Friday, January 2, 2015

The Atheist Rebellion

There was quite a reaction to What Kind of Atheist Are You as the basic premise was that atheism requires faith also, it's just a different kind.  Toward the end of the article it said physicists will invariably try to bluff you with immense knowledge of the field to demonstrate their knowledge of the relationship between physics and metaphysics but all we get from that is proof the speaker never went to graduate school as there is no relationship between physics and metaphysics except in ghost shows on television.

The reason for referring again to the article is the comments.  There's a long stream of pandered physics commentaries which serve handily to demonstrate the point and you may find that amusing.

For many physics has become the "American Idol" of the almost intellectual set as it's the foundation of the idea the individual is paramount.  There isn't so much an attempt with physics to learn the field and participate in the research but rather to use the principles to demonstrate the lack of predestination and thus increase the appearance of free will in the individual.

We can see what emphasis on the individual does through the effects of what came from "American Idol" in which nothing matters but the singing 'star' and the band that supports her is made up of anonymous musicians who play what they're told to play and then leave.  The consequence of this is album sales have dropped sixty percent in the last ten years on top of previous drops in the years before that and the biggest selling album last year was from (cough) Taylor Swift.

Note:  I got a ruling last night and Taylor Swift is not precisely in the category of schlager musik but there must be some category when she sounds exactly the same as all of the other vapid pop stars of the day.


That extends through to Second Life where the individual performer is important above all things and the geniuses in there copy what's happening in the meat world, apparently not noticing the music business is disintegrating as a result of the endless imitation.  They give that no consideration as they get a little bit of money and the individual, at least a simple one, is always happy behind that.

The positive side of all this is that eventually it may collapse altogether and that may sound bad but anything that breaks the power structures that govern music in the US and Europe will necessarily set music free to become what it has been throughout all of man's history.  One aspect of the ridiculous controls on music is that you can try to watch a video uploaded in Germany and legal in the U.S. but you may still get blocked for copyright restrictions.

(Ed:  so atheists will end up bringing down the music establishment?)

Generally speaking, it looks that way.  Look at the bright side:  One Direction was the lead band for the New Year's Eve show in New York City.  Music doesn't have far to go before it's on the bottom and can start over again.  When a boy band is the lead act, it's already over.  Maybe they could play the Super Bowl too.  That would be good, wouldn't it.

Usually there's a new instrument or process that results in a big change in music and a looper is resoundingly cool but it further pushes the idea of individual stars who do everything so in many ways the effect of a looper is even worse than "American Idol" as now you don't even have a band.  I'm not selling out my own trip but I recognize it for what it is and what it isn't.  It definitely is a solution for me, it definitely is not a solution for music in general.

Music will be back ... as soon as real bands bring it back.

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