I want to just throw something out for general discussion. I really like it when commentators get fired up and argue with one another and usually the search for truth is advanced in the process. Arguments here have traditionally been conducted in the most courteous way and I assume that will continue to be the case. So here is a quote, that I made up, to ponder:
"You can have my Classical Western music when you pry it from my cold, dead hands!"
Put in more prosaic terms, as wave after wave of progressive initiatives wash over the institutions of Western Classical music, do we feel that the purity of aesthetic pleasure is being diminished or increased? In other words, do we feel or judge that, for example, the attempts to re-imagine Beethoven as a kind of musical Che Guevara or to cancel him entirely, are inherently virtuous or are they barbaric attacks on one of the greatest composers? Similarly, are attempts to equalize the number of female conductors also inherently virtuous or are they either a form of tokenism or a way of discriminating against male conductors? Similarly the projects to increase the number of performances of female composers. Are they inherently virtuous or do they shortchange young male composers? In other words, do we accept the whole ideological package of Diversity, Inclusion and Equity as being not only moral, but urgently required? Or does it merely seem like an excuse to oppress white males? Or is this all so very complicated that we should avoid all discussion?
I throw the question to the floor. Let the comments flow.
15 comments:
Is it my imagination or is there a real resistance to the resistance slowly taking shape?
I think that the number of voices joining the chorus of the 'resistance to the resistance' is increasing-- Christopher Rufo and James Lindsay are names that come to mind, and the 'liberals' and 'traditionalists' in the Catholic world are, generally speaking, very much aware of what damage the woke do: but the juggernaut keeps moving forward, alas. The DIE sort in the musical world may, be able to use the collapse of concert life in their favor; how, I'm not sure, but they are certainly clever, a good number of them, anyway. If Beethoven has to be remade as Che in order to keep a place in the classrooms and studios of the woke then Bieber and Shchedrin are best forgotten altogether.
I think 'effete' is the word. 'The West' has become, as a unity (however one conceives that), too effete to repel its adversaries.
Has the Future Symphony Institute been ended? Perhaps there's been a name change that I've missed?
Marc, I am glad to see you are back and commenting vigorously!
If the progressives would argue their points, I suspect we would do pretty well, meaning we reactionary non-progressives, but the problem often comes down to that they won't argue the points. If we don't agree, they just throw a riot. I think, come the election, we will see if that tactic was successful or not. Either way, I think I will be spending more time in Europe...
Watch that spelling of Bieber vs Biber!
I haven't looked at the Future Symphony site for a while. Is it gone?
The site is still up
https://www.futuresymphony.org/
I check in on it every few weeks. Let's remember that Roger Scruton died this year and he was a pretty significant presence at FSI. John Borstlap has been a regular contributor, too, but losing someone like Roger Scruton this year can't be easy for the institute. I hope it keeps going but it may be a few months or so before FSI regains its bearings.
They've completely revamped/relaunched their website in the last year and a half. It was disorienting at first but I've gotten used to it. There's still an FSI site but, understandably, with Scruton's recent passing there's not a ton of new material getting published right now. The Imaginative Conservative has been re-publishing FSI essays this year from Scruton, though.
My browser wouldn't find it. Hmm.
The same browser to me to the FSI site when I entered the address manually so probably that was down to my cache or sometimg. Thanks!
This is James Lindsay's answer to the question 'why won't the woke debate', in case you all haven't seen it.
Biber, Bieber, they're both the wrong sort, what difference does it make etc etc. :-) I used to look at the Daily Mail every day, just to keep up with the cultural junk that was below Althouse's radar and yours, but I don't do that so much any more-- these days I just skim the headlines at the NYT and the Guardian and I 'know' as much as I want to about such nonsense. I don't know if NYT et al have gotten so much worse in the last two or three years or if I've just given up pretending to myself that they are necessary sources of objective information.
Thanks, Marc, the Lindsay paper is really very well-researched and thorough.
I think that the mass media have gotten worse. I have seen it written that the mask is off now, they are "all in" to win this election. I think that there is a feeling of an approaching crisis point. I have a sense of what might happen, but there are so very many variables!
Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go irreducibly oppress someone!
I read a review yesterday of Michael Anton's new book, The Stakes: America at the Point of No Return. I lose track trying to follow the Straussians, neo-Straussians, West Coast Straussians, and assorted other -ians and -ists. The review is at First Things, entitled 'Postconstitutional America' by Nathan Pinkoski, a fellow of St Michael's at the University of Toronto."But the ultimate intention of The Stakes is to teach prudence and fortitude. It is to prepare us for life in postconstitutional America"-- the assumption being that said 'postconstitutional America' is here already but hasn't yet become what it will be. I try to keep up, in my feeble way, with those folks and with the folks on what I suppose is the opposite side, exemplified by Adrian Vermeule and Cass Sunstein's grand defense of the administrative state, Law and Leviathan: Redeeming the Administrative State.
Someone posted a mock campaign sign on Twitter earlier today, "Marcus Tullius Cicero for Consul: Pragmatist for the People". Professor Deneen at Notre Dame wrily commented, "I hear his term doesn’t end well".
I have actually read Leo Strauss' history of political philosophy, but remember so little of the details I should probably read it again. As a Canadian, in my own lifetime I have watched my country go from the relative conservatism of John Diefenbaker to the mindless socialism of Justin Trudeau. It is a strange thing, watching your own country go down an entirely predictable rabbit hole. So I have the utmost sympathy for those Americans who are viewing the future with much foreboding.
There's a discussion of replacing the federal architecture guidelines (that gave Eugene, e.g., its ugly new federal courthouse) at the AEI site this morning; the National Civic Art Society's show, I think. Doubtful that I will endure 90 minutes of it but who knows.
Marc, you have to suffer through it so you can tell the rest of us about it!
Oh, I didn't watch; can't make it through 20 minute podcasts. If there's a transcript, I'd read it; don't see one at the AEI or National Civic Art Society sites.
I have to say, I am the same. I used to try and watch Scott Adams morning podcasts, but usually give up after five minutes and just this week I have adopted the policy of not watching them at all.
I asked the NCAS people if there was to be a transcript. Mr Shubow replied, no. But, he continued, an advantage of the video is the slides illustrating it. Hmm. I seem to have noticed a modern practice involving text and images on the same page... in any case, the video is there if anyone wants to watch it.
Thanks, Marc. Yes, I believe I have heard of this. A "book with illustrations" or something like that?
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