Bob Rafelson’s 1970 film Five Easy Pieces shows us how Bobby Dupea turned away from a promising career as a concert pianist to live life as an itinerant labourer. This is reflective of the experience of many children who take music lessons, where the emphasis on technical proficiency and memorization often leave little room for improvisation and imagination. Shinichi Suzuki’s method, which is now taught to 250,000 students in 74 countries, emphasises practice over anything else, beginning with “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and ending with Mozart’s Violin Concerto no. 4 in D Major. Read full article here
Culture
The Priest in the Arena
The phrase “man in the arena” has been popularized in recent years, but a lesser known, more dangerous archetype is the “priest in the arena”. This figure is responsible for a process called theocratic capture, where an institution surrenders to a cult demanding unaccountable authority, fueled by claims to privileged knowledge. These cults often target powerful institutions and attempt to monopolize conversations with scaremongering tactics and hostile treatment of allies. It is important to identify and stop theocratic capture before it can gain control. Read full article here
Merv
May 29, 2023
