(The Prince of Wales Theatre, 4 July 2017)
Two sets of beliefs co-exist: science and religion. Science organises knowledge. Science’s political instantiation is democracy. Religion makes statements about that which cannot be verified from experience. Religious beliefs help cope with whatever cannot be controlled. Religious beliefs also help affect individual behaviour by postulating non-verifiable threats and inducements at a sufficient distance from common experience. Religion’s political instantiation is church, an authoritarian state. A well-designed religion promotes the beliefs that favour desirable social outcomes. As any authoritarian regime, however, centralised religion is liable to be closed to change and vulnerable to being hijacked by a malevolent leader.
"The Book of Mormon" is about the power of creating and sharing one’s own narrative and about distilling dreams into a collection of principles, not a particular instantiation of these principles. A good story is not necessarily a true story but rather a story that resonates, gives hope, and leads to socially better outcomes. Of course, an untrue story should be universally recognised as a metaphor. Art and some branches of mathematics deal in such metaphors. (Good art and mathematics are true in the sense that they are internally consistent but may not be true in the sense that they need not correspond simply to observed phenomena.)
Religion designed right is art.
There is no virtue in being boring when it costs the same to be unique. Seduced by the exclusivity of the experience, theatre audiences can handle uniqueness. In the wild, the exercise of uniqueness is an effective sorting device for identifying friends and fellow travellers and is the only way to bet on finding one's niche.
“The Book of Mormon” is subtle and intense. The intensity stems from the show's occasional directness, from Cody Jamison Strand's owning his part, and from the musical format, which has been perfected over decades to fuse acting, singing, dancing, and a notch of surrealist madness into an efficient universal language. The ephemerality of the art form renders the artwork immortal.
6 July 2017
11 June 2017
Andy Warhol. Dark Star
(Museo Jumex, 10 June 2017)
The comfort of the abundance of commodities is the service that well-functioning economies provide. This service is not limited to the provision of physical goods. The public utilities in charge of news and entertainment, too, deal in commodities. One can pick a celebrity, pick an angle from which one would like to see this celebrity presented, and then consume the desired product in an unlimited quantity. This consumption nourishes but does not graduate to a relationship.
One may additionally seek relationships in order to become a part of a narrative and to learn to turn from a consumer into a producer, thereby opening oneself to new sources of joy.
The comfort of the abundance of commodities is the service that well-functioning economies provide. This service is not limited to the provision of physical goods. The public utilities in charge of news and entertainment, too, deal in commodities. One can pick a celebrity, pick an angle from which one would like to see this celebrity presented, and then consume the desired product in an unlimited quantity. This consumption nourishes but does not graduate to a relationship.
One may additionally seek relationships in order to become a part of a narrative and to learn to turn from a consumer into a producer, thereby opening oneself to new sources of joy.
26 January 2017
"The Americans" (2013–2014, seasons 1–2)
The series is about sex, love, family, and vocation---in no particular order. Season 1 is structured as a perfect textbook. There is a context for each episode, so that it can be watched separately, at least in principle. But there is also a theme, a plot line, that runs through. Season 2, confident in its ability to keep the attention of the audience, is a single, extended story.
The show does not require its protagonists do stupid things to get themselves into interesting situations. Instead, the plot presents the characters with situations in which morally correct behaviour is not apparent and consumer-grade morality is inapplicable. All characters are intelligent, mature.
The show correctly captures the signature of a foreigner: someone who has had an opportunity to question and redefine the social norms and graces, someone who has reduced Americanness to its essence.
By contrast to movies, the series has no worldwide distribution. Hence, there is no pressure to win foreign markets with technological gimmicks and short snappy conversations. There is no misconception that the story must be brought down to the lowest common denominator to appeal broadly.
Episode "Only You" captures something ineffable in Gregory's desire to die in the streets of an American city. The romanticism of a ten-minute walk through the---for the occasion---San-Francisco-exuding streets of D.C. is worth a lifetime in Moscow, for him.
The show does not require its protagonists do stupid things to get themselves into interesting situations. Instead, the plot presents the characters with situations in which morally correct behaviour is not apparent and consumer-grade morality is inapplicable. All characters are intelligent, mature.
The show correctly captures the signature of a foreigner: someone who has had an opportunity to question and redefine the social norms and graces, someone who has reduced Americanness to its essence.
By contrast to movies, the series has no worldwide distribution. Hence, there is no pressure to win foreign markets with technological gimmicks and short snappy conversations. There is no misconception that the story must be brought down to the lowest common denominator to appeal broadly.
Episode "Only You" captures something ineffable in Gregory's desire to die in the streets of an American city. The romanticism of a ten-minute walk through the---for the occasion---San-Francisco-exuding streets of D.C. is worth a lifetime in Moscow, for him.
23 January 2017
"La La Land" (2016)
"We are all visitors here," said Hugo H.
"Everything passes," said Maricela N.
"Now, you can't live your life like that..." said Woody A.
All passionate to be and to create and, in that, all citizens of the world that has grown out of the Republic of Letters, and that has been taking refuge anywhere they would dance to jazz and beauty is not legislated.
"La La Land" comes from that world. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling can neither sing nor dance. But the film is not about singing or dancing. It is about living, which is singing and dancing, and playing, and wagering, and daring, and hiding, and winning and losing, but never looking back for too long. Stone and Gosling can do that.
The musical does not attempt to resuscitate the Musical. Instead, "La La Land" aims at inventing the musical. It is a litmus test of the past seventy-eighty years of the civilisation. If progress has been made, the invention would differ from, and, in some ways, surpass, the original. It is a better world now indeed.
One should not mourn the world that could have been, for that is the world that has made the world that is here today possible.
"Everything passes," said Maricela N.
"Now, you can't live your life like that..." said Woody A.
All passionate to be and to create and, in that, all citizens of the world that has grown out of the Republic of Letters, and that has been taking refuge anywhere they would dance to jazz and beauty is not legislated.
"La La Land" comes from that world. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling can neither sing nor dance. But the film is not about singing or dancing. It is about living, which is singing and dancing, and playing, and wagering, and daring, and hiding, and winning and losing, but never looking back for too long. Stone and Gosling can do that.
The musical does not attempt to resuscitate the Musical. Instead, "La La Land" aims at inventing the musical. It is a litmus test of the past seventy-eighty years of the civilisation. If progress has been made, the invention would differ from, and, in some ways, surpass, the original. It is a better world now indeed.
One should not mourn the world that could have been, for that is the world that has made the world that is here today possible.
14 December 2016
"Against Democracy" by Jason Brennan (2016)
Except for one chapter on epistocracy, the book addresses an army of straw men. These straw men are placed to teach informal political theory at elite universities. They preach democracy, but apparently not because democracy leads to better outcomes than alternative arrangements. By contrast, the book maintains that democracy is only as good as the outcomes it generates. Duh!
Brennan argues that, perhaps, epistocracy should be given a chance. Perhaps. To some extent, we already have a version of epistocracy. Voters do not directly decide on most policies. (When they do---for instance, in referenda---they often err badly.) The sophisticated individuals lobby, advertise, lie, and argue, thereby hijacking the votes of the less sophisticated.
Successful democracies are delicate systems. No one understands why they succeed, although many can provide a plausible rationalisation for why they might. Brennan has the right instinct: progress not by revolution, but by incremental intelligent design, trial and error.
Brennan argues that, perhaps, epistocracy should be given a chance. Perhaps. To some extent, we already have a version of epistocracy. Voters do not directly decide on most policies. (When they do---for instance, in referenda---they often err badly.) The sophisticated individuals lobby, advertise, lie, and argue, thereby hijacking the votes of the less sophisticated.
Successful democracies are delicate systems. No one understands why they succeed, although many can provide a plausible rationalisation for why they might. Brennan has the right instinct: progress not by revolution, but by incremental intelligent design, trial and error.
8 December 2016
"The Arrival" (2016)
Linguistic Relativity holds that a language affects the speaker’s worldview or cognition in nontrivial ways. The hypothesis is naive when applied to common languages. There is just not enough variation between the vernacular languages to inculcate individuals to substantially different ways of thinking.
Mathematics and economics are the languages that are sufficiently different from the vernacular, however, to shape reasoning in a distinctive manner. Mathematics makes one act as if arguments are won by persuasion, not by charisma. Economics puts one into the habit of identifying positive-sum games and turns one into a consequentialist.
The best gift of language one can receive are the languages of economics and, by implication, mathematics (which is the hardware on which economics runs). In 1940, Hardy praised pure maths for being useless and, therefore, harmless. We have moved some way forward since then. We have a language that is better than harmless: it is useful in opening up the opportunities to cooperate and in enabling one to think through cooperative strategies.
Mathematics and economics are the languages that are sufficiently different from the vernacular, however, to shape reasoning in a distinctive manner. Mathematics makes one act as if arguments are won by persuasion, not by charisma. Economics puts one into the habit of identifying positive-sum games and turns one into a consequentialist.
The best gift of language one can receive are the languages of economics and, by implication, mathematics (which is the hardware on which economics runs). In 1940, Hardy praised pure maths for being useless and, therefore, harmless. We have moved some way forward since then. We have a language that is better than harmless: it is useful in opening up the opportunities to cooperate and in enabling one to think through cooperative strategies.
Snowbound Blues
(Rochester, 2--4 March, 2016)
Competition extinguishes the supply of mediocrity and, with it, through habituation, the demand for mediocrity. Competition depresses the pay. Only the driven and the passionate remain---those musicians who live music and enjoy being alive.
Blues is alive; there is little point in being anything else. The scale seduces. The downbeat uplifts. The rhythm swings. Repetition reassures. The melody is free. The dancers look ahead, invent, for the dance is but a concept waiting to be operationalised.
Competition extinguishes the supply of mediocrity and, with it, through habituation, the demand for mediocrity. Competition depresses the pay. Only the driven and the passionate remain---those musicians who live music and enjoy being alive.
Blues is alive; there is little point in being anything else. The scale seduces. The downbeat uplifts. The rhythm swings. Repetition reassures. The melody is free. The dancers look ahead, invent, for the dance is but a concept waiting to be operationalised.
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