Orson Welles and Modern Art

I happened upon this classic 1977 documentary by Herbert Kline, narrated by Orson Welles, covering all the major movements and phases of Modern Art.

Delightfully stodgy and filled with a myriad of accents, ideas, styles and mediums, this in depth film highlights past and contemporary artists with ease and clarity, bringing this multi-faceted art style out from its own self designed obscurity and confusion. Enjoy!

Indo-European Jazz

Lloyd Miller, who specialized in Persian music, teamed up with a Jazz ensemble in the 1960's to make a fine hybrid of the two styles. So relax, and have some brain food to help with the verbosity of the last post. 

And here he is, doing some more traditional Persian music. Enjoy!

Thoughts on "The People"

The idea of "The People," as conceived as a longstanding, aware, self identifying social unit, has been with human society since language first rose to prominence as the dominant tool of human cultural and interpersonal communication. While this subject could, and has, been discussed from an endless multitude of ethical, social, moral, historical, linguistic and cultural standpoints, I wish only to bring up some quotes from my recent reading.

First, Oswald Spengler from Decline of the West:

Concerning "higher and primitive" cultures: 

"In all primitive existence the "it," the Cosmic, is at work with such immediacy of force that all microcosmic utterances...obey only the pressures of the very instant.... But with the type of higher Culture this "it" gives way to a strong and undiffused tendency.Within the primitive Culture, tribes and clans were the only quickened beings....(In higher cultures), the Culture itself is such a being."

Here, the "it" can refer to anything really. The family and society, certain important objects, places or people, and even the cosmos itself. For Spengler, "primitive" culture is hallmarked by a lack of long term, "historical" in his terms, continuity beyond a few generations of related people with their own deities, culture and language. While modern studies raise a number of points of contention here, Spengler's point remains valid when compared with so named "higher" cultures. The institutions, buildings, languages and cultures of Rome, Persia, China and Ethiopia can all still be felt in the modern world, even if they are now ruined, changed or blended with subsequent influences. The deep, multi-layered spirituality of the Hopi, Dani, Sami-Lapps and the Chumash are only remembered because they made contact with historical peoples, who then recorded them as they were found. Before these tribal, clan and perhaps even kingship names were recorded, there exists nothing as far as history can be concerned beyond trash heaps and the remains of material items.

 Concerning "Historical" man: 

"...destiny must lie either in the zoological or in the world-historical field. "Historical" man...is the man of a Culture that is in full march towards self-fulfillment. Before this, after this, outside this, man is historyless."

The idea and concept of cultural fulfillment are a long running theme through out the book, so I will leave the reader to explore that on their own, or perhaps for another entry. I will simply say that, for Spengler, a culture only lives and flourishes so long as it works towards its cultural ultimate expression in ever way possible, and that after this is achieved, it starts to become static and perhaps even die, if over the course of centuries where it still appears to flourish.

And on the "People" themselves: 

"For me, the "people" is a unit of the soul. The great events of history were not really achieved by peoples, they themselves created the peoples. Every act alters the soul of the doer.... People are neither linguistic nor political nor zoological, but spiritual, units. And this leads at once to the futher distinction between peoples before, within and after a culture." 

For Spengler, the souls of some set or group of humanity are altered by the forces of history, landscape and culture that then mold them into a new people, a new entity on the historical stage. Indeed, the idea of history as a force is a major feature of Spengler's thought.

Now let us switch gears from Spengler's wide conservative, continental, far reaching historical, spiritual and metaphysical concepts to that of Walter Lippmann, a far more practical, politically minded American journalist.

Lippmann, writing in The Public Philosophy brings a more political view:

On "the People" as historic or political: "When we speak of popular sovereignty, we must know whether we are talking about The People, as voters, or about The People, as a community of the entire living population, with their predecessors and successors." 

Lippman later goes on to examine how "the men who rise up against freedom" come to be, and how the modern situation of isolation and removal from cultural and historical social sources of identity creates a new type of people, the so called "lonely crowd."

"...the modern man who find in freedom from the constraints of the ancestral order an intolerable loss of guidance and of support. They are the men who rise up against freedom, unable to cope with the insoluble difficulties and unable to endure the denial of communion in public and common truths."

For Lippman, the establishment or renewal of the "Public Philosophy," a subject that is itself beyond the scope of this article, and the means of its transmission, acculturation and permeation of public and private life are the hall marks of "the People" via his political outlook.


So here we have two differing, but not exactly opposed, conceptions of what "the People" means from two very different viewpoints. Lippmann would argue, from his modern, democratic, liberal view, that a people is made, maintained and served by their adherence to a public philosophy that serves to drive social participation, responsibility and consciousness. This is a very active, participatory conception as opposed to Spengler's notion of an identity and form imposed by outside events. For him, the spiritual aspects of the people and the culture determine all other facets, from language to art to science.

While both take diverging stances and approach the problem of the public, culture and "the People" from alternate stances, both., upon further reading, are essentially conservative in their response. The people must be exclusive, defined and limited both socially, historically and spiritually, and there is always a risk of cultural degradation, dissolution and reformation. For Spengler, it is the result of outside influence, divergence from the culture's true spiritual aim, or from an invisible cultural death in the form of civilization, fixed forms and decadence. For Lippmann, on the other hand, it is the weakening of public notion, awareness and action concerning itself, possible only in the liberal democracies of the West, that leads towards social apathy, isolation and then ultimately reactionary backlash in the form of "counter-revolution," Fascism and Totalitarianism.

Thank you for reading, and sorry for the great delay in posting! More pretty pictures and videos to follow.

From the High Plateaus

While navigating through a few documentaries on Youtube, I found this little gem about Tibetan Buddhism. It's lengthy, but well done and very informative about the topic, with a number of great interviews, including with The Dalai Lama!

I'll just let this one speak for itself, but do expect some commentary on various facets of so called "Eastern Religion" as compared to other belief and spiritual systems. Tantra, Meditation, Seidhr and Utsitr will soon follow!

Hael Walpurgis!

I want to wish my readers a mighty and glorious Walpurgisnacht! May your flight to the Sabbath be a fantastical and swift one!

More music!

Building on the last post, here are a few projects, bands or tracks that I've been greatly enjoying of late and have some connection to Stockhausen's music. Well, maybe only some of these tracks are relevant to Stockhausen, but they rock none the less! 

First up, a relatively recent discovery of mine: Æthenor

With members or Ulver, Sunn O))) and others, I knew this was going to be great from the moment I saw the vibrant blue cover of their album En Form For Blå. Though, I really didn't know what to expect at all. I was pleased from the moment the needle hit the white vinyl. Here, enjoy some live footage and hear for yourself!

Up next, a longstanding favorite: Ulver

I've been a fan of this band and their many evolutions since hearing their first album, Bergtatt. From Black Metal to Electronica and Jazz to Experimental Industrial and finally to whatever you would call them now, this band has kept its fans guessing, and pleasantly surprised. Enjoy a few tracks from their corpus!

Finally, I'll leave you with something from one of my favorite Soviet composers: Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich

Whether conjuring scenes of Cossacks riding over the Steppe or writing music for more formal occasion, Shostakovich is a powerful and gifted composer. I'll just let the music speak for him on this one!

Stockhausen on sound

One of the great names in experimental music, Karlheinz Stockhausen's influence on today's music culture is both deep and far reaching. My introduction to Stockhausen actually came in the form of some old Ulver and Arcturus tracks where samples were taken from Stockhausen's Kontakte. Years later, on my travels around Germany, I got to catch a short film about the composer and his work in Leipzig. Since then, I've come to hear more and more of Stockhausen's, along with others, influence in popular genres such as Industrial, Rock, Electronic and Experimental music.

While his works certainly aren't for everyone, his influence is undeniable. So, enjoy the words of the man himself!

Impressions II

Please, dear viewer, forgive my silence over the past week and a half! Life took me on a short detour, but thankfully I got some cool pictures out of it! Enjoy, and take comfort in knowing more verbose content is to follow!

Want to keep more up to date? Follow me on Instagram @attila_the_fun

Žižek on Ideology and "the protectors of Europe"

Slavoj Žižek, one of the only Communists that I like, discusses how Ideology affects daily life and is now more important than ever in daily experience. He then goes on to condemn the so called "defenders of Europe," the right wing, anti-immigration milieu gaining power all over Europe, with comments on related movements here in the U.S.

While I encourage you to watch the whole interview, the conversation picks up around 8:30m and 14:00m, respectively.

Next post will return to Perennialism, and my comments on that along with Traditionalism, Monotheism and the spiritual future of the West. Again, thank you for reading!

Impressions

I certainly make no claims towards being even a descent photographer, but rather wish to capture certain impressions or snip-its of my adventures. Perhaps more professional images will be forthcoming, someday.

On the problems of Nature

In truth, that which we feebly call “Nature” is really everything in the known and unknown universe. However, as the human mind is not really capable of fully understanding the complex totality of the numerous and vast systems that comprise the “natural world,” we can only call it all “nature.” But as this word is far too loaded, and far too simple given the immense baggage attached to it, can we not help but concur with Spengler’s notion that the natural is only what we conceive it to be, and the rest is left obscured by the very same term.

Here is one larger of the roots of the modern crisis. For too long we have considered nature as something outside the human sphere, something that exists outside of our cities and towns that lives only in the remotest areas that are “untouched,” or at least apparently less affected, by human influence. However, the ever increasing body of scientific evidence and social experience seems to be consistently disproving this notion. Extremely remote areas, such as polar or glacial ice caps or the deep sea, which are practically uninhabited, are taking the brunt of environmental change, as are the forests, plains and waterways of the world. At the same time, localized agriculture and environmental action in urban areas is on the rise in the developed Western world, reconnecting the most disjointed with natural cycles and rhythms.

And where does human nature fall into all of this? Clearly, we are an animal just like all the rest, but just as clearly we are something far beyond our fellow creatures. So great is our power that some in the scientific community refer to our current epoch as the Anthropocene, the age of the human. This term is easy to confuse as merely meaning that we have achieved full power and influence over the natural world as never before, and while this is certainly true it fails to grasp the full connotation of the term. Instead of our mastery over nature, we have created an economic and social system that is increasingly at odds with natural cycles and processes to ever increasingly dangerous degrees. Yes, humanity has the power to alter and transform the rest of the natural world for our benefit, but in no way are we, or were we ever, outside of or beyond the influence of that which we have named Nature. The harder we try to break free of her, the more we come to realized that her webs grow ever tighter and more restrictive as she adjusts to maintain balance. As our understanding and exploitation of natural resources, cycles, processes and other life forms, our dependence on the natural world actually increases. Resources like oil, Lithium, wood and so forth are finite and require careful management and use. Water, our greatest resource and a crucial building block of life as we understand it, is often the most abused via pollution, waste and mismanagement. In a world that is 80% water on the surface, no one anywhere should have a water problem in our time. It’s merely a distribution problem!

Then again, what would endless water do to the landscape of countries like Iran, Sudan, and Afghanistan? These largely arid, dry regions could be agricultural powerhouses with proper infrastructure, funding and management. This in turn could be a social and economic boon, bringing sustainable, local wealth into these, and other, nations. But, is it worth subjecting more wild landscape to the jaws of agriculture and "progress?" These are the tough questions concerning current environment-society context, where standards of living is largely tied with access to a Western style, consumer based economy. 

Traditionalism

A tricky and often misunderstood school of thought in our contemporary philosophy and society, Traditionalism gives one of my deepest, most cutting and sometimes most troubling critique of our post-modern, spiritually troubled world. Basically, the Traditionalist believes in Perennialism, is somewhat socially conservative, and is against the modern world, materialism and Secular Humanism. Now, a topic this complex, subtle and esoteric was something that I was going to wait to post about, as it requires a lot of citation and quoting. Thankfully, this guy gives a pretty solid introduction.

Thinkers, esotericists, magicians, alchemists, aristocrats, and almost always eccentric, Traditionalist and Perennial thinkers like Frithjof, Guénon, Evola and others form a very serious, solid assault on the perceived empty, material, overly rational and egalitarian soul of the modern world, one they would claim as sick and enfeebled.

Now, I cannot say that I ascribe or give credence to everything in this school of thought. They are all a bit too Monotheist for my liking, and there are numerous questions concerning repressive state behavior, liberty, freedom of the individual and social mobility that would have to be worked out without a resort to violence or a conservative political and social Jacobinism. The potential remarriage of church and state is also troubling, though numerous points presented by various authors speak out against religious morality interfering with the state.

Der Untergang des Abendlandes

I've been slogging through Oswald Spengler's Decline of the West, Oxford University Press 1991, for almost a decade, having picked it up again and again intermittently whenever school work and other activities afforded time. I purchased my copy in Sydney, Australia, of all places, on my way back from the invasion of Iraq, or the opening phases of O.I.F. I flipped through it on the remaining month long boat ride, mind blown by the sweeping scope of history that Spengler worked into clear and connected cycles and phases. Since then, I've made rather slow progress. By the time I left the Marines, I had only read through half of it and without much depth. I was pretty smart then, but I often had nothing to reference Spengler's assertions and connections against, so how could I know if he wasn't just another right wing romantic suffering Nietzsche's depression.

After finishing my degree a few years hence, I decided it was time to conquer the beast and read through it anew. So now, about 7 months on, and I'm just about half way through. This thing is dense, and now armed with deeper perspective, just as much is written between the words as with them. One could mull certain sections of the book, especially Soul-Image and Life Feeling, for a lifetime to ascertain our own true feelings about them. So, I will be discussing this text now and again as the mood strikes. I will also attempt to keep it condensed into brief, food for thought sized posts. This one is already dragging on, and I haven't gotten to anything Spengler actually said.

So while I was reading my morning chapter, I came upon this series of thoughts concerning"Nature Knowledge":

"All Laws formulated in words are derived from experiences, typical of the one-and only the one-Culture."
"Every critical science, like every myth and every religious belief, rests upon an inner certitude.... Any reproach, therefore, leveled by Natural science at Religion is a boomerang. We are presumptuous and no less in supposing that we can ever set up "the Truth" in place of "anthropomorphic" conceptions, for no other conceptions but these exist at all.... The statement that "man created God in his own image," valid for every historical religion, is not less valid for every physical theory, however firm its reputed basis of fact" -Spengler, p.190

Serious business, no? Spengler is a big fan of culturally determined ideals, soul feeling and worldview being the foundation from which all other cultural manifestations spring and are invariably bound to and restricted by. For him, direct cultural extensions from Protestant Christianity and its reformation of man's relation to God, and therefore the state, society and even one's self, and the mechanical views of space, physics and nature that were emerging with Newton's influence on Enlightenment philosophers combined to create the modern attitude towards both the profane and sacred realms. An individualized, liberal in the classic sense and  mechanized view of religion, science, nature and humanity paved the way for Industrialism, Socialism and the situation in 20th century Europe.

While religion, like much of Spengler's argument and subject matter, deals with the subjective, mystical, and the intuitive, science is verifiable and can be expressed in a manner somewhat independent of other forms of cultural expression. Mathematics, which was one of Spengler's specialties, is a universal language that exists and extends beyond other non verbal communications such as art, the image and music. However, it remains purely a human contrivance. Mathematics are systems of numbers, themselves cultural concepts, that are arranged and utilized according to culturally derived standards. Math doesn't exist in the "natural" world, just as gravity doesn't exist there either. Both are human concepts that are applied to the surrounding world in order to explain it, and do nothing more than describe things or actions of things. The same goes with religious feeling, though it often deals with the wholly intangible and is now separated from the mechanics and processes of daily life. Today, we prefer physics, math and science to animism, god's will and spiritualism.

This post is already getting over lengthy, so I'll leave you with this to gnaw on. More Spengler will surely come along, and I'll no doubt be going back to discuss things earlier in text as well. Next post will have some pretty pictures, I promise.

Selection from the stacks

I have a love of books that borders obsession, no doubt fostered by my grandparents tendency to collect them from garage sales and other second hand sources. Mom would read titles such as Conan The Barbarian and Lord of the Rings to my brother and I, and my personal interest in reading blossomed in high school.

Since then I've taken an interest in everything from science fiction and fantasy to metaphysics and history. Academic life also provides its own corpus of reading, often augmenting or expanding on personal interests. My backlog of books to be read always seems to grow faster than I can read them. At least they make me look smart, sitting in stacks or piled on the shelf. 

In our current situation regarding information, that of total and unfettered access, the role of the book in not only transmitting information but maintaining and safeguarding it is often neglected. In the context of the internet and computing, information is readily available and easy to organize, analyze and present to a mass audience. 

Blogs such as this one, and ones that actually matter, serve as tools of discourse, information dissemination and as agents of real world action and change. Anyone with access to the internet has access to, generally speaking, everything recorded through out human history. At no other time has humanity been so keenly aware of itself and our myriad of global, national, regional and local identities. They dynamic character of information and communication in the digital era provides us with many new tools, many of which are hardly fully realized or even fully understood. 

The printed word, on the other hand, is a source of stability and permanence when compared with the fluctuating, dynamic internet. Where as web pages, blogs and text on the web comes, goes, gets edited or rewritten by someone else, the printed word says what it says for as long as the medium lasts. The tactile satisfaction of reading physical media is backed by the security of knowing that the text will always remain the same, easy to reference and revisit. 

So in the interests of sharing knowledge and a good read, not to mention generating content, I'm going to be posting information about what I'm reading, context and history of the text and author and any related information of interest. Stay tuned!

Introductions.

If you are reading this, it likely means that you already know me in some capacity or another. This gives me some leeway with introductions and laying a groundwork of understanding, or at least it may.

This blog is to serve as a clearing house for my personal ideas, conceptualizations, media interests to include music and video, as well as musings on current and bygone events. I predict that the initial offerings may be a bit random and seemingly disparate, but I hope to capture some sort of fluidity and grasp of central themes and concepts as the corpus builds.

Looking forward, I will be posting images and anecdotes about my travels, thoughts and reviews of music I'm currently in favor of, and much more! Stay tuned!