Lost in Non-Thought

A long time ago, perhaps thirty or so years, I went through a phase when I read a great deal of writing about Buddhism and other Eastern religions. Recently I have re-read some Chinese philosophy. Interesting stuff. But, at the end of the day, I don't think that these ideas have much to offer Western Civilization. Asian countries themselves seem to agree as Japan, Korea and China have been making every effort to completely remake their societies according to the basic economic and technological ideas of the West.

But there has been, for several decades now, an effort by some enthusiasts to remake Western culture using ideas from the East. It seems clear, by this point, that this is a mistaken effort that would be best categorized as a sub-category of the Marxist critique of the West. In other words, this is a small front in the general effort to destroy the culture of the West by destroying its intellectual foundations. The two world wars of the first half of the 20th century have been called a "suicide attempt by Western civilization." Since that attempt failed, there has been a concerted effort to demoralize the West from the inside by attacking every foundational principle: logic, objective reason and evaluation, the rule of law, individual moral responsibility and the masterworks of Western art.

I just ran across an example of this that is so perfect that it almost seems a parody. The piece is a new opera called "Lost in Thought" that is a distillation of every idiotic new age idea, masquerading as a music drama--which it plainly is not. The article in the Guardian is titled "Turning opera inside out: how I got Lost in Thought." You really should read the whole thing, if you have the stomach for it. Here is a sample of the experience:

Perhaps 15 minutes later we’re walking in circles again. What are those strange, otherworldly sounds? Are they coming from the accordion? No, the mindfulness leaders are handing out swizzle sticks to wave above our heads. One is given to me. I can’t tell you how happy I am, twirling and walking, walking and twirling, making a sound like the owl of Minerva hooting wisely in the twilight of its existence. Possibly. Then a mindfulness leader approaches me as I walk, and suggests with eloquent eyebrow that I surrender the swizzle stick to someone else. I do and feel intensely not just the pleasure of giving, but the pain of loss. I loved that swizzle stick and the noise it made.

Here is the entire libretto (from Rumi):

“I have lived on the lip / of insanity, wanting to know reasons / knocking on a door. It opens. / I’ve been knocking from the inside.”

If you created something specifically designed to lower the IQ, evaluative capacity and perceptual acuity of a room full of people, to make them as stupid as possible, what would you do differently? Isn't it astonishing that we think that experiences like this are in some way valuable, instead of being the attempts at cultural suicide that they obviously are? Lost in Thought, or just plain lost?

After that, let's listen to a real opera, a masterwork of Western art. This is Don Giovanni, or, the rake punished, by Mozart on a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte: