What Do We Value?

September 11, 2000

Dear No Name:
What do we value?
Ourselves?
Not any more . . .

Think about what is valued or popular:
McDonalds is America's favorite restaurant.
We elected Bill Clinton, twice.
The television is training us an average of 3 hours a day.
We are the most obese country in the world.

You pour accolades onto Yanni for his accomplishments.
Maybe he's just learned how to ride the crest of media waves.
The media has created a whole new "reality".
Yanni is wonderful, I've heard of him.
Sharon Stone is wonderful, I've heard of her.
Michael Jordan is wonderful; I've heard of him.

I am not wonderful;
I am nobody;
I am not famous.
Nothing in the media makes me feel complete, whole or even adequate.
But, wearing Nike gives me some of Michael's glamour though.
Wait a minute . . .

The 'stars' have value.
I have no value.
I become a little valuable when I buy something.
At least until I see the next commercial.
Hmmm

I think a perspective that several members of this forum share is that there is musical substance, and there is musical fluff, both in performing and composing. I offer that the classical composers, whose music has endured for centuries offer more substance. What is popular, however, is what tastes good. Like candy. Like Yanni.

This is my way of saying thank-you to Kenny for making an enduring contribution to the Piano Forum that was greatly appreciated. There will be other pages on this website that will deal with the issues Kenny raises in this post. After humanity has come this far, attained a superlative technology, a rich cultural heritage, an increasing standard of living, one may look around and like Kenny ask, "is this the best we can do?" McDonards? Bill Clinton? TV? Obesity? Yanni? A never ending stream of "people we have heard of?"

In particular, I am interested in the ubiquitous, popular and unconscious notion that one gains some meaning, some value for oneself by purchasing pieces of someone else's identity. I'm pretty sure that this is a flaw in human character of very ancient origins. In millennia past it was "hob-nobbing with the gods" whether at Delphi, Balbec, Giza or elsewhere. At the present time it is doing things like wearing fashions with someone else's name on them, or perfume designed and worn by someone famous, driving an "in" car, being addicted to various forms of mediocrity. It's called being "well adjusted," socially acceptable, politically correct. And it DOES make one feel more comfortable to "get along," not go against the flow, etc. It also makes one hollow and superficial. It takes courage to go against the stream of conformity and say, "you're all going the wrong way" or telling people that what they think they like is not what they really chose as much as what was chosen for them.

That of course takes real awareness, real thought. Most people are so successfully being "managed" that they are completely unaware of it. Making oneself a unique individual takes a lifetime of personal dedication. It's never too late to start. Just stopping in one's tracks, taking a good look around at oneself, is often enough to start the process whereby one makes oneself something different from the crowd of all those who wear other people's identities.

I admit it was easier for me. I seem to have come into the world with a unique identity all my own onto which it has been pretty hard to paste someone else's. It wasn't as if I didn't want to be just like everyone else either. Oh sure, it would have been easier. But then I wouldn't have decided to put this up for others to see. Maybe I wouldn't have recognized how wonderful Kenny's words were either.

I think that in this season when the United States is about to make some choices about who to lead the nation, who to run the government, etc., no matter how phony all that will be, that we should give some thought to what we as individuals value and begin to work on ourselves.