GENIUS FORUMS

what is sad is the amount of energy, money and resources spent covering this guy's dead. The media has become an insane monster in this regard. So much for trying to cut down on unnecessary consumption.

And It is an interesting tendency how most people forget about an artist after they stop making music, but upon their death, they buy up all their music, and become devoted fans. It is a bizarre behavior.

The same thing happened with John Lennon and Johnny Cash. Upon their death, they started making as much money as when they were making catchy music.

Basically, generally speaking, humanity overvalues music, while undervaluing other things. For instance: More people probably know the words to a shallow song like thriller, but if you asked them who invented the light bulb or who founded Taoism, they probably wouldn't know.

Ryan Rudolph wrote:what is sad is the amount of energy, money and resources spent covering this guy's dead. The media has become an insane monster in this regard. So much for trying to cut down on unnecessary consumption.

Cutting down on unnecessary consumption has not been a theme in America since the rationing days of WWII. In fact we are all about unnecessary consumption.

And It is an interesting tendency how most people forget about an artist after they stop making music, but upon their death, they buy up all their music, and become devoted fans. It is a bizarre behavior.

I don't know what is bizarre about memorializing someone you once cared about, which is what most of the buying is about. We are not all sages, remember.

The same thing happened with John Lennon and Johnny Cash. Upon their death, they started making as much money as when they were making catchy music.

Point taken but your examples are poor, as both Lennon and Cash were still making catchy music at the time of their deaths. Lennon, for instance, had just released the great Double Fantasy album.

Basically, generally speaking, humanity overvalues music, while undervaluing other things. For instance: More people probably know the words to a shallow song like thriller, but if you asked them who invented the light bulb or who founded Taoism, they probably wouldn't know.

A lot of value judgment there. I'm not sure any of those things are particularly important, relatively or compared to each other -- the words to "Thriller", the inventor of the bulb, and the name of the founder.

Carl G wrote:Cutting down on unnecessary consumption has not been a theme in America since the rationing days of WWII.

very short youtube clip supporting this fact

Carl G wrote:In fact we are all about unnecessary consumption.

There is a much longer, but well worth every minute, movie supporting this. It used to be viewable on the home page of the following link, but it isn't working for me this morning - so I'm linking the download page.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/downloads.html

Ryan needs a pass-port. datum: "not ours, not ours, ours."

If stupid, wasteful, ignorant humanity were as smart as us, it would put an almost unreal pressure on us to be even smarter and more aware than we already are. If all of a sudden the whole world turned into sages, they'd all be pointing at us and whispering as we walked by because they'd know what lousy unconscious low-lifes we are. I for one sort of like the way it is now: hordes of quivering buckets of lard, unintelligent grease-fed mongrels scurrying about all around me, taking over the available square-footage, and driving me into the hills for sanctuary. And when I'm up there all calm and serene, I look down toward the lowlands where all those assholes are fornicating and replicating, stuffing cheap burgers into their faces, downloading porn, knifing each other, swilling beer---even as the storms gather, even as the Earth plans Her revenge and the angry seeds are planted in the gathering storm-clouds---and I thank God I'm not one.

[BTW, I was shocked when someone told me Michael Jackson's last words were, "Take me to Children's Hospital".]

Right on, TA!

Oh wait...So does that mean you've relinquished your plans to "destroy Australia." ...or are you a hypocritical, albeit, generally likable, Talking Ass(TM)?

Wait a minute, this is not the BOZO THE CLOWN thread.

No it isn't. This is the BOZO THE CLOWN thread, and I am hurt that this juicy debate is not occurring on it.

Carmel, since Australia surrendered Dan Rowden to Yahway unanimously, Australia shalt not be smited by the angry, irrational one. True, I am likable, up to a point, but when it comes to contempt for hoi polloi, there is no limit to my ire.

And speaking of looking down, in ire or sympathy or indifference, on suffering, confused humanity below, have you ever read Lucretius? I wonder if our own sages have?

Second Chapter of De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)

'Tis sweet, when, down the mighty main, the winds
Roll up its waste of waters, from the land
To watch another's labouring anguish far,
Not that we joyously delight that man
Should thus be smitten, but because 'tis sweet
To mark what evils we ourselves be spared;
'Tis sweet, again, to view the mighty strife
Of armies embattled yonder o'er the plains,
Ourselves no sharers in the peril; but naught
There is more goodly than to hold the high
Serene plateaus, well fortressed by the wise,
Whence thou may'st look below on other men
And see them ev'rywhere wand'ring, all dispersed
In their lone seeking for the road of life;
Rivals in genius, or emulous in rank,
Pressing through days and nights with hugest toil
For summits of power and mastery of the world.
O wretched minds of men! O blinded hearts!
In how great perils, in what darks of life
Are spent the human years, however brief!--
O not to see that nature for herself
Barks after nothing, save that pain keep off,
Disjoined from the body, and that mind enjoy
Delightsome feeling, far from care and fear!
Therefore we see that our corporeal life
Needs little, altogether, and only such
As takes the pain away, and can besides
Strew underneath some number of delights.
More grateful 'tis at times (for nature craves
No artifice nor luxury), if forsooth
There be no golden images of boys
Along the halls, with right hands holding out
The lamps ablaze, the lights for evening feasts,
And if the house doth glitter not with gold
Nor gleam with silver, and to the lyre resound
No fretted and gilded ceilings overhead,
Yet still to lounge with friends in the soft grass
Beside a river of water, underneath
A big tree's boughs, and merrily to refresh
Our frames, with no vast outlay--most of all
If the weather is laughing and the times of the year
Besprinkle the green of the grass around with flowers.
Nor yet the quicker will hot fevers go,
If on a pictured tapestry thou toss,
Or purple robe, than if 'tis thine to lie
Upon the poor man's bedding. Wherefore, since
Treasure, nor rank, nor glory of a reign
Avail us naught for this our body, thus
Reckon them likewise nothing for the mind:
Save then perchance, when thou beholdest forth
Thy legions swarming round the Field of Mars,
Rousing a mimic warfare--either side
Strengthened with large auxiliaries and horse,
Alike equipped with arms, alike inspired;
Or save when also thou beholdest forth
Thy fleets to swarm, deploying down the sea:
For then, by such bright circumstance abashed,
Religion pales and flees thy mind; O then
The fears of death leave heart so free of care.
But if we note how all this pomp at last
Is but a drollery and a mocking sport,
And of a truth man's dread, with cares at heels,
Dreads not these sounds of arms, these savage swords
But among kings and lords of all the world
Mingles undaunted, nor is overawed
By gleam of gold nor by the splendour bright
Of purple robe, canst thou then doubt that this
Is aught, but power of thinking?--when, besides
The whole of life but labours in the dark.
For just as children tremble and fear all
In the viewless dark, so even we at times
Dread in the light so many things that be
No whit more fearsome than what children feign,
Shuddering, will be upon them in the dark.
This terror then, this darkness of the mind,
Not sunrise with its flaring spokes of light,
Nor glittering arrows of morning can disperse,
But only nature's aspect and her law.

Carl,

A lot of value judgment there. I'm not sure any of those things are particularly important, relatively or compared to each other -- the words to "Thriller", the inventor of the bulb, and the name of the founder.

One cannot be sane without value judgments. And yes, I believe it is more important to understand things like Taoism and Science compared to Michael Jackson's music.

The problem with people is that their value judgments are petty, self-centered and very narrow in scope. They value things like Music, money, alcohol, etc.. and when they are not subsumed in those pleasurable things, they are bored, filled with emotion and empty. A man must make better value judgments if he is to find clarity of mind.

You speak of value judgments as if they are the enemy, but they are the source of ones salvation. The first step is making a value judgement, and the last step is psychological liberation...

You did not say "understand Taoism and Science." You said "know who invented the light bulb or who founded Taoism," which is quite different. I was urging you and do urge you, as I often do, to be more clear in your writing, ergo your thinking.

Talking Ass wrote:[BTW, I was shocked when someone told me Michael Jackson's last words were, "Take me to Children's Hospital".]

That's not what I heard. I was told his last words were to his own heart, supposedly "just beat it, beat it".