A singer is appreciated by non-singers (people). What is the credibility of that appreciation and the singer …? People had certain expectations (or desire for stimulation) and I live up to those expectations (that’s why they like me), aren’t we the two sides of the same coin …? (Video 35). And if we are the same, then what is there to admire …? Interior design of a house (/attractive advertisements and packaging of shampoo, the way we feel when we visit a religious place, the way they feel about certain music or sport, fashion, ….) is also based on satisfaction of Ego (/sensation). Outside structure is a reaction to the inside desire (/craving for sensations). We all share the same biological and similar social conditioning. There is no wonder in things, if they are admired by a large number of people. Entire human species cherish sexual experience, but that doesn’t make it different/special/right. We are wired for it. Almost all cats like to eat fish, that doesn’t mean the fish is special/great. Dogs can hear ultrasonic whistles (which are inaudible to humans) that don’t make ultrasonic whistles mysterious/special (Video 224). All pigs love mud, that doesn’t make mud special. They are biologically conditioned for it. We have to learn to notice our own mud (Video 204).
Some things we feed to our body, other things we feed to our ego/sensation/hormones. Just because we all share a certain sensation that doesn’t make that sensation meaningful (Video 131). Is there really a difference between ‘music’ and ‘ice cream’ …?
We are programmed for those sensations. People from different age groups, geography, language like different kinds of music. If the things itself had any intrinsic value, then everyone would feel the same irrespective of the differences ((Video 95) or parents and children like different kinds of music (Video 319)). Sensation lies inside us, not in the things outside. Values that are not there, are always prone to be lost ((Video 303) – Do the value exist in things or do we put it in them …?).
Things that do have intrinsic value, don’t change with timeline and places (Gravity is a fact, it doesn’t change from person to person. OR a high power electric shock does not differentiate between timeline, place & gender).
Just because things are presented in (so-called) harmonious ways does not necessarily make them special or right (Video 83). (It has always been impossible for us to doubt things that we consider ‘Good’). Also, (Video 35), if we are wrong, how can our admiration of music (or anything) be right …? A song which was famous 5yrs ago is forgotten today. Why …?
Even if there is something special to music (or precious gemstones), it still does not have the ability to solve the conflicts of human society (the way our life is, it clearly doesn’t). Specialness of music is like an ‘Appendix’ (a vestigial human body organ). It is there, but not very useful. We will be completely fine without its existence. Presence of music, though beautiful from the perspective of the ego, is of not much relevance (it doesn’t reduce kids’ distress in school, nor does it make chemistry/mathematics easy for them, adults’ distress at the workplace, randomness of nature, wars, distress in relations, feeling of emptiness, inflation, recession, ….). For the most part, it acts as a distraction.
That doesn’t necessarily mean we shouldn’t listen to music or songs, but there is no reason to look for greatness where there isn’t one.
— The ones who understand themselves might drink, but won’t be drunk —
[ “The way to despise the pleasure of a fine song, a well-performed dance, or the athletic exercises (Video 172), is as follows : as for the song, take the music in pieces and examine the notes by themselves, and ask as you go along, ” Is it this or this single sound, that has subdued me ? ” You will be ashamed to confess the conquest.”
– from MEDITATIONS by Marcus Aurelius (a Roman emperor and philosopher 121AD – 180AD) ]
Someone knows how to write a computer code, someone else paints, someone knows what ‘y = mx + c’ is, someone sings, some knows how to build diodes & microchips, some can repair vehicles (mechanics) and others know how to feed a baby and put it to sleep. What’s easy for one is difficult for another. These things may have some physical differences, but they don’t make anyone special (Video 183b), (Video 248), (Video 261), ((Video 180) – If being a mother makes someone great, then why does one mother dislike another). Does being a musician make someone great …?
Singing/ sports (art or any other technical or non-technical skill) is more important to the artist himself and less important to the ones who observe them. But we use irrational ‘common experience’ to judge whether something is admirable or not. One’s (a person (Hitler/Gandhi), material/non-material things, ….) fame, success or power is another’s blindness or lack of awareness.
What does fame depend on …? Is it the actual intrinsic value of a certain action / skill set (Video 10) or is it the reaction of people who admire it …? (Video 215a), (Video 215b) (as we shall see ahead in detail).
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