John Myles White: Die Sudelbücher

The only question we really ever need to ask ourselves is, “will this thought, this action, this word make the world better or worse?”

As one’s skill in an art improves, one’s perceptions in that art become like a grid against which all the objects of the art are displayed — as if the painter saw every image as if against graph paper, with distances so precisely known and so clearly incorrect or correct. Just so do I hear sounds and all music — as against the grids of the well-tempered tuning system and the metronome’s perfect rhythm.

How extraordinary to consider how different our very perceptions become with time.

Reading McLuhan’s Understanding Media opens up for each reader a new vein of thought, but it is, in the end, a small vein that seems more important than it really is at first because of its novelty.

Laws against libel seem amongst the most absurd laws imaginable and the least respectful of human beings’ right to fight with whomever they please in whatever words they choose.

In Spain, the sun shines bright even when it is cold out. This provides a clue, I think, to understanding Unamuno’s philosophy — and his character, which he would be quick to remind us is effectively the same thing.

Does music in major scales sound so often clumsy to others? Do the primary harmonies of major third, fifth and octave being used incessantly sound to others as to they do to me — like the sound of a giant trying to play the violin with enormous hands that are incapable of nuance?

Major music sounds generally dimwitted to me. That is my bias.

As I get older, I become more convinced of one thing: the quality of a band is solely determined by the quality of each of the individual members. The amount of time the group has existed has little to do with the quality of the band’s performances. A band with skilled members can record a better record with each member playing to only the metronome and never hearing anyone else than a band with unskilled members can record playing to each other.

In truth, most of the time playing to another member is catering to that other member’s mistakes. Few musicians, if any, in rock music raise to a point at which listening to the other members could be a means of imitating fine nunaces. Why? We simply don’t have almost any players at a level at which fine nuance is an issue. I can name all of the drummers in popular bands with nuanced playing in five minutes — if not in thirty seconds.

Or perhaps simply consider that in an orchestra the majority of members never listen to the other members at all and only to the conductor. Coincidence?

Should I emphasize how relevant I feel all of this is for any theories about building better societies? A band is the ultimate image of a society — involving nearly as much intimacy as a marriage and vastly more responsibility on each individual member. In addition, because there are more than two members, there are problems of subdivisions of loyalties and the consequent shifting of subloyalties at all times is present, which is one of the major causes of unrest in all societies.

So in our microcosm society we see that the interactions of the society are actually far less important than the quality of the members.

Should we take this as a suggestion that the problem with creating utopia has never been, despite all efforts to the contrary, to come up with a better scheme of social organization or laws, but to improve the quality of the human stock itself? That better men placed under worse governments would still live better lives than current men under better governments?

Do you see what I’m getting at? The goals I’m implying? The real aim for humanity should be humanity. Our goals should be entirely set in this world. We can improve ourselves, we can improve the next generation by educating them better — but also by selecting our mates better.

Do you not have purpose now? Do you have even five minutes left in which to be bored? Then you’re not listening. There is so much to do. Too much to do. Our generation, dedicated to this task wholeheartedly, would only see a fraction of what could be achieved. The scope of human potential’s highest registers has not even begun to be explored.

Everything we do wrong, we do wrong out of laziness.

I’m going to start posting videos of shows that I’ve taped as a public service and to bring more traffic to this site.

Ah, the convergence of selfishness and selflessness is beautiful.

We are visually desensitized because of movies and television. Yet this in no way has made us experientially desensitized. More interestingly, it has also not yet made us aurally desensitized either. Words still strike us with great force.

So this is how it feels and it doesn’t feel so good. To know you coldn’t give enough after giving all you could. It’s been raining for so long it’s like the sun will never shine. I’ve been losing for so long, I think I fell too far behind.

My best was never good enough for you.¹

1. E-Town Concrete : Made For War : All That You Have Is Still Not Enough↩