Culture and Anarchy: An Essay in Political and Social Criticism

In Chapter 6, Arnold explores at length the concept of freedom and the importance of inward perfection and communal perfection. He begins the chapter by once again musing on the tensions between the Nonconformists and the established Anglican Church of England, once again arguing that the established church has many merits and that the Nonconformists are too rigid and literal in their views.

Arnold then moves on to a discussion about liberty and rights. He treats the idea of inherent “rights” or freedom with skepticism, asserting, “For my part, the deeper I go in my own consciousness […] the more it seems to tell me that I have no rights at all, only duties” (404). Arnold’s view takes on a more explicitly political dimension when he argues that trying to force social change—such as the working class’s fight for greater equality and representation—is not as effective as gradual change based on the influence of true culture and right reason. He argues that gradual change is natural, whereas abrupt, radical change is not. He uses feudalism as an example, claiming that “the abrupt, absolute stoppage of feudal habits” has resulted in “harm” (413), whereas the dissemination of true culture brings slower but surer results: "sweetness and light make a feudal class quietly and gradually drop its feudal habits because it sees them at variance with truth and reason” (413-14).