The commercialisation of modern life has been the subject of lamentation ever since it was first remarked upon, and ambitious theories—commodity fetishism, conspicuous consumption, the affluent society, and countless lesser attempts—have arisen from the natural revulsion that intellectuals feel towards the "getting and spending" of others. But something new seems to be at work in the contemporary world—a process that is eating away the very heart of social life, not merely by putting salesmanship in place of moral virtue, but by putting everything—virtue included—on sale. The cynic, said Oscar Wilde, is the one who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. And in a letter to Lord Alfred Douglas he described sentimentality as "the bank holiday of cynicism". Wilde's quips tend to be more exciting that truthful. These, however, are exact. Cynicism and sentimentality are two ways in which things of value are demoted to things with a price.
-Roger Scruton, An Intelligent Person's Guide to Modern Culture
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