Suppose within the girdle of this earth lies two sub-genres of Dubstep, whose low subsumed divisions make the vast, expanding cosmos, nothing. Piece then their similarities with thought, and try to travel long and far into space and self. How do you find it comrade? Comfortable? Did you learn something? Did the earth shake?
No?
Well...then take a sound probing of the depth. Is it shallow? Oh, it is? But aren't you going to say that profundity is all relative? What is all this depth and shallowness but muck and muck to the miner?
But, flippant person, are you really prepared to say that the difference between Beethoven and Bieber is a question of perspective? Or the difference between Shakespeare and Scrubs is merely a point of angle? Or that the term 'false equivalency' is a lie? Are there not quality differences between? Or separations of value? Because there's surely a flaw in your logic. If all things are relative, then in conclusion nothing has meaning. Words lose their meaning, gesture holds no use, art is a waste of significance. So by your thinking, all things are the same and all things are nothing.
So stupidity is equal to intelligence. Art is equal to the random. High equals low. Soft equals hard. Light equals dark. Deep equals shallow. Is Facebook as good as the mind? Or the instant message as good as the dead sea scrolls? If Einstein meant, by enlightening us with his truth, only to prefer the images of Twitter to Titian, than relatively speaking could I not say I think relativity is, relatively speaking, relative and therefore itself, nothing?
Ah curmudgeon my ancient droog. Dialectic summon! Where does that get us? Well it gets us at the heart of things. That is: Interest. You see the real difference between Beethoven and Bieber, Facebook and Mind is that one is more interesting than the other. And by corollary, one more boring than the other. You, being generous, I'm sure can figure the one from the other for that's not a relative question. For example, how much thought, how much concentration, how much consideration, how much practice went into the comparative music of each other. Significant by any count. And who shall last the longest? Need I spell it out? I understand when you say that none of this matters, it's wind over water and vapors in the sky. But dear sainted brother, are you really going to sponsor a jumped-up arrogant little, stupid monkey-boy over a man who suffered the fate of being deaf to his own art?
If so, then welcome then to the life of boring. Welcome to the age of the cat video. Welcome to the superficial. Welcome to the frivolous. Welcome to the Banal. Goodbye to Socrates and the wisdom that truth is knowing how little you know. Goodbye Confucius and the debts to study, the extension of faculty. Goodbye to Shakespeare and the line, "each man gets what he deserves." For in this world, reward often follows the stupefied. Merit, is what mass-man decides.
Aye there's the rub. Populism is the problem. From the Youtube comments to the Facebook post to the Twitter rant, to the message interchange with emoji to the Instergram pic, to the commonplace to the Yottabytes wasted, to the nights wasted to the black holes that have sunk sad souls, to the trolls to the reality TV proles, to football goals. Is that it? Circuses and bread? Junk food for junk brains? Oye Veh. what a palaver? Therefore I speak to you, yes you, in posterity. Perhaps you are a machine, computer or symbiosis of man and machine. Thank the Muses you are the trustees of intelligence and not our primitive species. Thank the decent, you have, I hope, solved our awful mess. What are apologies in time? So forgive if I don't apologize. But my duty here is to speak of the times, now.
Thus:
- Never underestimate the appeal of the banal, it's measureless attraction.
- Never discount the reach of stupidity.
- Never take for granted the gush for nonsense.
- Never wave off the idiot, infinite are his ways.
- Sigh on and frown, at the pleasures of the crowd.
Our world is long on things but short on ideas. Our culture is infantile, and therefore not free, and more about senses and less about sense. We must live, therefore why shouldn't we shine as we live? Is my soul just a commercial? Can a romantic survive in the modern world? Should I just jump off something tall right now? What can it matter at all?
Alas, this is the Age of The Banal. No demons to exorcise. No land to till or great thought to mill. And thus also welcome to the age of decline, since we may not have progress without ideas.
No?
Well...then take a sound probing of the depth. Is it shallow? Oh, it is? But aren't you going to say that profundity is all relative? What is all this depth and shallowness but muck and muck to the miner?
But, flippant person, are you really prepared to say that the difference between Beethoven and Bieber is a question of perspective? Or the difference between Shakespeare and Scrubs is merely a point of angle? Or that the term 'false equivalency' is a lie? Are there not quality differences between? Or separations of value? Because there's surely a flaw in your logic. If all things are relative, then in conclusion nothing has meaning. Words lose their meaning, gesture holds no use, art is a waste of significance. So by your thinking, all things are the same and all things are nothing.
So stupidity is equal to intelligence. Art is equal to the random. High equals low. Soft equals hard. Light equals dark. Deep equals shallow. Is Facebook as good as the mind? Or the instant message as good as the dead sea scrolls? If Einstein meant, by enlightening us with his truth, only to prefer the images of Twitter to Titian, than relatively speaking could I not say I think relativity is, relatively speaking, relative and therefore itself, nothing?
Ah curmudgeon my ancient droog. Dialectic summon! Where does that get us? Well it gets us at the heart of things. That is: Interest. You see the real difference between Beethoven and Bieber, Facebook and Mind is that one is more interesting than the other. And by corollary, one more boring than the other. You, being generous, I'm sure can figure the one from the other for that's not a relative question. For example, how much thought, how much concentration, how much consideration, how much practice went into the comparative music of each other. Significant by any count. And who shall last the longest? Need I spell it out? I understand when you say that none of this matters, it's wind over water and vapors in the sky. But dear sainted brother, are you really going to sponsor a jumped-up arrogant little, stupid monkey-boy over a man who suffered the fate of being deaf to his own art?
If so, then welcome then to the life of boring. Welcome to the age of the cat video. Welcome to the superficial. Welcome to the frivolous. Welcome to the Banal. Goodbye to Socrates and the wisdom that truth is knowing how little you know. Goodbye Confucius and the debts to study, the extension of faculty. Goodbye to Shakespeare and the line, "each man gets what he deserves." For in this world, reward often follows the stupefied. Merit, is what mass-man decides.
Aye there's the rub. Populism is the problem. From the Youtube comments to the Facebook post to the Twitter rant, to the message interchange with emoji to the Instergram pic, to the commonplace to the Yottabytes wasted, to the nights wasted to the black holes that have sunk sad souls, to the trolls to the reality TV proles, to football goals. Is that it? Circuses and bread? Junk food for junk brains? Oye Veh. what a palaver? Therefore I speak to you, yes you, in posterity. Perhaps you are a machine, computer or symbiosis of man and machine. Thank the Muses you are the trustees of intelligence and not our primitive species. Thank the decent, you have, I hope, solved our awful mess. What are apologies in time? So forgive if I don't apologize. But my duty here is to speak of the times, now.
Thus:
- Never underestimate the appeal of the banal, it's measureless attraction.
- Never discount the reach of stupidity.
- Never take for granted the gush for nonsense.
- Never wave off the idiot, infinite are his ways.
- Sigh on and frown, at the pleasures of the crowd.
Our world is long on things but short on ideas. Our culture is infantile, and therefore not free, and more about senses and less about sense. We must live, therefore why shouldn't we shine as we live? Is my soul just a commercial? Can a romantic survive in the modern world? Should I just jump off something tall right now? What can it matter at all?
Alas, this is the Age of The Banal. No demons to exorcise. No land to till or great thought to mill. And thus also welcome to the age of decline, since we may not have progress without ideas.
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