This in turn finds its corollary in an emphasis on aesthetics rather than rational argument as being the most powerful means of exerting influence and changing people for the better. And we might also note the consequent importance of the poet or the artist as the means of transforming society. Credit where credit is due: Percy Bysshe Shelley made the case for cultural figures as the key to political revolution over a century before Antonio Gramsci and then the New Left.
