> American socialization has been shaped by the market place, by the cold
> demands of corporate agendas--which at the last count very much included the
> military agenda. If culture was still encouraged at school, which is
> unlikely at all but the elite private institutions today,
My experience at Yale in the mid 60's and elsewhere leads
me to think you are too optimistic here. If culture is
encouraged at "elite" schools, it is mostly, from my experience,
in the hypocritical way that honesty is also encouraged:
Don't cheat but if you get a low grade you may suffer
badly for the rest of your by-your-poor-performance-likely-
shortened life. The most important thing about the Iliad
is remembering who did what to who to answer questions
on the final exam. In this regard, the only reason the Iliad
is "higher" than a MacDonalds menu is that people generally
find it harder to memorize the facts in it and therefore can be
tested more "rigorously". Dickens is surely one of the
greatest authors because his books contain lots of difficult
to remember facts unlike, e.g., Sophocles' _Oedipus at
Colonus_, which clearly states: "Best of all not to have
been born; second best to have seen the light and go back
swiftly whence on came. The feathery follies of
his youth once past, what trouble is beyong the range of man?..."
[Sophocles didn't know about the SAT's....]
Shame on those who use high culture to hurt persons
[No, I am not talking about the Nazi leaders here but
about "our" teachers who are proud of being "tough"]
and thereby teach by example if not by their bocal (I believe the
Spanish word for mouth is "boca") effluents that
culture is truly anti-life.
\brad mccormick
then a revival of
> appreciation could occur. A steady diet of math and computers leaves the
> soul rather empty, and the misguided concept of having possessions to fill
> the emptiness inside results.
>
> Culture, much like sports and outdoor recreation, seem to have their very
> specific place, not to mention their price. It's become rather cost
> prohibitive, unfortunately especially for the young. Street musicians are
> now licensed, theatre and opera are a costly occasion, and pro sports is
> costlier than the arts. Enjoying the parks can cost a pretty penny too. It
> seems that the only things the feds fund freely these days are corporate
> concerns.
>
> Interesting how the Favelas in Rio are actually doing well culturally. So
> much so that their main source of income has become tourism. The CBC Radio
> One toured a few of the major world cities' illegal communities, and
> discovered a vibrant community in Rio. People there live in relative safety
> because neighbors watch out for each other. Most people abide by a code of
> behavior that, once understood, inspires a general sense of trust, and apart
> from gang violence, most people make the time for song and music, art and
> even architectural accomplishments out of low cost/no cost material. Women
> particularly have been thriving because of demand for arts and crafts.
This, surely is very good. But it is not Bach or Josquin,
or Kant or Husserl, or Palladio or Louis Kahn....
and never likely will be.
The rough and tumble of the streets cannot produce "massive erudition" and
connoisseurship. Callouses help one to survive at the price
of desensitizing, etc.
Perhaps high culture does not deserve to exist?
\brad mccormick
It's
> as if we have been provided assurance in this new dark age, as a result of
> their budding successes, that arts and culture once again prove to be the
> foundation of society and economy. I'm sure that Ray has been following
> closely.
>
> Natalia
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Not that I would suggest that America must fall to its knees and be deprived
> of all things material so that it could at last appreciate the life that
> still pulses deep within...
>
> Natalia
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brad McCormick, Ed.D." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Cc: <[email protected]>
> Sent: Saturday, May 20, 2006 2:41 PM
> Subject: Re: [Futurework] Natalia has sent you an article from npr.org
>
>
>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>> > Natalia thought you would be interested in this story: NPR : Tiny Houses
> Find a Friend on the Gulf Coast
>> >
>>
>> I heard this one. Some of the houses are 70 sq/ft -- but also in
> "daddy's"
>> back yard so that the tenant can use the facilities in the big traditional
>> house.
>>
>> The Unabomber certainly was a proponent of small houses -- but with
>> self-sufficiency.
>> Today's NYT has a fine article: "Bigger Housese, Longer Commutes"
>>
>> http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/realestate/21cov.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
>>
>> I think the problem is largely that Americans' socialization -- even
>> many with
>> PhDs -- does not cultivate in them a love for high culture but rather a
>> lust for more square feet.
>>
>> I knew the son of the person I consider one of the important writers of
>> all times -- not comparatively, but irrespective of comparison: Hermann
>> Broch.
>> "Broch's son" lived in a one bedroom apartment with his wife on the
>> upper east
>> side of manhattan. It was a small apartment: the kitchen was especially
>> small,
>> perhaps 5 by 6 feet??? But it was a place filled with the culture of
>> pre-WWII "Vienna" (and also a few chotchkies(sp?)). I am sure there
>> are MacMansions in Westchester that are furnished to a higher level of
>> culture than Broch's little apartment -- I am sure of this because I
>> believe there exist persons in our society who have both a lot of money
>> and also a
>> lot of cultivation -- but I suspect these are few. Broch's little
> apartment
>> was tight on square feet, but rich in "the life of the mind". I loved
>> visiting
>> him and his wife -- I would always get a glass of fine cognac (well that
>> would
>> probably be available in many of the MacMansions...), but I would
>> savor to look at the details in the apartment: the lovely japanese
>> screen on the
>> libing room wall, the cigarette holder on the table (not that I smoked),
> the
>> bookcase, the poster of his father from Surkamp Verlag (sp?).
>> Aristocracy reduced to having to count its pennies, probably, but
>> a graciousness that generates a world of meaningful symbols, not just
>> "space". Of course, the symbols were meaningful *to me*, and
>> another might have found it all not really serious compared to
>> acquiring another company or exceeding wall street's
>> expectations by a quarter percent....
>>
>> Was man made for the Sabbath, or was the Sabbath made for man?
>>
>> Was man made for space, or was space made for man?
>>
>> Of course, given my druthers, I'd like to live some place
>> like Katsura, or even just an apartment in one of Trump's towers
>> (there was once a piece in the NYT about an apartment in
>> Tudor City across from the UN, a "triplex", where the owners,
>> went away each weekend -- no, not to the Hamptons, no, not to
>> the Berkshires -- but to their *third floor* for the weekend -->
>> now *that's* where I'd like to live. But if I can't live there,
>> I'd rather live in a small place where I had the leisure to savor
>> my Glenkinchie in my Kakumi Seiho sake cup, than be
>> putting in sweat equity to earn square feet on the road.
>>
>> Why is it better to be a kamikaze pilot than to have
>> a long commute? Because the kamikaze pilot only
>> has to make the trip once.
>>
>> \brad mccormick
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> > <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5366823>
>> >
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Let your light so shine before men,
>> that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
>>
>> Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
>>
>> <![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>> Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
>>
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
--
Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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