Dear Reader,
it looks as if in my first post, I have to jump right into hostile environment. But so be it… I just saw my favorite program on TV, its Kulturzeitnachrichten on 3sat. 3sat is a channel run by german, swiss and autrichian state TV stations all together.
Today they were talking about Karlheinz Stockhausen ’s [1, 2] controversial statement on 9/11: He said, 9/11 was “greatest work of art”.
What was disturbing to me was not what this guy thinks, but the way it was handled by the folks on TV. It was clear, that they didn’t dare commenting about it in a straight foreward way. They tried to interpret it: “What could the artist really have meant with that…?”
So his statement was not judged as if any “ordinary” person would have made it. (Imagine you had said it! Mea Culpa!). But obviously, the way we judge people, artists that is in this case, the less critical with our own instincts we are. Same holds true for politicians, physicians, philosophers and so on. Generally speaking: for anybody we hold for superior to ourselves.
I feel it is hard for me to get my point accross, so let me simplify: Suppose you think of someone as a lot smarter than you are. For whatever reason. Now suppose this person says something that you would normally disagree with (like “The world is flat!”). In this situation, you would probably hesitate to “act” certain, to tell that person right away, that he or she was wrong… There is a good chance, you would question your own knowledge and experience.
So, conclusion number 1 for tonight:
- Phrasing A: The higher people think of you, the more power you have to say just about anything you want, and they will kind of agree. If they don’t clearly agree (which would be dumb), then they go: “did not quite understand, have to think about that in the future again”.
- Phrasing B: The higher you think of someone to be above your own personal ability to think and feel, the more you will obey to his orders and will allow you to limit your natural intellect and human reason.
Well then, more on this at a later point in time.
Thank you.