# Doing as One Likes explained — Culture and Anarchy

> Chapter companion for Culture and Anarchy by Matthew Arnold.

## What happens

Arnold critiques the English worship of individual liberty, arguing that the unchecked freedom to 'do as one likes' leads to anarchy. He introduces culture as a principle of authority and right reason to counteract this tendency, and examines the inadequacies of the aristocracy, middle class, and working class to provide the needed State authority.

## Themes in this chapter

### Critique of Liberalism and 'Doing as One Likes'

Arnold argues that the worship of personal liberty without regard for right reason leads to anarchy.

### Machinery vs. Ends

Freedom is treated as an end in itself (machinery) rather than a means to perfection.

### The Role of the State and Authority

The need for a State embodying the nation's right reason to counter anarchy.

## Character check-ins

### Narrator

The central voice, reflecting on culture, liberty, and the need for authority.

### Mr. Bright

Quoted for asserting that the central idea of English life is the assertion of personal liberty.

### Mr. Carlyle

Referenced regarding the virtues of aristocracy and his view that the State should be the aristocracy.

### Mr. Lowe

Mentioned as holding that the State is the middle class with its Parliament.

### Aristotle

Invoked for the concept of virtue as a mean, used to analyze aristocratic types.

### Barbarians

Implied as the aristocratic class, contrasted with the rough and the populace.

### Philistine

Representing the middle class, with its focus on trade and Dissent.

## Key lines

> Our prevalent notion is... that it is a most happy and important thing for a man merely to be able to do as he likes.

The common belief is that simply being free to act on one's whims is a great good.

_Arnold critiques the superficial valuation of liberty._

> The really blessed thing is to like what right reason ordains, and to follow her authority.

True happiness comes from aligning one's desires with rational principles and obeying them.

_Contrasts culture's ideal with mere freedom._

> We have not the notion, so familiar on the Continent and to antiquity, of the State — the nation in its collective and corporate character, entrusted with stringent powers for the general advantage.

Unlike continental Europe and ancient societies, we lack the concept of a State that acts for the common good with authority.

_Highlights English resistance to centralized authority._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/culture_and_anarchy_se/chapters/ii-doing-as-one-likes
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/culture_and_anarchy_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/culture_and_anarchy_se/chapters