind. One is the British cult of amateurism, normally dressed up as spontaneity or creativity. Our ideal hero is the chap who is persuaded to step in at the last minute for a cricket match on the village green, borrows a pair of flannels and a bat held together with sticky tape, then goes in and scores a brilliant century. But real life is not like that.