Haverstick and truth

Great conversation.
There is a danger I feel in looking for immutable laws (i.e. security). It
is the Borg (a beautiful analogy that is used in the most recent Star Trek
movie). The Borg I feel represents the Western trend to define reality
objectively but it goes to such an extreme that the Borg is unaware of how
ugly it truly has become. The American phenomenon is the best example of
this I can think of . Here in America, many feel it is their duty to spread
the American
lifestyle to rest of the world "for the rest of world's own good." This is
because
many feel that our time saving, free and just democratic society that cures
diseases and allows people the ability to become vapid consumers is good for
the rest o' the world. This is the possible danger when the search for
truth/God, etc. becomes a quest for perfection and then, once perfection
is found, it becomes domination for "other less intelligent people's own
good."
Another possible extreme of truth seeking is the actionless doubter who is
stranded in rational thought (this is what is I see here on the list at
times). The doubter believes that to question knowledege is one of the
highest virtues. He (or she) constructs philosophical/mathematical houses
of cards and blows them over every once in a while. Eventually despair
sets in since it seems there is no point in anything since anything
created will eventually be destroyed. (I have seen this abyss one too many
times in my life). This abyss is probably skirted by those who search for the
"ultimate math" or the "ultimate musical scale(s)." I feel that this is
the danger of extreme mentalism where all reality is filtered through
reason and then eventually discared for one reason or another. I feel that
it is because of these tendencies to go the extremes of rationalism
(i.e. the scientific method) that modernity has lost it's connection to
the spirituality of life itself. We have traded the influx of beauty and
meaning inherent in nature for a cheap intellectual model. A model that is
very useful (but as with anything) dangerous when it is used to the
extreme of describing everything else in its own image.
Currently, I believe that truth is all around us. Always has been, always
will be. The problem I constantly face is trying to turn off my own mental
static so that I can let spirituality flow in (especially when composing).
(The first part of this essay was more about mental static and insecurity than
about the search for truth. I feel the most important first step is to ask
"Why am I searching for Truth in the first place.")The 12TET is the current
Borg of Western music and I have no desire to create new ones. I see scales
as a tool to express myself. The more freedom to choose, the better the
expression. Another eastern idea that helps me is to see us all as part of
each other's dream. Most will say that if I open a fortune cookie in a
dream, the fortune has significance and is rooted somewhere in my psyche,
but if I open a fortune cookie in waking reality, many would feel that the
fortune has no significance and is random. To me the fortune cookie in
waking reality has just as much significance as the fortune cookie in the
dream. To many mystics of earlier epochs in human history, the dividing
line between dream and waking "reality" was not so much of a brick wall.

Perhaps the true scale of music is sung birds right outside our windows.




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John Pusey asked:

> Speaking of CDs, whatever happened to "19 for the 90s"?

Last I heard from Brian McLaren on the topic, he was having equipment
problems, and was also somewhat pessimistic about the project, largely for
not having sold all 1000 of the Ivor Darreg CD. So it would not surprise
me if he's not going to go through with it, but I don't know that for sure.


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