[NewMusic] More anti-carbon floop-print poopoganda

[Matthew Goodheart]

> Alicia wrote:
>  either you sell your soul to the machine little piece by piece, day  
> by day, or you try
> to retain some integrity, which forces you to live on an extreme  
> fringe
> that may warp you and is not always necessarily good for your  
> objectives
> either.
>
> I'm not saying I have an answer, just pointing out that there doesn't
> seem to be a convenient(tm) way to exist with any integrity in  
> America.


I'm not sure that's how I see it. To begin with, this proposes that  
integrity is some kind of absolute, measurable thing, and a reasonable  
argument could be made that it's a pretty subjective measurement (such  
as Mother Theresa's acts vs. her personality. . . apparently  
personally she was a tyrant). Secondly, it implies that "fringing"   
equals moral integrity, which I think is a particularly specious  
cultural meme (and one that lines the pockets of Murdoch as well,  
actually.)

Secondly, the lack of the ability to exist in some kind of absolute  
moral state is hardly particularly American, I think it's rather an  
essential nature of the human condition; there is always some systemic  
evil/good paradox; doesn't matter if it's American, the Roman Empire,  
fuedalism, the Khwe bushmen, or whatever. We tend to see our own  
modern problems as the paramount evil, but frankly I'd rather have to  
deal with trying to survive in the face of corporatism run amok than  
theocratic absolutism or tribal honor codes.

Integrity, it seems to me, rather falls on how one strikes their  
balance. One cannot exist without participating in systems which  
create simultaneous positive and negative results.

mg

Matthew Goodheart
composer ~ improviser ~ pianist
matthew at matthewgoodheart.com
http://matthewgoodheart.com
http://myspace.com/matthewgoodheart