Audience Fail

In any case, popularity may not determine worth.

. . . I shouldn’t be surprised if [Bernard Shaw’s] lasting power [to fill a theater] seemed to decline and the public ceased to support Shaw productions. This is what is happening to classical music. In both cases it is and will be the audience that fails, being mostly ill educated, conditioned to short attention span, with a head full of none but current ideas and what appeals to a childish sense of humor. — Jacques Barzun, Letter to The Independent Shavian, Volume 3, no. 3, 2005