The poverty is between the ears and is spiritual. There is no national
physical impoverishment. If China attacked us tomorrow we would come up
with the money to fight the war. We did it before and would again.
American put Europe on its feet after world war II and then came home and
kicked their own poor for being poor. We are incapable of living
humanely in a peaceful situation.
How can we be so dedicated to the brutal and the ugly as a way of service?
We can't even develop sunlight because its free. We are enemies with our
own bodies because we need a monetary reason for health and the society only
makes money if you are sick. Our story is that the only motivation to
change is monetary.
Our system is irrational and based in a "field of scarcity" rather than a
"field of plenty." That problem has been here every since Columbus
landed. Native myths are posited on a Field of Plenty created by a
loving Creator for the good of all and so the people went about propagating
it and imitating their story of the Creator, the Great Mystery. Even
in the Arctic, the Inuit knew that their heart had to be filled with joy
(plenty) in order to survive a true "field of scarcity."
Modern economics is based in scarcity and the need for capital to profit
from that scarcity both as motivation and as ideal.
But
Europe has changed. Why can't American Europeans change as well? I would
live in Europe. I'm not sure about the UK. However, I'm finding it
harder and harder to live my last years here. There are a lot of Cherokee
Artists in France and some in Canada. I would choose Tuscany. While
in Tuscany I began to open all of the doors that I had closed over the last
fifteen years. I taught holistically and was asked to teach things that
Americans consider suspiciously. I even began to sing again at 69 years of
age, the old songs of Bela Bartok and Ady Endre. I loved the fact that
the old school buildings gave the children tradition and good sense and were
beautifully clean like the Tuscan sky. Here the old school buildings are
just filthy and the sky is getting dirtier as the children of the poor of
spirit take apart the clean air regulations for profit.
In Picher we learned to clean three times a day lest the soft white silky
lead dust be absorbed into our pores and lungs. It was the mining
companies that told us not to bother that it was OK but my mother was very
wise and refused to listen. She wept daily until my father left the
reservation and moved somewhere where my sister would be safe. It was
not the people, she loved them, and she had seen me endure and even prosper
in the struggle through the discipline of piano practice, but even that was
never an excuse for such abuse as the system placed on innocent people and
their children. To collectively poison a whole generation for profit is
evil.
My student Peter, who is Italian, told me that the change in Tuscany is
recent. That they endured terrible pollution from nuclear power and other
Industrial era environments. Is it any wonder that the mayor of that
Tuscan town where the countryside is so harmonious and beautiful with each
field carefully planned and executed so the grapes will get just the right
amount of water, refused the ugly IKEA factory?
It was as if the dreams of new towns in America like Reston, Virginia that
have been polluted and destroyed by a crass imagination, as if those dreams
were transferred to those Tuscan towns and villages and logical urban
planning based in beauty and sensibility was asserted. Last week we
lived in a Agritourismo for ten days. The walking was the fastest way to
get anywhere and the "idea" of an automobile was simply lazy and
unnecessary. To see one field terraced while another is plowed down the
hill. Each field individual to the needs of the soil, the wind patterns of
the mountain and the direction of the rain. (Such care is beyond "scale
agriculture" practiced by agribusiness.) Peter also spoke of the care of
vegetables and tomatoes so that they were not overwatered and turned tough.
It WAS the best vegetables of my lifetime (although the Pizza was
over-rated). Still, the tomatoes and mozzarella salads were far superior
to something that I never cared for here. And the best butcher I've ever
seen. He said: "Lasciate ogni speranza o voi che entrate: siete nelle
mani di" Macellaio!" (Abandon hope all ye who enter, for you are now in
the hands of a butcher). His reputation was well deserved and his spirit
was benign. I wonder if our beloved Catskills will survive our American
Italian governor who wants to do "prudent" fracking where the water is, at
present, the sweetest in America. Something happens when they get to
America. Is it a virus that they encounter or does it just appear from
the depths of a soul seeking a Messiah to tell them no?
Digoweli
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Robert Stennett
Sent: Monday, August 01, 2011 5:33 PM
To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION
Subject: Re: [Futurework] I owe Chris an apology
Digoweli,
How does one go about trying to change this rather depressing situation?
Particularly, how does one attempt to instill an appreciation for mastery
and artistry in the young of such an impoverished country?
Barry
On Aug 1, 2011, at 4:59 PM, Ray Harrell wrote:
Digoweli
Location
New York City
Comment to the NYTIMES on Arts Outposts Stung by Cuts in State Aid
I've worked in the New York City opera world as a performer, director,
conductor and teacher for the past forty years. During that time I have
believed in the value of the Arts as the prime developer of the performance
of the human instrument.
Recent brain studies by neurologists at McGill University and the DANA
foundation here in the US tested the theory that the Arts were co-relative
to the development of intelligence i.e. "intelligent people practiced the
Arts" NOT "the Arts develops intelligence" which would be "Foundational"
rather than "Correlative." The surprising results to these scientists were
that they were Foundational and NOT Correlative at all.
My father found that out at Picher, Oklahoma in the 1950s when he developed
the school system of a severely impacted community by lead poisoning around
the core curricula of the performing arts. The students had almost a 100%
graduation rate and most went on to college and significant careers in
business, education and in music. His discoveries spurred him to go on to
two doctor's degrees in Psychometrics.
It also made my working in the arts more palatable since he knew how
American Artists have a post graduate failure rate of 98% in performance.
I had put off going to Europe through the years because I didn't want to
develop European Art but American Art and given the stories about Europe
from my friends who worked and settled there I didn't want the temptation.
Alas I recently returned from a music conference in Greve, Italy only to
read, in the NYTimes, how depressed the Tuscan economy was. Funny, the
people I met on all levels and the communities were wonderful, happy and
beautiful. I'm not surprised the resisted IKEA at all.
If I had it to do over again I would have immigrated and if I had the
capital to do so now would immediately. America simply doesn't know the
value of the Arts nor their reason. Indeed they don't understand the
economic system and its artistic failures.
Digoweli is my pen name. It's the Cherokee word for "book".
REH
The article can be found here.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/arts/kansas-and-other-states-cut-arts-fund
s.html
Another article from the NEA chairman is here and my comments are: number s
33,34.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/theater-talkback-what-rocco-lan
desman-should-speak-about-next/
And for the most pertinent of all check out the performance art on wall
street. In my opinion the artist missed the point. He should have had
them dressed in formal dress from the waist up and only had their bottoms
bared. That's more like the real Wall Street in my experience.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/01/bares-not-bulls-on-wall-street/
REH
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