Art,

art education

piano playing, music...

could be, of course, toys of the establishment

belonging to the elites, the upper class, the upper middle class...

and their children

But

shouldn't they rather be

the language of the angels and the sheperds,

the sighs of the suffering and agonizing souls

and the way lovers exchange their unspeakable sentiments?

Then how come

Music has become the key to the gate of the rich

As a kindergarten kid was asked to play the piano

just to show the principal he was classy (or cultured?) enough

to gain entrance to his prestigious school.

But the world has always been like that

Just as the medieval catholics had to buy indulgences to have their sins forgiven

Music

good education

and other ethereal things

are likewise commodified

so everyone who has a penny

can easily buy their way to heaven

and through this buying and selling

the joy of music and much fine art is killed

and once the essence being killed

the commodity becomes the real thing

and as the buyer purchases it taking it for real

he himself becomes reified and turned into a dead object.

(A response to the picture printed on Ming Pao 3/6/2001 showing the kid playing, his father urging him on and the mother smiling at the principal listening and looking on)

(A thinking picked up from Baudrillard)