The Emperor’s Clothing Syndrome
By Old Grumpy Guy on November 21, 2008 at 6:40 PM in Current Affairs, Emperor's Clothing Syndrome, Humor, OldGrumpyGuy, Open Thread
(How privileged NoQuarter is to be a home to this magnificent series of videos. I am impressed by the considerable time, creativity, and thoughtfulness that Old Grumpy put into this first of ten videos. You will be beguiled and engrossed by this exciting and edifying video. – Susan)
In recent months we have seen the Emperor’s Clothing Syndrome running rampant during the elections. (I define this term partly as a tendency to “pretend to see or believe something out of fear of being thought of out of step with others, also out of fear that you might be attacked or ridiculed if you show your true feelings.”)
Now you might not see a connection between this and my latest video, the start of a 12 part series looking at the greatest composers ever, judged on originality, durability, depth and range of output, historical significance and their general influence. You might also say that this series has little connection with the kind of issues discussed on NQ.
But I think it is all very relevant. (Well, of course I would, wouldn’t I?) For one thing, the series will also be looking at the ECS (Emperor’s Clothing Syndrome) in music as well as the arts and humanities in general. It’s all symptomatic of a sickness in society that showed its ugliest aspects during the election.
Secondly, the series addresses the erosion of the finest aspects of western cultural values and standards, another sickness that is undermining the social fabric of America and Europe.
As I say in the introduction to the series, with my usual modesty, forbearance and understatement: “I’m trying to save western civilization. That’s what my Youtube channel is about. Do I really have to spell it out for you? Sheesh. And then you wonder why I get grumpy.”
The final video in the series will look at the way the Emperor’s Clothing Syndrome has dominated the arts and humanities over the past half century, with the help of academic practitioners looking for theories to build on, trying to carve out some academic territory for themselves and becoming the high priests or priestesses of their chosen domains. In music, it ended with meaningless and very irritating noise.
They are the kind of people who try to impose their narrow and very theoretical world view on others and become blinkered in their focus, doing their best to beat down anyone who doesn’t agree with them. (Now what does that remind you of?)
It’s the kind of pseudo-liberal academic milieu that produces people like the Beast with No Name, who is a Rhodes scholar and yet one of the most narrow-minded and bigoted people you can find.
As I wrote in a comment on the recent NQ post about her, being a Rhodes scholar is a sign of being good at the academic process and does not guarantee good sense.
“One of the problems is that lot of people who excel academically are people who are able to absorb and reflect back what their tutors want them to,” I wrote. “In some ways they are like soft cushions, retaining the imprint of the last person to have sat on them. The Moonies and other cults have had a high percentage of college graduates who were academically bright.”
Dr. Theodore Kaczynski the Unabomber was academically outstanding. I had a girlfriend once who was academically outstanding and had an IQ that was so high it went off the scale, but she was totally lacking in any vestige of common sense and spent a great deal of time attacking people who didn’t agree with her opinions on even the most trivial matters.
Now I am not being anti-intellectual or anti-academic. My God, if there was no place for true intellectuals in this world, what would become of an intellectual giant like myself? What I am saying is that you cannot rely on academics to be impartial, objective, clear thinking and – above all – correct in their judgment and opinions.
In fact, some of the most woolly and equivocal thinkers have tended to dominate the arts and humanities over the past fifty years.
At the end of the series I will be examining this whole phenomenon in greater depth. In the meantime I hope you might enjoy the videos on the greatest composers. At least you will hear some good music, and hopefully be entertained.
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Does anyone actually care that the Emperor is naked? I despair of it being true. A Kenyan ambassador says on a radio program that Obama’s birthplace IN KENYA is already a pilgramage spot. Just disgusting. No one is supposed to be above the law in America, but if the top man does not have to obey the most basic law in the land, do any of us have to heed the law?
http://donedems.com/2008/11/21/have-you-heard-this-kenyan-ambassador-says-obamas-birthplace-in-kenya-is-an-attractionalready-well-known-wrif-radio-detroit/
This is disgraceful. Everyone has proof Fraudbama was born in Kenya and, therefore, not eligible. And it’s way too difficult to get the dumbed down public here to pay attention.
Grumpy, great post. The erosion of our culture has been very evident over the past 18 months for those of us who actually happen to like America and will miss it when Fraudbama takes over.
I’ll look forward to the series, Grumpy Old Man. Enjoyed the first installment. And what an interesting and entertaining way to approach all this nonsense we’ve witnessed over the last few years.
Thanks!
I have to say, while I objected to many of the videos of GOM – name calling and such – I am glad I waded through this one. I had forgotten that fine music once soothed my soul.
I am in total agreement with Peggy Sue. This will be a differnt and very interesting way to discuss ECS and learn more about classical music. Enjoyed segement #1.
Alright, you have nabbed me, I pray I hear some Verdi. “Noi siamo zingarelle”, (I got to play one of the ahemmm “ladies”)
Enjoyed it, thank you.
Strauss from his elbow, ha!
Well, Grumpy – you’re going to have to persuade me with your next installments – since you have already left Brahms off your top ten. I will admit that I named our standard schnauzer Till Eulenspiegel (part of his pedigree name, that is) because he was a very merry prankster, and that the four last songs move me to tears. As an exstudent of the Royal Acad. of Music UK (as was my sister, both violinists in the dark ages)I shall be keeping a very close eye on all the other videos. Just tell me you are not leaving Mozart off, or my husband will blow a gasket!
No one leaves Mozart out! He will be number 1 or 2 in the tussle with Ludwig.
Grumpy:
Your post is a refreshing reprise; a good brief background on music that always find a new generation of devotees.
You’ll just have to wait to find out. But no, Mozart is definitely on the list. Where, however, is another matter.
Hmmmm….this will be interesting. Sometimes an artist is important historically with regards to who they inspire ( what comes after )….Innovation opens up possibilities….You have taken on a noble cause…How very British of you…chuckle…It is one of the Best of British cultural traits ( pondering civilization and criticizing culture ) Some of the best writing on aesthetics and politics was done by British authors/poets/critics…Because they see the relationships and articulate with such style and wit….imho
I love it. CULTURE! Looking forward to the next ones.
I stop by NQ many times in a day. What a treat to run across this posting tonight. My 16 year old son has an iPod filled with classical music and jazz, including Also Sprach Zarathustra, Barber’s Adagio for Strings, Dvorak’s New World Symphony, Moussorgsky’s Pictures, etc. When he was about 7 he couldn’t say Also Sprach Zarathustra, so he called it Also Spoke Rooster Shprooster. As a classical musician, I trained him well. Unfortunately he wouldn’t listen to me regarding politics and is an Obama supporter, but we don’t talk about that around here anymore.
Look forward to seeing who else is listed. I hope that Mozart, Handel, Stravinksy and Mahler make the list. Pretty sure Bach is number one.
Thank you Grumpy Old Man. Most enjoyable. What a nice diversion from the politics of the last year or so. I shall look forward to your next video. Out of interest – was music your profession or is it just your interest?
Music is not my profession, but I have dabbled. I’m a great dabbler in all kinds of things.
Are you going to write about other “supastas” v great masters in other mediums?
When you mentioned the Beast with no name my first thought was Damien Hirst…lol…Just wondering….
Yo, danx fer some ah dat culture ’round heah.
(lol)
Thank you Old Grumpy Guy…you know I love your videos!
Ah, what do you define as “noise?”
What is your opinion on the modernists, and the post modernists?
What about Schoenberg, Ives and Philip Glass?
Glenn Gould?
Hmmmm….The sublime vs. the sensational…Sometimes it takes time to analyze the nature of impact…and sometimes depending on the artist you just know it then and there…imho
I will be defining and discussing this in the 12th video of the series.
I look forward to that…Well done…thanks.
Thanks.
I’ve always found it interesting because I find it more accurate, for lack of a better word, to compose in a twelve tone, or atonal, say, especially when I’m writing off of the news of the day, for inspiration, so to speak.
Atonal represents, in part, the chaos most feel in this modern age, though it can be very difficult to listen to, when one is seeking a standard harmonic resoltuion.
Art, whether music or painting, is an attempt by the artist, IMO, to order the greater universal chaos, through feeling, or emotion, reflective of any given period of time.
Popular music, too, after ww2, and onward, is reflective of that same quest to order the overwhelming chaos of the day (though I’d just as soon dump the most of the rap of the last 10 years, the pop equivalent to Britney Spears).
Well Old Grumpy Guy, now I know you have been thoroughly Americanized, cuz you have figured out how nutty we are about lists, the ten best this, the ten worst that, the hundred sexiest whatever, etc., always “of all time.” I notice that you did not fail to include this most essential phrase in compiling your “ten greatest composers of all time.” I am very much looking forward to seeing what you will include, and will be disappointed if there aren’t a couple of surprises. Well, not really. This is fun.
Well Grump I had written a very thoughtful comment but like a lot of my comments it wound up in the ether wen I posted it and I’m trying not to take it personally…
Great video essay. I wonder if Satie makes the list?
Strauss (Death and Transfiguration) was recommended to m when I as at my most youthful snotty pretentious worst and thought that as a painter I new something about depth…chuckle…Strauss and that critic blessed me with a humbling and transformative pivot in aesthetic development…I look forward to the rest of the series…A good critic is a terrible thing to waste…
Great article OGG, the concept of ECS can accurately be applied across a broad spectrum of disciplines. In fact, I’m struck by the precision that the article highlights and achieves when I superimpose and insert the greatest hoax of our time as the principle subject of the article. That hoax is man made global warming.
For some time now I’ve had a well informed and scientifically educated skepticism toward the whole approach to the subject, yet when I voice my opinion the reaction is usually one of stunned disbelief that I could be so stupid.
Just for fun, people would expand their viewpoint greatly if they would re-read your article as though it were about the lemming like devotion to MMGW and the false prophet Al Gore. Then re-read it again as though it were about the lemming like devotion to Obama and his worthless Utopian rhetoric.
This is a fascinating angle. I am looking forward to seeing how it plays out. Along the same line of thought, I’d like to recommend a wonderful book by Neal Gabler entitled Life: The Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality. It’s an extremely well-thought out and documented study of how popular culture has taken hold of the US so pervasively. The standard of value for us now is whether or not something can grab and hold our attention. Things that do not conform to this narrow standard (serious literature, classical music, informed political debate, and complex ideas) are compromised and marginalized. The “primary effect” of 20th century media, according to Gabler, has been its ability to make entertainment out of news (movies based on news stories, the OJ trial, the ‘Scud Stud’ of the Gulf War, the convergence of material between tabloid papers/shows and mainstream papers/shows to name a few). The “secondary effect” has been that everything is then forced to turn itself into entertainment in order to attract media attention, like a Mobius strip. BO has somehow picked up on this and utilized it exceptionally well, I hate to say. So have Olbermann, et al…. It’s an awesome book, but depressing. I do hope to stumble across the answer to how we find our way out of this abyss someday. *Help me Old Grumpy Guy. You’re my only hope.* (Use the Force, perhaps? lol)
Hmmmm….this is an age old argument…Popular vs. Refined…check out newspapers from the turn of the century when critics wailed about the menace of ragtime music and vaudeville…chuckle…
I have to say though that it is critical analysis that is becoming rare. Psuedo-intellectualism is the enemy and in this I agree with Grump. Art students of my day were treated with contempt by the Art History students because we were messy and spoke simply ( words are not a visual artists primary means of expression and the smart ones avoid it like the plague…chuckle…ala Hopper an art student hero who said famously…”If you could put it into words you wouldn’t need to paint it”
This is why so many artists sound either stupid or crazy when we try to talk about it…lol )
Grump is correct..We have all of us been overtaken by a stampede of caterwallering mediocrities…To our own peril…
Thanks, Grumpy. You are interesting and informative as always.
Thanks Grumpy Old Man!
An education is priceless;
King Crimson.
It is gratifying to see such a lot of interesting and thought provoking comments as above, although I expect I will disappoint some for not including their favorite composers in the top ten, but I have my reasons.
Thank you OGG, very enjoyable. Why don’t you follow this series up with one on opera performances? (note: must include Callas!) Best Regards!
OGG, I’d enjoy your wittiness a whole lot more if you’d change the camera angle so I don’t have to look up your nostrils. Just sayin. . .
You can call me Old Grumpy Gal.
I think Osacar Wilde’s words; ‘Bad artists always admire each other’s work’ has a lot to do with all these issues too.
If I mention John Williams – will I be scorned as a sympton of the problem?
Sorry, classical music is the one round in University Challenge that I don’t even guess at. Am going to enjoy being educated by you OGG.