There will always be elements within a culture that seek to manage a decline of that culture.
When these these social and political elements are ascendant, they align to crush individual freedom. This is a warning against the origins of totalitarianism, and the mechanisms by which it seeks to destroy freedom of thought and expression. They cannot defeat armies, so first they strangle the Arts.
The shock of vision insists upon creative realization.
The era of critical upheaval brings about change and enlightenment. This does not happen on its own or in a vacuum, as it were. It is subject to many things, among them materialism and cultural stereotypes that must be transcended. What does this mean? There is no cliche, only the failure to regard forward thinking. Progress is a function of intent, driven by dynamic and momentum. Expand your thinking to grasp application of force.
Of course this is true for every area of life. It is a creative process. Expand your thinking. Consider, contemplate, and act according to the unfolding of reality.
This expression is associated with the Celestial Way. It implies honesty, nobility, and a connectedness with the phenomena of existence. One has an understanding of these things, or one does not, and one lives accordingly. What has this to do with art and music?
Direct energy, frequency and vibration toward balance and movement.
These are sounds not limited by linear temporal perception; the desired outcome is expansion.
Compare, at this far distance, to expressive possibilities of Zaum and its linguistic metaphysics. It is not difficult to do so, and without graceless pretension it is revealing.
The issue is the application of music to social and cultural situations in which music, "as we know it", is not optimal. This is always the case when music demands the listener's full attention, and, though it is less intrusive when it simply invites attention, it may still become a distraction.
Reading, thinking, conversation, and things of this nature do not benefit from distractions, and sound developed and expressed for these scenarios must be conducive to being relaxed, yet alert.
Brian Eno's ambient music develops rarefied musical events to evoke this stage of consciousness; I have been developing, over the past decade, a means to a singular, and to the extent possible, an over-arching, non-musical, atmospheric and environment effect with disparate implications.
To paraphrase Poe, it is a total effect designed as a singular, overarching expression, suitable for the aforementioned occasions, and for the expansion of consciousness. Yet, as I have since verified in academic practice, it has additional, peculiar effects, such as allowing, thus increasing, individual focus of attention on other activities, and providing extended relief from such challenges as ADHD.
While not intentional, this is nonetheless a proven fact, verified by objective results, and a welcome artistic development, with possible applications to PTSD as well. This necessitates continuing experimentation, study, and review.
Where expression is shackled to ideology, inauthentic expression is all-pervasive.
Even where every form of speech, art, and action appears to be accepted, what cannot be expressed are opposing viewpoints, which are taboo and "unthinkable". The result is that true perceptions may not be revealed. The insight that consciousness implies soul cannot be spoken where the idea of the existence of a "soul" is not countenanced by those whose understanding is predicated upon falsity.
The artist, as renegade, must live according to the way of the warrior.
Totalitarian cultures function in the same manner as cults.
They create mysteries, and enemies. They inform every need of all initiates, who are conditioned to provide all answers to all questions except the ones they are not allowed to ask. They tolerate only a single perspective, and those who see differently are "the other", thus evil. Every aspect of society is permeated with a single ideology that cannot be undone.
Individuality is, consequently, forbidden, because ultimately freedom will overcome.
There are things within the power of the artist, and there are things that are not.
Self-reliance, control, and action are within the artist's power. The failures of cultures and societies are not. The artist observes, creates, and expresses. All else in in flux, and it was ever thus.
Imagination and will bring potential realities into being.
It is insight and foresight that tell us who we are and what we can be, rather than having no other alternative than to live "in the moment" and passively accept the status quo.
To listen and to hear is to experience sound in ways both active and passive. It means to be fully conscious and also to apply that focus toward sensory perception on the edges of the unconscious mind, that is to say, to develop awareness of sonic events that are not direct and obvious, and that for the most part go unnoticed.
Expression then becomes essential, being the means by which to express the differences between appearances and reality, because the world is apprehended and defined by both.
Give attention to the sound and the surroundings until no longer conscious of the sound.
Recognize, to the extent possible, the moment of becoming conscious of the sound again.
Analyze and note the differences in (1) the quality of sound and (2) the nature of subjective and objective perception each time the sound re-emerges into consciousness.
As in any exercise, make these steps habitual in the pursuit of creative, critical acumen.
It is nothing to bring about irrationality and chaos.
Only the most arduous efforts can focus and elevate aesthetic beauty out of disruption and turmoil, ignorance and evil. But it can be done, and it has always been so.
The contemplative mind yields insight, and the creative will acts accordingly within the parameters of proposed outcomes. No outcome in any social order is ever permanent, and no total effect within the dynamic of culture is ever fixed and immutable. To believe otherwise is absurd.
Equally absurd in the context of the human condition are demands for guaranteed outcomes, since these do not exist. Action based on scientific method, with its associated meticulous refinements, may indeed place the human imprint on distant planets, but no undertaking that is predicated upon absolute foreknowledge of end results is possible in the world of human affairs.
True accomplishment comes from work leading to acceptable conclusions, and these are inspired by belief and confidence in the necessity and wisdom of change in the status quo. This is the strength of risk, and of faith as well. Nothing less, and nothing more, is possible. Choose action.
Nonetheless, a single perspective cannot be imposed upon reality, and there are such things as objective facts. As a means of expression, the arts can promote specious and absurd ideas and viewpoints as easily as do other process of communication, and, in point of fact, have their own traditions for doing so. One clean slate is as inconsequential as another, and the forces of history continue to have effects, with or without their being acknowledged by anyone in particular.
Every type of art illuminates, but cognizance of meaning is not effortless. Nor should it be.
Failure to grasp the abstract nature of ideas and the inability to sense the realities of the human condition are the consequences of individual and social errors for which civilization bears little, if any, responsibility. The state of ignorance is one of worthlessness, and it was ever thus.
Compare original work with works of the masters in the field.
Similarities imply fundamentals; contrasting elements represent individual perspective. The former demonstrates competence, cultural literacy, and temperament, while the latter reflects expressive intent, personal experience, critical acumen, and stylistic gesture as influence yields to originality.
