Nietzsche and Runaway Audio Consumption
Came across this today. A lot of posts bring up the issue of "how much is enough?" or "when is audio consumption justified" etc.
Does this Nietzsche aphorism apply to audio buying? You be the judge!
Friedrich Nietzsche: “Danger in riches. — Only he who has spirit ought to have possessions: otherwise possessions are a public danger. For the possessor who does not know how to make use of the free time which his possessions could purchase him will always continue to strive after possessions: this striving will constitute his entertainment, his strategy in his war against boredom.
Thus in the end the moderate possessions that would suffice the man of spirit are transformed into actual riches – riches which are in fact the glittering product of spiritual dependence and poverty. They only appear quite different from what their wretched origin would lead one to expect because they are able to mask themselves with art and culture: for they are, of course, able to purchase masks. By this means they arouse envy in the poorer and the uncultivated – who at bottom are envying culture and fail to recognize the masks as masks – and gradually prepare a social revolution: for gilded vulgarity and histrionic self-inflation in a supposed ‘enjoyment of culture’ instil into the latter the idea ‘it is only a matter of money’ – whereas, while it is to some extent a matter of money, it is much more a matter of spirit.”
Nietzsche, Friedrich. 1996. Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits. Cambridge University Press. (p. 283-4, an aphorism no. 310)
I'm pretty sure @mahgister will want to read this one! (Because they speak so artfully about avoiding the diversion that consumption poses to the quest for true aesthetic and acoustic excellence.)
Perhaps we “audiophiles “ owe Mr. N a little consideration. He might’ve been an audiophile? So often, when my Audiofoo buddies come over for a listening session, the first thing they do is blah, blah blah…talk about equipment, cars, etc… They need to take a vow of silence like the kid in “Little Miss Sunshine “ and Shut The …. Up”! |
How bout imagination. Based on my observations, adults seem to organize and run every moment of their children's lives. I recall as child running free in Michigan prairies, much time to wonder about nature's secrets. Too many are far from nature to imagine and wonder, mysticism isn't even a known word. Without immersion in nature you can't begin to know our place in time and universe. |
Great post sns thanks... It is the reason why the book about Goethe method the greatest unrecognized natural scientist is so important.. When we live through this method of "seeing" and realize that we never has seen any animal in our life but only LABELLED with a name coming from habit a living object, we fall off our chair the older we are... I was fortunate enough to read Wolfgang Schad first book (300 pages) 35 years ago and falling from my chair i did not broke my back... 😊 I just bought for 120 bucks few weeks ago the new edition completed after his long life work , 1300 pages +1500 illustrations... A testimony to the vision and "rigorous "exact imagination" method designed by Goethe whose intelligence when assessed humble us all...Only Aristote and Archimedes compared... Think about a man with the genius of Shakespeare in his own language and his scientific vision and experience and discoveries in morphology and evolution on par with Darwin, and a view about colors that open research about light and physiology of colors experience out of the Newton box... Nature is the only altar where God speak his words like in the first days of creation : all, minerals, vegetals, animals, and humans appear coming directly from the 7 first day... Only in cities million of years hide us from the explicit metamorphosed beginning of wild nature taking with it his implicit mysteries for us to "see" with the right gaze... Children under 7 years old see without labels... They are the only masters... Each animals in his personal environment is a book whose chapters are parts of his morphology and main three systems: the polarity of nerve-sense and metabolic-limb systems and the mediating circulatory-respiratory system ... "Seeing" this dynamical polarities playing at all scales of the relation between the animals and his environment is loosing the "scales" veiling our gaze... Goethe wrote with the same method the most beautiful book ever written about plants..." the metamorphosis of plant"... Discusasing one day with his best friend Schiller, himself a thinker of the highest order, he answer to Schiller gazing his drawing of the archetypical dynamic of the original plant and making to Goethe the remark that this drawing reprent no existing plant but only an "idea"; my dear friend i must say to you then that i am very happy to see ideas with my concrete eyes.... Think about that deep observation.... The word genius about Goethe is well deserved... Why Goethe is not so much well known as scientist: Because it is not the amount or importance of his discoveries that reveal his genius or a unique idea like the darwinian paradigm but it is a deep method or inquiring without looking ONLY in the parts but perceiving by "exact imagination" the whole itself all around us... Stupendous ... This is the yoga of zoology and botany.... This explain the complete reverence from many geniuses for Goethe and the huge influence of Goethe on all people, the more intelligent they are the more deep... I cannot insist enough on that... Test by yourself... But reading Goethe is not like reading a philosopher by arguments and reason... It is a transformative artistic and scientific experience OVER any LOGIC and ANY words and way over language itself... This great poet who describe in the Faust all the contemporary hubris, and scientist was also the more spiritual man in front of the sacred nature... His devotion all his life shatter all our distraction and sleepwalking... The list of those who place Goethe at the center of their life is very long... Those who put Goethe aside paid the price... For example Goethe is the geatest phenomenologist in German language over Hegel and over Husserl...The "cul de sac" where the mathematician Husserl put himself with his phenomenology inclined to a formal never ending chain of abstractions is completely unknown in the concrete phenomenology of Goethe where the phenomena spoke by themselves WITHOUT any theory to replace them or hide them...Husserl himself so wise it is is a children who speak too much compared to Goethe... The only known man who is goethean before Goethe is Leonardo Da Vinci whose method is almost the same...The two men are artist and scientist devoted to "exact imagination" contemplation and understanding and perceiving of living forms...They are exact twin separated by centuries... Verify by yourself... |
@ rodman99999 Being a long time dog lover and companion I quite enjoyed and can concur with your post.🐕 In regards to people and spirit - my thoughts are turned to a particular couple (husband and wife) of friends who left a life long impression. Though they were very successful in their business enterprises and quite well to do they never once flaunted their success, who they were or what they had. We shared with them many wonderful and memorable times and their radiant, kind and generous spirit made them a pleasure to be with. When they were both taken in a tragic accident, the world lost two beautiful people who were the very definition of spirit. Our hearts were broken and these many years later, still hurt.......Jim |
@sns , great observation on the micromanaging of kids and not having the proper setting to raise them in. Before tags and memes, my parents were the "free range" types who instilled trust in us. The only rules were to be back by dinner time, or before sunset. Things were different back then which accounts for the results. That could be part of the combo that made us the "greatest generation". Having nature at our disposal allows us to connect and develop. Surrounded by concrete doesn't. Neither Tom nor Jerry All the best, |
