Essay X: Money and Innovation.

- Thoughts on the relationship between money and Innovation -

Essay for the University of Michigan 

Innovation is a process that does not last a year, or five but it is an ongoing quest that could take a lifetime. Behind every innovation, there are many things: The innovator and his/her idea, the will of developing an idea and the tools the innovator may need to bring the idea to reality. But there's also a key factor an innovator should keep in mind: Money. Through human history, we could see many cases of people being benefactors or patrons of innovators, no matter the area of expertise of the innovator.

We know the cases of Leonardo Da Vinci being supported financially by the Medici family, and many cases of great composers like Bach, Beethoven, and Stravinsky being supported financially by people who admired their work. Without the support these brilliant artists received, we may have missed some of the greatest artistical and philosophical innovations of the last 600 years.

Scienctific Innovators have received financial support just like their art colleagues as well. One of the most notorious cases was Nikola Tesla, who was financially supported by J.P. Morgan and John Jacob Astor IV while building the Wardenclyffe Tower in order to be an infinite supply of electric energy using wireless technology. While Morgan and Astor cut Tesla's income and discouraged anyone interested in funding Tesla's effort, Tesla's Wardenclyffe tower never reached it's true potential. Sometimes I wonder what the world could be nowadays if Tesla's Wardenclyffe project came fully operational.

Sometimes I wonder as well, if our governments choose to increase taxes and low people's income, in order to cut their innovation-related thoughts, and keep us chained in dead-end jobs. The less resources people have access to, the less innovation we will see in our society.

Essay IX : On the development of the World Wide Web

 Thoughts on the Development of Internet

(And its social role)

Essay for the University of Michigan.

Since the beginning of mankind, there has been a need of sharing our knowledge and information through different ways, as well as different ways to keep it secure or encrypted, be it through oral tradition, homing pigeons, morse code, etc. In the last century, especially in the 1930's, this need became an urgent necessity due to the times of war and the impact the speed of information delivery had on the warfield. Up to this day, the most developed nations keep this "information war" going, and back in the 1930's, the efforts to make the information delivery quicker were totally fundamental for a nation's victory in the warfield. That's why projects like Bletchley Park got great ammounts of governmental funding.

The interesting thing is, that information encompasses a lot of different disciplines and points of view, ranging from mathematics to encrypt the code to philosophy in order to understand the nature of the information that may be provided or received.

The key elements of a good informative process have always been the quality of the message to provide or receive, the source of the information and the media used to provide or receive the information. In my opinion, I consider that these factors have been crucial to the development of a big information network, since the beginnings of Information Technology. Through all its different phases, the emphasis has always been to keep the information as secret as possible, but what happens when you (as a scientist or philosopher) start to think "Why not use this same technology to improve the way our society works?".

You may have an ethic question in the top of your mind, and that's what happened in the early days of internet, when people like Larry Smarr and Douglas Van Houweling questioned the almost exclusive nature of high-tech equipment, that was only available to a "Privileged Few" (Usually, the Military and the Government) and proposed the use of these equipments for Academic and Research purposes in colleges, and even considered (and suggested) the domestic use of this technology for the sake of improving the ways people communicated and worked.

As usual, they met initial counter-action. It is no surprise that the social elite tried to keep the best technology for themselves only, whatever their reasons are. But fortunately for everyone in the academia and domestic world, Smarr and Van Houweling were people who never gave up and keep their efforts going, and without them, maybe we would not have access to technology for academic purposes and high-speed communications through the internet as we know it today. We may still use Homing Pigeons.

Essay VIII: On Listening World Music, Part II

Thoughts on Listening World Music, II

- Experiencing the Roots of Music: The San Bushmen of the Kalahari -

Essay for the University of Pennsylvania.

Since I was a kid, I used to think all the news I watched on TV were about my place. While I heard about the ongoing war between Palestine and Israel, I felt very sad for all the kids my age who weren't able to spend their childhood playing, and being with their family, like any regular kid does, despite living in the same place as I did. While I heard traditional music (still being a kid), no matter where the music came from, I used to think it was from my place, and I thought how wonderful the place I lived in was, unaware of the fact that the world is divided by frontiers or cultural barriers.

I used to think the world was like a big neighborhood, where everyone knew each other, and helped each other if they wanted and were able to. While looking at the Kalahari Bushmen / Khoisan Trance dance, I return to these times of my childhood, where I saw the world as a big neighborhood. I could definitely hear how spiritual (or trance-like) dances relate to each other, no matter the place of origin of the performed dance. Every trance dance has the same purposes, heal the individual or the community that undergo that experience. The Bushmen people of the Kalahari have faced land trouble just like Palestinian people. Despite being the oldest habitants of the lands they inhabited (and the oldest habitants of the world), they have been forced to leave their own territory, the same they have been part of for a long time. 

Listening to the Kalahari trance music I experienced a lot of things. I felt a strong connection with the core of the earth and the universe we're part of. The trance the shaman (or healer) undergoes reminds me of the trance people in the Amazonas go while doing Ayahuasca rituals, where the participants ingest the ayahuasca extract in order to heal themselves spiritually, in order to set themselves free from their fears, even the ones deeply rooted in their subconscious. The interesting part of Kalahari music to me is that most of it seems to have an spiritual background, and the shaman is something of a vehicle between enlightment and darkness: He is the light of the individual, guiding him through the darkness of his own thoughts. 

My thoughts of what is achieved through this ceremony have been somehow confirmed. I think sacred ritual ceremonies where music and the performer (the shaman in this case) try to enlighten or heal a certain group of people are really working towards it. The importance of sound and how it resonates in our body (which is composed by some resonating areas) is clearly a concept shamans understand very well, and they know what kind of sounds they could use to evoke a certain state of mind in a group of individuals. The San Healers of the Kalahari feel they have a big task in their hands, which is to preserve their people healthy, without any kind of spiritual remorse. In this case, I don't think authenticity preclives accesibility. 

Ceremonial rituals are not popular music, or anything of that matter. Those rituals are here to be witnessed and experienced for everyone who wants to be part of it. I don't think there's any type of soffistication behind these rituals, in fact they are very intuitive. And intuition is something we all people have in common, some have developed it more than others though. As for accesibility, if shamans are open to let everyone be part of the experience, why we listeners (or audience) wouldn't join the performance ? Every shaman in this world, no matter his/her background seeks a common goal: The healing of mankind, no matter their race, color of skin or anything. It's we people who live in the "civilization" who try to rationalize something that is something beyond our understanding, instead of respecting it and sharing it with as much people as possible. Rather than differences of culture, 

I believe there are similarities of background, thought, purpose of artistic manifestations in every single culture of this world. Kalahari Bushmen are no exepction, and I may add that our own cultures have inherited something of their traditions. The fact that there is always a certain type of chant, or dance considered sacred in every culture of the world, no matter its religion, geographical situation, etc. is somehow a direct connection of the ancient people of the Kalahari and us, their descendants.

Essay VII: Strange Overtones

Thoughts on the similarities of 

Traditional Music made around the world

Essay for the University of Pennsylvania

Music, whether it is made for commercial meanings or not, is something that is written or composed in order to be listened by as much people as possible. For every living musician, composer, this is something that actually is one of the reasons they keep making music. To create an impact, a deep effect, to give a message, to change (and challenge) the world and the audience. In my opinion, native musicians or traditional music composers try to seek this goal as well. In most cases, aboriginal music has been used (by the natives) for ritual purposes, spiritual healing, as "incidental music" (For example, Pigmy music and hindenwhu) just like western classical composers do. I believe they certainly want to reach more people, if possible, no matter the language or geographical barriers, considering the role of aboriginal music of spiritually healing the listener through the drone-like sounds, chants, etc.

in the case of aboriginal art, myths, rituals and musical instruments I believe that it should be shared to the whole world to see and experience. This would not be an economic exercise. This would be something that should be done in order to reach other cultures, so the audience could have a better understanding of the world outside their countries or cultural background. It would be something done in order to integrate more the diverse cultures of the world. And I think it would even help people find that we are not so different than people living in other cultures, or ethnicities. Bringing the experience of rituals outside their original context may be affected, but if the performers of the rite focus on the real intention only, and not in the intention of making a "big display of costumes", the audience may engage into the experience as the performers originally intended.

I believe this would not be a problem. I think this actually would help both parties (The aborigin musicians/performers and the audience). It will help the aborigin musicians to keep doing their art and be funded to expand their project, and it will help the audience to understand that our world is so diverse, but similar at the same time. We may find that our cultures share a lot of things, be it the same musical scales, clothing style, physical attributes, etc.

To give you an example, I'll discuss briefly how Andes aboriginal people (formerly known as the Incas) have a lot in common with ancient Chinese people. The Incas were a powerful culture back in the day, it was an empire that covered almost all South America. The Inca society had a perfect social structure, where everyone had access to any kind of resources, be it food, gold, or clothing. And they had one of the most advanced numerical methods of their time. Their music was (and still is, preserved by Incas descendants) pentatonic, very minimalistic (just like the Minimalist music created by Steve Reich and Philip Glass) but also very powerful. If you know something about chinese history, you'd know that Chinese society was pretty much ahead of their time as well, that it was an empire that covered almost all Asia, their social structure was kind of feudal, but their music was pentatonic as well. Not made by the same instruments as Incas, but pentatonic in the end.

Essay VI: Pigmies and their Egalitarian Sounds and Society.

Thoughts after listening Pigmy Music

By Carlos Murgueitio Roa

Essay made for the University of Pennsylvania

Traditional music has always an inherent value of innocence and purity in it. Maybe because it is not altered by any kind of technological device, or the stress of modern-day life. Pigmy music is no exception. While listening to it for the first time, you could hear the story and heritage of an ethnical group that has been largely misunderstood, abused and marginalized in many ways by the most “developed” (and fittest, if we see it through a Darwinian perspective) races. You could hear the voice of people who actually are so rooted to nature, that they consider noise an offense to the rainforest, you could hear the sounds of people who actually use sound as a way of doing certain things, be it hunting, talking in a social situation, or dancing, according to the sound generated by them.

To me, the quality of Pigmy music is almost child-like, it’s something I felt while listening to hindewhu. Even if hindenwhu represents the return from hunting, it reminds me of childhood. Imagine you took your bicycle and went out of your house and returned with a big smile after some weird adventure or experience, be it gathering fruits, meeting other kids, your first kiss, anything. The innocence of children and the joy of coming back home is something I could hear in hindenwhu, and considering that Pigmy society is egalitarian, it definitely must be a joyful experience to go and work with your friends, with a big smile in your face, and return home to meet your cherished ones.

It’s good that our “Civilized Nations” know about this kind of musical manifestations. But what happens when traditional music is took out of its original context? Being myself a musician, composer and music student, I certainly find inspirational when another musician finds sounds like this, produced by traditional instruments or certain phonetics and incorporates them into their own works, because in my opinion, it’s a way to break cultural barriers, and it also exposes this wonderful sounds to a larger group of people. Of course, I believe it is the artist’s responsibility to give credit to the real creators of the sounds, chants, whatever sound they find, in case he or she uses samples from it.

If I were a pigmy musician, I’d be definitely happy to hear my music and sounds played though the world, because listening to a cultural manifestation is a way of understanding, and of course, they would feel less marginalized by their “fittest” counterparts. Their egalitarian vision of society is present as well in their sound, and as a non-pigmy musician, I learned from listening to hindenwhu that you should give space to both your technique and your imagination, and you could create an amazing, non-describable mysterious sound.

Essay V: Graceland

Thoughts on the making of Paul Simon's "Graceland"

in the 80's (pro-apartheid) African Society

Essay for the University of Pennsylvania

The decade of 1980's was quite significant and a transitional time in mankind history, and usually when big changes happen, they usually start inside a cultural background. Since culture is something everyone grasps and somehow understand at different degrees, artists use their craft to raise awareness of what's going on in society using symbols or just telling their audiences directly how things are going at a particular time. At the end of the day, a true artist wants to leave an impression in the world, so deep it could influence and inspire fellow artists as well as their audiences to do the same, making their work socially (and sometimes spiritual) valuable. This was the case of Paul Simon's Graceland, an album made by an artist who was recovering from a very poor reception of his previous album (despite of its musical quality) and who was looking for inspiration, something he found in a casette containing some african music he liked. Unaware of what he was going to achieve, he decided to go to South Africa and get in touch with talented (but relatively unknown) musicians to make a record in which he could join both his rock background together with his new fond african-music-driven inspiration.

Now, these were difficult times in South Africa, considering they were living under social turmoil for almost 40 years because of the Apartheid policy. Few people, like Steve Biko, have decided to go against the Apartheid movement, because of the fear of being tortured and murdered, like what happened to Biko. Some countries, in order to force the removal of this policy decided to create a sort of "cultural-embargo" not allowing their musicians or athletes go to South Africa as long as Apartheid was the dominant policy. But in my opinion, instead of solving the problem, these actions made it worse. I think it was necessary that someone like Paul Simon, whose music had (and still has) a large impact in the world, did this sort of experiment as a counter-action, and in a rebel manner, just like good rock and roll is. Maybe he did it consciously, maybe he did not. But, doing so he somehow helped raise awareness of the South African conflict, and helped South African music collectives like Ladysmith Black Mambazo get world-wide recognition.

For a musician (or anyone) living under these kind of social conditions in South Africa, this particular event was crucial, because it was one of the many catalysts for the breakdown of the Apartheid policy, therefore it gave a lot of freedom to everyone to work with whoever they wanted, despite their race or ethnicity. In my opinion, Paul Simon's "Graceland" is a glimpse of hope, the proof that the power of music knows no boundaries, and it could bring social changes when made not for a financial or fashionable reason, but for the sake of making this world a better, more liveable place. 

Essay IV : Traditional Music, Part I

Thoughts and Ideas after listening Tuvanese Music

made by the Tuvanese Ensemble Huun Huur Tu

Essay for the University of Pennsylvania

Listening to traditional music is usually an experience where our senses go back to the root of all sounds and music, no matter if we belong or not to the cultural environment who produces it. Clean, acoustic, non-distorted sounds are capable to enlighten both the listener and the performer, when played correctly and with an spiritual intention. While listening to Huun-Huur-Tu it's impossible not to feel embraced by the power of the music they perform. It's like being transported to the Tuvan Steppes and contemplating nature surrounding us, hearing the echo produced by the air movement resonating in the mountains, hear the river flowing, being completely aware of what is going on where we stand. All of this happens when closing our eyes, like some people in the audience did.

In doing so, it's inevitable not feeling healed after hearing these nature-influenced sounds. It's like breaking away from the noise prison we're trapped because of living in a big city where all the sounds you hear are not natural, but artificial and disturbing, usually associated with the "urgent" feeling of going in a constant race against time. In fact, all the sounds you hear in the city are related with this "Urgency" of doing things fast: Car engines speeding up, maniac people pushing incesantly their car horns even if they're stuck in a traffic jam, the sound of police cars chasing thieves, and so many more.

Looking for inner peace is an universal quest, and music is one of the most frequent ways of achieving this mental state. Through the repetition of certain chords, drone-like sounds and special chants, Huun-Huur-Tu connects with their audience in a deep spiritual level that is hardly achieved by popular musicians, who are usually focused on being noisier and flashier rather than leaving a message in their audience. These are experiences that any music listener, student and composer should experience at least once in their lifetime, in order to understand how music connects with our human spirit.

Being able to witness these kind of events (where a musician or group of musicians perform traditional music with an spiritual focus) through a video recording or a web broadcast is not the same, because of the energy flowing between performers and listeners (in constant feedback) in the room where the performance is being developed. In my opinion, we only experience a part of the whole intended aural effect, which I believe is peace of mind, body and soul. It's their message, and their reason to be touring through the world in the countries they are requested to perform.

In an ideal world, every country would witness these kind of events, that are both healing and inspiring as well for the people performing and the people in the audience. But when you don't have these kind of chances for whatever reasons (Polithical Turmoil or living in a society not interested at all in these kind of cultural manifestations), I encourage to the people living under these circumstances close their eyes and focus on the music. You will be healed, no matter what kind of thoughts are troubling you. Close your eyes, then feel healed. It's the power of music. It gives you the power to overcome the most terrible situations, it gives you the inspiration to carry on no matter what. And Huun-Huur-Tu certainly inspires you to listen carefully, and pay more attention to what's going on around you.

Essay III: On Selling Sacred Music

Thoughts on the Massification and Commercialization 

of Gregorian and Sacred Chants

By Carlos W. Murgueitio

Essay for the University of Pennsylvania

Gregorian and Sacred Chants have played an important role in the history of music for centuries. Back in the time the music was considered a way of connecting with a much higher spiritual force or power, those chants provided somehow a bridge between we Men and the Divinity, regardless of what religion one could preach at the time. The quest for the Divine and the ultimate perfection and balance is something we see in every art form, and music is not the exception. In Christian and Non Christian (Hindi, Muslim, Buddhist, etc.) early communities, sacred chants were the way composers translated that desire to connect with the higher and universal  divine root, and somehow, through the music, bring to the listener a sense of deep spirituality and reflection, something they may have experienced, considering they did not have something we have in our modern world that I call "The interference of technology in people's attention span". So, as a consequence, the experience may have been more intimate, higher and purest.

Considering the Study Case of the commercial recording of a Gregorian Chant, makes me think from my perspective as a listener, musician (I'm a composer and piano / classical guitar player), and man seeking answers through spirituality. From my perspective as a listener, it makes me wonder how it is affected. While listening the recording made by the German Monastic Monks, the music is there, the monks are there singing, but the intention (connecting the soul with a Higher Power / God / Universal Force) seems lost, to me at least. I believe this happens because the intention has changed, it is no longer about enhancing the listener's spiritual experience, but rather, an economic exercise of popularity and revival of "some old interesting stuff" as it usually is seen by younger people in most cases. 

From my perspective as a musician and composer, the monks seem to not understand the intention of the composer of the chant and just take it as an exercise of perfect technique and pitch. They ceased to be monks, and they became performers. I am not sure how Gregorian / Sacred Chants were sang in the times they were released because I wasn't there, but there is clearly a difference in the final sonic result when something is not made for financial reasons, but for spiritual growth reasons. 

And this leads me to my perspective as a man seeking answers through spirituality: Once the original intention (Enhancement of the Spiritual Experience) is gone, and it's replaced by a new one (Massification, which I am not saying is bad) you may be able to sense it, and as it happened in my case, feel nothing at all but sadness because a sacred composition has changed its nature to a commercial product. By no means I am a purist (musically or spiritually) but nevertheless, the spiritual realm and the mundane fast-moving economic world are two separate things, and they should remain like that.

Essay II : Going Solo

Essay on Eric Klinenberg's Going Solo

by Carlos Murgueitio

Sociology Class, Princeton University
 

Years before Eric Klinenberg published his "Going Solo" book, in which he tries to understand the views and reasons of people who have decided to live their lives isolated from other people, C. Wright Mills in his book "The Sociological Imagination" dwelved into something that may relate to Klinenberg's ideas. According to Mills, he found out that people usually felt "trapped", or pretty much hopeless in their social environments because they thought they could not change what was going on around them, that it simply was too much overwhelming, so taking action into account was pretty much useless. But, Mills also thought that every single individual of a society was pretty much responsible (or took part, even without knowing it) of what he or she was receiving from society. Indeed, it is a feed-backing act between individuals and society. 

Likewise, Howard Becker (A few years after Mills' ideas were published) thought that we as scientists, we should not let our biases to interfere with the final results of whatever social analysis we were undergoing, in order to keep the results under an objective and scientific point of view. The question is, how does this apply to Klinenberg's ideas explained in his "Going Solo" book. Plus, he also remarks something very important, which I'll quote because it does apply to the context in which I'll develop this essay: "In any system of ranked groups, participants take it as given that members of the highest group have the right to define the way things really are"​.

Going through Klinenberg's "Going Solo" reading, I've focused on the quotations he put on, which are made by people from different times and centuries, who have manifested their views about loneliness, or solitude. From Benjamin Franklin, to Margaret Thatcher, these quotes seem to reinforce the will of the author of making us readers think that we actually are living in a "singleton society" - as he calls it -, and in fact he seems to perceive it in a very strange, sometimes confusing and contradicting way.

In some of the paragraphs of the lecture, he seems to agree with the views of Franklin, Thoreau and Thatcher, considering their roles in universal history and their contributions to society. But on the other hand, he seems to be quite worried about the growing number of people deciding to live alone, especially in "most developed" societies like those from Scandinavia, Japan, North America and Brazil.And it seems to me that he comes to the conclusion of the "singleton society" because of these particular countries' cases. And here's where Klinenberg's views fail to meet what Becker requests from sociologists, the ability to keep our personal biases away from our research, or as I prefer to call it "under observation" 

- Or as Freud calls it, "Observing Ego". Because at the end of the day, our conclusions, biases, are nothing but the result of our Ego reinforcement -.

The opinions of Franklin, Thoreau and Thatcher are not appliable to all societies, because we're not living under the same conditions, or set of rules in the societies we're part of. For example, in my country (Ecuador) people have a tendency to live on their own at first, but after a certain age (Middle Twenties) both males and females start to find a couple, if they have not met them before being 25. Because here in Ecuador there is a certain fear of living alone or developing a professional life on your own, by your own set of rules just like Franklin said. 

Ecuadorian society tends to be a big collective. We have a historical background of social changes where the most dramatic transitions have been made collectively, not by the people in the higher powers, but rather by a certain group of people who have protagonised huge manifestations in the capitol cities of the country. So, Klinenberg's "Rich Experience" here would be labeled as wrong rather than rich.

Now let's go to the countries where people are choosing to live alone. It's the same, they have not the same social conditions, nor they have the same life cost or life expectancy. European, North American and Asian societies are not the same as their less developed counterparts. In this study it shows Brazil as a "representative" of South American culture, but that may not be the case because, Brazil's cultural background is quite diverse and casually, it does have people from European, North American and Asian Societies living in their country.

Rather than taking for granted and as the ultimate truth the results of "Well-Developed-Countries", Klinenberg should have considered broaden his research horizon if he was going to make such conclusions, which to some extent, seem illogic.

- Essay for Princeton University -

Essay On Laureau's Unequal Childhoods

By Carlos W. Murgueitio Roa.

Sociology Class - Princeton University

Annette Laureau conducted an interesting research in which, using the concept of Social Imagination developed by Mills, she tried to tie the level of communication between parents and kids of a certain neighborhood. The Concept of Social Imagination developed by C. Wright Mills says that we as individuals and sociologists should be aware of whatever role we play in certain conditions (space and time) in our neighborhoods, countries and the world, because we are part of what's going on in history. Without being aware of it, we are being actors of the changes we experience and witness in society, no matter if those changes are "good or bad".

In Laureau's book named "Unequal Childhoods" she dwells into the experience of kids living in diverse social environments: From Upper High Class to Working Class. And, inside these environments, she tries to understand what's going on with the children on those classes, meaning how they're developing a higher sense of themselves, intelligence, and how do they behave in their relationships as classmates and students. Using Mills' "Social Imagination", she comes up to the conclusion that kids in the middle and high classes have developed better ways of communicating with their peers and with their school teachers, because their concerted education with after school agendas expands their mind, and they experience more communication with their parents in their own homes, something that also re-inforces their self-steem somehow. Working Class children on the other hand, had no after school education and had fewer moments of communication with their parents, so their communicating skills and self steem were lower.

I am not sure if Laureau's study applies well in Latin American Culture. I live in Ecuador (In Guayaquil City), a small country of South America placed between Colombia and Peru. And things here are a bit different (economically and socially) than in the States. My country has incredible rates of debt with the IMF which seem to never end, and sometimes life here seems pretty much hopeless because of political turmoil. I'll not dwell on that in this essay but rather, how I kind of disagree with Laureau's study because of what I experienced living here in Guayaquil in a middle class family and studying in Upper High Class high schools and colleges.

There's a thought here, among high and middle class families that "the more activities the children has, the more he/she learns". In that aspect, families have the same mindset as Laureau's in her study. But, sometimes I've felt that people put their kids into lots of activities just to keep them busy and away from them. I have given guitar classes and tutored kids in high class families, and what I've seen usually is that kids are kind of away from their parents, because they keep working to make more money, and the only time they see their kids is at late night, in which the kids are completely tired after a whole bunch of useless activities and never ending homework they have from their schools. Sometimes I believe that parents put their childs into useless activities just to "show off" how busy their kids are. 

I might be wrong, though. I am not against after school activities, what I am against is at the unnecesary quantity of activities after school that leave the kids without time to study or rest from their activities from school. Kids from working class environments on the other hand, are a bit more healthier and close to their parents, because usually their parents handle their own little business and go back from work early. They do experience after school activities as well - usually soccer because that's what is most popular here rather than artistic activities - but not in an exaggerated manner just as some of the high and middle class parents put their children into. And, the communication between kids and parents is way much better, and they do experience much higher levels of self steem than their high and middle class peers, even if they live in a harsh environment, because they have learned from their parents to keep going. 

I believe that we should let kids be kids and let them enjoy their childhood, with no pressure from us parents to do what we "believe" is the best for them, and encourage them to pursue their interests.

II : Mechanics and the Death of a Country

II

- Mechanics and the Death of Society -

Friday, 15:55

 

Through the years, many times I've talked with people wiser than I could ever dream of being. And in many of these dialogues, the theme of Society and the role of Arts in it always pops up. Being myself a composer,  this dialogue remains (and will remain) very important, because modern society is focusing towards a mechanized world, where the human input is less important.

From my engineering point of view (I'm an IT Engineer as well), we are living under the illusion that mechanization is the ultimate solution for all things going wrong. I'm not a caveman, but my point here is that we're forgetting that all these mechanic devices were created by humans who despite their claims of having an ultimate mind, are just as imperfect as the things or processes they are trying to fix.

How is this affecting society ?

Here in the place I live in, the president of my country has developed an education system focused on making this country a Technologic Country. It's quite a good idea, considering we're a country focused only on producing money through natural resources and little technological experimentation. The problem comes up, when the whole curriculum of education it's only considering traditional and technological careers as relevants, focusing and giving chances to people who are interested in those careers through scolarships, and then giving no chance to the people who wants to study other things, such as arts. It's true that there are places to study arts, but the problem we have here (and world-wide) is that arts have been categorized as being something for "people with finesse" only, but I am a firm believer that like anything in this world, we all were born from zero, knowing nothing about anything.

 

Mechanics also affect the way society and arts have a relationship. 

In a place obsessed with technological sophistication, arts lose their space. Technology means money, money invested, money spent, money wasted. It's no secret that we're living in a time where we could be filthy rich with just a click, and there's nothing wrong with it. But the problem comes out, when all spaces, are just focused to the mechanical aspects of society. It could be in the education field, it could be in the management field, it could be pretty much anything we have nowadays. We are obsessed with time, space, trying to find if there is a God or not, trying to satisfy our ego no matter the cost. But we have forgot, our human, perfectible and imperfect nature. Artists are afraid to speak, afraid to experiment, afraid to keep creating, afraid to study their craft. We're living in the second Dark Age. But we should Rise.

The lack of arts is the reflection of the lack of conscience in a society

Obsessed only to find a way to establish their virtual reality

Visions: The Second Renaissance. I

Visions: The Second Renaissance.

I

- Trained for being competitive, Trained to be Minus Human -

Wednesday, 4:33 A.M. 

It's funny I start this column at this particular time. 4:33' is the name of a composition (based in silence) John Cage made. He was one of the most revolutionary composers of the past century.

In any case, let's go to the main subject of this column here.

 

I'm 27 years old as I am writing this. I am not sure how many people would read this columns I'll keep posting from now on based on my observations of society. I don't claim these to be the ultimate truth, since I consider the truth as something personal and timeless for each one who keeps seeking it. 

 

However, it is with much regret that in this society we live in, we don't see the patterns happening around us. It would be nice if those were constructive, but they aren't. Those patterns, seem to celebrate and promote things like hatred, self-importance, false individualism, and the suppression of free will, free speech, and the freedom of a creed, whatever that is.

 

In the country I live in I see these things happening in quite an incredible fast rate. Somehow, what is happening it's a micro-cosmos of what's already happening in the world out of these walls I live in, and out of these country. No matter if you're into polithics, music, sports, whatever. 

The competition and the self-righteousness to claim what we seek, what we follow, or what we "believe" is the ultimate truth, is all over the place. I think it's rather sad.

 

I don't recall the time things started to be like this. Not to sound pessimistic, but as far things go this way, we're not getting anywhere. As I was walking today with a good old friend of mine, I told him this :

We live in a world worried in the benefit of the few,

 Instead of working for the benefit of the whole.

 

All through internet, in social networks where you could write (or say) things as you wish, all I see is hatred, sarcasm, tons of self-manifestations of "enlightment" , people trying to impress and prove so hard how "witty, funny, challenging" they are, people trying so hard to put the others down because they consider them "inferior", people trying so hard to make THEIR view the ONE and ONLY view.

 

I wonder, when the world turned upside-down ? When did we forgot the real meaning of being alive ? WHEN, for fucks sake... WHEN DID WE LOST TRACK?

 

Life's too short to try to FORCE our view into the world surrounding us. Think this for a minute there, wouldn't be boring if all of us were all "smart-asses" speaking in "strange jargon", dressing "unique", thinking exactly the same things we "consider right", listening to the music "we consider good music".

To me, as far as I see it, that's called Dictatorship.

 

Instead of trying to make a "one and only view", why not turning that wasted energy and creativity into something new and great for your society ? Why keep criticising it instead of doing SOMETHING to change it? I know it's hard as hell, but it would be more meaningful.

 

Life's too short to live it in a constant state of competition.

Visions: The Second Renaissance

- A new entry, in quite a long time. -

Today I'll start a new space, called "The Second Renaissance". Inspired by the book "The Last Poem of Schetzzer", and its "Seven Truths of the Sources of Power" there are two powerful reasons for this new space in my blog:

- The ease we humans have to judge based in our ego and pretense. This also puts me in the same wagon, but at least I won't save it anymore and also, the ease we humans have to hate more, and love less in this "New Century".
- The ease we humans have nowadays, to be less human, and more mechanic.

Coming Soon.