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417 lines
23 KiB
Markdown
417 lines
23 KiB
Markdown
% Letting Go of Music
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Motivation
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==========
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It feels very unusual and strange, after thinking critically about the
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arguments, assessing the evidence and forming a rational conclusion, to arrive
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at a position that nowadays only two groups share: Christian puritans and the
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Taliban. It makes me very uncomfortable, but I let's give the argument a good
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shot anyway.
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What conclusion am I talking about? *Music is a parasite*, or in practical
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terms, *Music exploits you*. This is a radical statement, so initial skepticism
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is very much understandable. If it comforts you, let me get one thing out of the
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way: I do not object to music out of "spiritual" or "religious" reasons, which,
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unfortunately, seems to be the most common case. Most likely, music does not
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"corrupt your character" or "lead you away from God" or any such nonsense. It is
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also not really an argument for asceticism. No, my main argument comes from
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memetic theory and a cost/benefit analysis. It is, in principle, a very similar
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argument broad forward by atheists against religion. The Four Horsemen of
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Atheism (Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens,
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all truly awesome) have argued very much alike, but against religion. I will
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try to show that their reasoning extends to more fields, one of which is music.
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This is not meant to falsify or parody their position (I in fact agree with it,
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at least partially), but to explore the real ramifications.
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Being sensible never got anyone anywhere. I don't believe much in carefully
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adjusting. Jumping right into a big unknown and then compromising always seemed
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so much more natural to me. If things work out, you are a genius for getting it
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right from the start. If they don't, you can always just deny everything.
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Before I get going, let's clarify 3 things. Firstly, I will build on memetic
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theory, so you will probably need to know what it's about to understand some of
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my reasoning. You may want to read "The Meme Machine" by Susan Blackmore or some
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of Daniel Dennett's recent books, like "Darwin's Dangerous Idea", or at least
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google it. The arguments aren't really very technical, but if you aren't
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familiar with basic evolution or what a meme is, then my points may seem alien
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to you. To understand the perspective of replicators, it will also help greatly
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to read "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins.
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Secondly, let's establish a few terms. I will refer to "not having music" as
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amusicality, analog to "not believing in god(s)" being atheism. This is totally
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different from being tone-deaf, disliking music or the like. To be honest, I'm a
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great fan of music, so this is also not a "disgruntled outsider" kind of
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argument. Furthermore, I take it as a given that music is a highly advanced
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memeplex (i.e. group of memes that support each other), in the same way as
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religion or language, and as such is a replicator and subject to evolution, but
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independent of genes.
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And lastly, why I will bring no argument for amusicality. It might seem odd that
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I only attack arguments for music, but have no strong argument of my own why
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"not having music" is too be favored. This follows the same logic of atheism:
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the one's making the claim are the one's in need of evidence and arguments. The
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Null Hypothesis (i.e. "there is no correlation between A and B" or "A doesn't
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exist" or similar) is the default position of science. We start off with an
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empty set of assumptions and every one we want to add has to be substantiated.
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To successfully defend the skeptic position, I only have to dismantle all the
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evidence proponents show, not actively prove the impossibility of the claim.
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Atheists are used to it in terms of religion: You only show there is no reason
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to believe in god(s), you don't need to show there is any evidence against
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god(s). This is logically evident, as disproving such claims is often impossible
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or simply impractical.
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However, my position isn't exactly that bleak. I actually *can*> make one simple
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argument for "not having music": it eats up your time. Replace any time you
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spend listening to music with something actually beneficial and you are in a
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better position. But even if music were "free" (as in, would use up no
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resources), my position might still be the rational one.
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To be honest, the argument against music isn't entirely unmotivated. (It never
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is.) I became so udderly obsessed with music that I just got sick of it all.
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Comparing codecs, hardware, different players, optimizations, genres, recording
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techniques, musical structure, correct labeling and all this crap, I just got
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tired of it; and when I asked myself why I was doing all this in the first
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place, what music gave me in return... I got nothing. Nothing worth the effort,
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anyway. So it's probably fair to say that I wasn't exactly unbiased.
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So let's go and see all the arguments in favor of music. To be clear, it is rare
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for anyone to defend *all* of them. But they are, as far as I know, all
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proposed seriously and the list is complete. Here we go:
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The Argument from History
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-------------------------
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> Humans have been playing music for, at least, thousands of years and
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> probably millions of years. It is completely natural for us to do so. Evolution
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> has shaped our brain to encourage this.
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This is true, but a fallacy: what *is* can never inform us what *ought* to be.
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Evolution has also made men good at killing and raping, for example. (And also
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enabled us to use language and science, of course.) What has happened in the
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past can inform us, but can not be our sole guide. You must provide actual,
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current benefits.
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The Argument from Social Integrity
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----------------------------------
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> Human society is, among other things, united by music. People engage in
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> collective music, like festivals, camp fires or choirs. They define their own
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> identity through it ("Are you a metalhead, too?"). It is one reason why human
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> society is so stable and productive. Do you want to advocate chaos and
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> anarchy?
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This is probably the strongest general argument in favor of music. It is true
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that music is a very important social "glue" and it might very well be true that
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society as we know it would not function without it. But the same thing can be
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said of religion. There is not a single historical case of a society that got
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from family-sized tribes to city-states without major help from religion. That,
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however, doesn't make any religion particularly true. And even if this were true
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in the past, it doesn't have to be true for the future.
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I'll have to admit that I can not completely disprove this argument. I would not
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advice on any changes to society, like outlawing music, even though I'd love to
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do a proper experiment. But I can point some things out.
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First, there *are* societies without music. The most famous one are the Taliban,
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who are thriving and have a stable history. They certainly are a competitive and
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strong society. Also, the deaf community is active and very tight-knit. The
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claim is probably overstated, but might have some justification.
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Second, I do understand the danger of trying to experiment on this. What if the
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argument is right and we accidentally do harm civilization? Is it really worth
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the risk? (I'd like to think so, but I'm also willing to put up with a far
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greater risk than most people.)
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The Argument from Pleasure
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--------------------------
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> Humans take great joy from music. It invokes many emotions, from happiness to
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> anger to sadness. It gives their life meaning, but also just passes boredom.
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This one is easy to argue against, but hard to understand. You do not enjoy
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music because of benefits, but because music is shaped (and has shaped you) to
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be enjoyable. It (ab)uses your reward system, your fear response, anger response
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and so on, to pass itself on. It is self-perpetuating, making you feel good so
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you listen to it so you feel good so you listen to it... Memetic evolution
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predicts this: brains that are "bored" without music will propagate it more, so
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any successful music will incorporate selection for this property. This is
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obvious to any outsider, as it is with any drug, but not for the afflicted.
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Observe anyone under the effect of a drug, during a panic attack and so on,
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while you yourself are neutral, unaffected. They will be blind to it; their
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brain pays no attention to this fact.
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Arguing that pleasure in itself is a good thing, is tautological at best and
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addictive behaviour at worst. If you propose this, then you are in a really bad
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position. It is very hard to make a good case for pleasure without also argueing
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for direct stimulation of your reward center. You see, Electrodes can be
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inserted, a little switch can be attached and you can sit there all day, feeling
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great! But even most hedonists do not want to defend this.
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The Argument from Morals
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------------------------
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> Music can influence our moral behaviour. Playing wholesome and delightful
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> music to children will shape their character for the better!
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This is a bold statement, especially because it has no evidence whatsoever.
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There is no psychological study supporting this, no disproportionately large
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chunk of deaf people in jail, no connection between crime rate and music
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education. If there is any link, it is minuscule.
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There is, however, a strong connection between indoctrination and music. Almost
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every cult, religion or otherwise strong ideology will use music for its
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purposes. Music's strong potential to move people's emotion can easily be
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exploited to instill fake unity, bliss or aggression. I would not go so far to
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disqualify music for this reason, but reject any moral claims as at least
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neutral. If it has positive effects, it might as well have negative ones. You
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can not advocate only the one part you profit from.
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This argument is sometimes used negatively, e.g. "Modern music corrupts our
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children!". If you believe it, you must accept this conclusion as well. Music
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censorship, at least partially, would be the only responsible thing to do.
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The Argument from Profits
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-------------------------
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> Billions of dollars are involved. Music is a very profitable
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> industry.
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So is heroin. I don't feel I have to say more about this; it is such an empty
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argument.
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The Argument from Benign Symbiosis
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----------------------------------
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> Music is useful to us. It enhances our ability to recognize patterns. It
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> supports the learning of languages. It improves our ability to adopt other
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> memes. It has been documented that children that learnt an instrument perform
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> better in school. Music can help to treat mental illnesses.
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There exists barely any valid research for any of those claims. The strongest is
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probably the learning of languages. Basically, this uses musics strong
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reproductive capabilities by hijacking it. You take language memes, like a poem,
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or just some words, and apply them as text to some music, thereby making them
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"stick" a lot better. This seems to work, as far as we can tell. There is, of
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course, no conclusive evidence. (This is mostly because of the failure of
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language education and linguistics, and unrelated to music, in my opnion.)
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But is this worth its price? Are you able to contain it? Recall that you are
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using music exactly because it is so fertile. It seems like the opposite of a
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safe operation to me. Also, is it really effective? Instead of using music to
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get small benefits in school or elsewhere, read books. Learn critical thinking.
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Solve puzzles. Address the problem directly, instead of trying to do it through
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some remote synergy with a symbiont.
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However, it can be argued that music was a major driving force behind the
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development of our big brains. We needed more and more capable meme machines to
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spread music more reliably, so we were selected for it. We profit from this
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because the human brain is largely a universal machine, not specialized for any
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particular meme and so all kinds of useful memes spread better as well. Everyone
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wants a better memetic "soil", if you want. But if this is true (I suspect it
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is), then there is a fiendish little twist to it: We can exploit the parasite
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now! Sure, music used us for its own purposes, endowing us with bigger brains to
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get a better chance itself, but now that we have those brains, we don't need to
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have any affiliation to music anymore! What do we care if music survives? Let's
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use those brains for something *good*! So long, and thanks for all the
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neurons!
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The medical use of music might be justified. Psychotherapy is in a terrible
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state right now, but the existing studies seem to support effectiveness of music
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in some cases. While I personally would prefer other methods, I would
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nonetheless agree that a reasonable case can be made for music *in the hands
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of a professional*. And this is the crux: we are talking about serious
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illnesses and therapy, certainly not recreational use.
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Finally, I feel that this argument is very dishonest. It is really a
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rationalisation. No one sits down, thinks "Hey, singing those songs would get me
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better test scores in 10 years!" and then does so. You listen to music because
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you like it. Later on come the "reasons" and "beliefs" on why it really is good
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for you. If I showed studies disproving all such claim, would it change the
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argument? Most likely not. You would still listen to music, those scientists be
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damned. They are probably frauds anyway!
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Argument from Spirituality
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--------------------------
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> Entweder durch den Einfluss des narkotischen Getränkes, von dem alle
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> ursprünglichen Menschen und Völker in Hymnen sprechen, oder bei dem
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> gewaltigen, die ganze Natur lustvoll durchdringenden Nahen des Frühlings
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> erwachen jene dionysischen Regungen, in deren Steigerung das Subjektive zu
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> völliger Selbstvergessenheit hinschwindet. Auch im deutschen Mittelalter
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> wälzten sich unter der gleichen dionysischen Gewalt immer wachsende Schaaren,
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> singend und tanzend, von Ort zu Ort (...). Es gibt Menschen, die, aus Mangel
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> an Erfahrung oder aus Stumpfsinn, sich von solchen Erscheinungen wie von
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> "Volkskrankheiten", spöttisch oder bedauernd im Gefühl der eigenen Gesundheit
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> abwenden: die Armen ahnen freilich nicht, wie leichenfarbig und gespenstisch
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> eben diese ihre "Gesundheit" sich ausnimmt, wenn an ihnen das glühende Leben
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> dionysischer Schwärmer vorüberbraust.
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>
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> -- Friedrich Nietzsche, Geburt der Tragödie [^trans]
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[^trans]: Translation:
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> Even under the influence of the narcotic draught, of which songs of all
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> primitive men and peoples speak, or with the potent coming of spring that
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> penetrates all nature with joy, these Dionysian emotions awake, and as
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> they grow in intensity everything subjective vanishes into complete
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> self-forgetfulness. In the German Middle Ages, too, singing and dancing
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> crowds, ever increasing in number, whirled themselves from place to place
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> under this same Dionysian impulse. (...) There are some who, from
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> obtuseness or lack of experience, turn away from such phenomena as from
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> "folk-diseases," with contempt or pity born of consciousness of their own
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> "healthy-mindedness." But of course such poor wretches have no idea how
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> corpselike and ghostly their so-called "healthy-mindedness" looks when the
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> glowing life of the Dionysian revelers roars past them.
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This is in my opinion the strongest and at the same time rarest argument. It
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surprised me a bit that so many people seem to listen to music for any *other*
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reason than this.[^after] But then, mystics have always been in the minority, so
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there.
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The use of music for spiritual purposes extends to virtually all mystic
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practices, be they shamanistic rituals, prayer, meditation or the more modern
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drug-based practices, as exemplified by Leary or Crowley.
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[^after]: This is a bit after-the-fact rationalisation, though. Like most
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people, I started listening to music not voluntarily, but was exposed to it and
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simply liked it. Only much later did I discover its great potential and changed
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my usage.
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In fact, I suspect there is a strong correlation with "being spiritual" and
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"liking music". The link may be the ease with which memes can enter your brain -
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your memetic immune system, if you want. This holds true for me (I was a gnostic
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theist for a long time, having personally talked to several gods and all. It was
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a hard struggle towards logic and reason for me.) and many people I know.
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Also, there is a strong connection to the amygdala and temporal lobes. I don't
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want to reiterate the point here and will just point to the awesome talks on
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neurotheology by Todd Murphy, specifically [Using Neuroscience for Spiritual
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Practice] and [Enlightenment, Self and the Brain]. There is some great research
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popping up in recent years for sure.
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[Using Neuroscience for Spiritual Practice]:
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http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1030598948823323439
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[Enlightenment, Self and the Brain]:
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http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5474604744218568426
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Honestly, I don't know how to retain my contrarian attitude here, seeing that I
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agree with the argument. You may try to attack spirituality (in the sense of
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mystic experiences, not believe in woo) as bad in itself, but this is very rare
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even among hardcore atheists and materialists.
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The argument that mystic experiences will lead to pseudoscience or superstitions
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is easily disproved; just have a look at how many both scientists and mystics
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are still clearly rational. Good examples may range from Michael Persinger on
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the science side, to Sam Harris somewhere in the middle, and the Dalai Lama on
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the religious side. Sure, like any counter-intuitive and large open question,
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spirituality lends itself to false believes, but that's a general human problem,
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not something specific to the topic. The answer are good rational practices, not
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abandoning music.
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Conclusion
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==========
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In the end, one thing stands out: many attitudes towards music, and their
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rationalisation, are indistinguishable from memetic addiction. People are being
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exploited by music. It has shaped our brain for its reproductive advantages.
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Sure, we may have won the game of natural selection sometimes, but this is of
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little concern to music. The memeplex has all characteristics of a virus. It
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eats up as much of individual resources as it can without disabling its host.
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We are constantly encouraged to listen to more music, get more music, recommend
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it to our friends and so on. It spreads for the sake of spreading. Good music is
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judged not by its inherent benefits to individuals or the species, but by how
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popular it is, that is, how good it is at spreading. Being an ear worm is a
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*good* thing for music to be. If someone states they doesn't listen much to
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music, then the most common response is one of disbelief, utterances of "How
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empty and meaningless my life would be without music!", of "What is wrong with
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you? Are you depressed?", followed by hundreds of recommendations because "There
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has to be some music out there that you like! Just listen more to it!".
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It sure looks like the behaviour of addicts. If you are not devoted to music, at
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least a bit, you must try harder! These are memes that ruthlessly exploit their
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hosts. Natural selection has shaped them to be highly resistant, persuasive and
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addictive. All of music theory and education is only occupied with how to make
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more popular music, how to spread it better, how to increase its impact. It
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conveys no message (or only an empty shell of one), it teaches nothing, it gives
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you nothing except pleasure. It circumvents the purpose of a reward system by
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directly stimulating it without giving something in return. It is a parasite.
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But what now?
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> I thought, "Okay, calm down. Let's just try on the not-believing-in-God
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> glasses for a moment, just for a second. Just put on the no-God glasses and
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> take a quick look around and then immediately throw them off". So I put them
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> on and I looked around.
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>
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> I'm embarrassed to report that I initially felt dizzy. I actually had the
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> thought, "Well, how does the Earth stay up in the sky? You mean we're just
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> hurtling through space? That's so vulnerable!" I wanted to run out and catch
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> the Earth as it fell out of space into my hands...
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>
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> I wandered around in a daze thinking, “No one is minding the store!” And I
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> wondered how traffic worked, like how we weren't just in chaos all the time.
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> And slowly, I began to see the world completely differently. I had to rethink
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> what I thought about everything. It's like I had to go change the wallpaper of
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> my mind.
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>
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> -- Julia Sweeney, "Letting Go of God (which my title is, of course, an allusion
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> to)
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That's a bit how I felt at first. Really, can my reasoning be right? It *must*
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be wrong! Dvořák's 9th symphony, a parasite? ゆらゆら帝国's "Sweet Spot",
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detrimental? Demons & Wizards, really a satanic band? Impossible! And even if,
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can I ever be able to let go of them? Can I *not* listen to music? Will I not
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die of boredom, depression, isolation? Will it not cheapen my life to be
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amusical? Will nostalgia not overpower me?
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It began to settle in. I remember the same thing happening to religion. Not
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praying, not talking with the gods, not feeling this sense of mystical bliss,
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this was really hard for me to accept. But it seemed the only honest thing to
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do. The only true understanding you can have. And after a while, the old way
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seemed silly. You begin to truly understand the world a bit better, not making
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excuses, running down dead ends, but learning an actual powerful lesson. Trying
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to understand or work with anything without embracing rationality and science is
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always a bad idea.
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Safer Use
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---------
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But there is something important to clarify here: Just because something is a
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parasite doesn't mean it's necessarily bad. In fact, most parasites are actually
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quite useful to their host. They share a common interest in the hosts well-being,
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after all. The crucial thing to understand, though, is that the virus is
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interested in its own replication the most. The host will always have to fight
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hard to ensure that the relationship is still symbiotic and not exploitative.
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Basically, the normal safer use rules apply. Don't overdo it. Establish pauses,
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don't repeat anything too much, diversify your tastes. Avoid mainstream sources,
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which are mostly characterized by pure popularity. (And ruled by agents that
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have the moral strength of tobacco companies.) Don't mix activities too much:
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doing something "on the side", all the time, is always strong evidence that it
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has become an addiction. You know the drill - make sure you still benefit
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enough to make it worth it.
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The Future
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----------
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New habits will grow to fill the void, better habits. New memes will come. The
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world goes on.
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But then I found this on Youtube: [Berryz工房 - Dschinghis Khan]
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Yes, it's a Japanese cover of the German song *Dschingis Khan*. I don't
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know whether they are playing it in heaven or hell, but probably both. So good,
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yet so bad... If you ever needed proof that humanity has gone batshit insane,
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well... JPOP's the end of all theology, the end of all faith. You may believe
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whatever you want why there are no gods around today, but no one, religious and
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atheist alike, ever proposed that they simply got too alienated with us. I mean,
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JPOP, for Cthulhu's sake! You had all those great ideas for humanity, visions of
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paradise, or eternal servitude, or food, or whatever, but at some point, humans
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just stopped caring about the sacrifices and the prayers and just went on
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covering 70's pop. There's no chance of redemption anymore and from that day on,
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the gods simply didn't believe in us anymore. Nyarlathotep might have given us
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the atomic bomb, but even he is freaked out by *Hello! Project*. The mad,
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monotonous music surrounding Azathoth's throne, I might have identified it.
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[Berryz工房 - Dschinghis Khan]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7pui9Q6Vbo
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