Warren, you must have read what I said before I deleted it. I thought it was too provacative for this early in the thread and I didn't want to take over the discussion with something so strong. Thanks anyway. Maybe later.
Hi Zaikes, yes, later. |
"A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep" - Saul Bellow
"Proof" is not always found in the pieces, but in the pattern of pieces. I just read an article about Kasparov taking on another Deep Blue chess program. He said that while a computer can add moves together quantitatively, and may even outlast the body inducing fatigue and error, the processing of the mind in chess also involves a "looking ahead at patterns".
This "looking ahead" involves not just a strict probability analysis involving the accumulation of data, but an intuiting of which pattern is the most effective. When I was a trial attorney, I used to tell jurors that the truth was not found only in the pieces of evidence, but in how they are put together, and further, how they feel about that pattern in their gut. If you are going to invoke evidentiary language, know that in this country the truth, at least theoretically (as in, what the law says, because I don't think our justice system is set up to find truth, but to maintain order) is found both in the isolated facts and in how the person responds to them (i.e. a lack of bias does not imply an exclusive focusing on "objective" criteria, only that subjective opinions be reasonable. People who are scientifically materialist in orientation tend to assume that all reason is exclusively objective and a product of accumulation of data, which, not coincidentally, is what science assumes).
Question: Do you really believe that $150,000/yr advertising contracts do not have an effect - a discernible effect - upon the "objective" opinions of those employers and their employed? I know that we want to believe that yellow ribbons and a hundred points of light are real, and that protecting an oil port for ourselves while maintaining a monarchy is really a fight for democracy, or for "freedom fighters", or for whatever is our next delusion, but sometimes it is not true and, in fact, the King has no clothes. The question, then, is whether the King is doing it TO you, or below that, he is just a symptom of your own willingness to believe in what he says - because you are orientated to look to others to tell you what to believe - and ignore what is in the patterns. It is an ignor-ing (the root of ignorance) that seeks to believe in the surface so one does not have to see the pain underneath, which would cause one to change.
There are many wonderful people in the hiend "industry" who love music and see stereos as instruments of the soul and don't want to just make money off you - and there is nothing wrong with receiving value for value done. But there is a large proportion of this microcosm - almost as if it has been concentrated like acid - who are borderline narcissistic, histrionic, catty, vindictive, dishonest and petty. This group of people are embedded and exert a determitive influence on the hiend.
When you look into the hiend from the outside it appears one way because it is dynamically set up to appear opaque; when you are on the inside, you see the way it is, and the severity of the affliction.
My advice is to love your music and your system and gleen what truth you see from magazines, but, in the end, follow what Brucegel says. It is evidence born of experience.
"We don't err because the truth is difficult to see, we err for comfortability." - Alexander Solzhenitsyn |
Zaike: Thank you for your response. Yes, I understood what you were saying vis-a-vis Brucegel; my opinion was general. Thank you for being a good sport. On what you said, the "elite" I am taliking about are not the purchasers, regardless of how much they spend or their socio-economic standing outside the hiend subculture. The elite is an insular group of reviewers and manufacturers who produce, in tacit dynamic, a system of operation that produces covet-ing in the mass consumer that is not commensurate with performance, even as they percieve it. Its a carnival show. Not that components have no merit, but that there exists a marked incongruency that can be 1) percieved from the outside through patterns over time, just like any observation of an experiment would do, and 2) percieved directly from the inside by direct experience. My point is that until you have been in the dragon's belly, you are very suseptible to the propoganda. I remember that I was and was shocked when I got there and saw what it was. I didn't enjoy seeing what it was, but I wouldn't want to not know either. For those on the inside, there exists a strong bond of mutual self-interest to maintain this system that, because of its concentrated size, and because it attracts those minds whose idea of themselves includes "art salon member", tends to produce "politics" that are similarly reflective of that concentration (which itself, is only a reflection of the cycling self-interest in society at large).
I enjoy reading the mags. Its fun, but I know what it is. This does not make me a skeptic or a cynic, although to one who is attached to the Guru's message - who nneds a King to feel safe from the post modern darkness of the assumed unknowable - it will be categorized as so.
Tok, yes, not so subtle, but again it depends on how closely you are watching, your orientation while watching and from where, inside or outside. I was trying to be courteous. I disagree with you, however, that because of the size of the hiend end - which I take you to imply, fragility - we should be willing to ignore these issues. I refer you to the quotes above. The need to be safe - to keep the warm home that I have, the set of ideas that I already have and know - is a lack of resolve to do anything about it. Talkng about it is the first step. That is why control-orientated systems, their apex actors, the so-called "elite", e.g. fascism, always seeks to gain control of the means of communication between non-elites by control of information in exchange for security, or the promise of security (look out you front door right now...). And, be clear, this is not a landed gentry per se, although the top actors do stay longer, but a systemic issue; in the period of nobility you could follow the aristocracy through kinship, now, the aristocracy is more transitory so they are harder to locate directly. You just may need to be more perceptive to see. Then again, making all of us more perceptive to, and less willing to enable, those who would predate upon another over things may be part of the evolutionary point. Didn't a guy named Jesus say something about that...Now there's a quote (!).
So, what do i want to do about it? Stay centered and see, but leave unto Caesar that which is what he covets. |
Zaike, I meant that what they percieve, and whether they even know that they percieve well enough, becomes less a concern after one learns how to write in that system. Your ability to discern quality becomes much less important than you would assume when you first get there, as a reviewer, because you realize that it is a game that can be learned, and learned to hide that inability.
There are MANY reviewers who I know for a fact that can't hear as good as their reviews would lead you to believe. Like I said, its a game that you become adept at. Since I was there, I can see this much easier - it nearly jumps out when I read a mag - but there are certain patterns to watch for, as SRouse alludes (and he has heard alot of great equipment), although I will refrain comment on the specifics of what he says.
Suffice it to say that many reviewers have lousy ears and realize that they can get by best by: learning the lingo, constructing it with built in deniabilty, canvass the underground to conform observations to potential critics and reduce likelihood of being found out, adopt an aristocratic attitude laced with psuedo-erudite references to feign sophistication and, if a problem arises in any of those regards, do a follow up retracing and/or correcting prior observations. Of course, towing the mag line as far as politics - and it is a fawning cat fight - enables you to be in favor to get your stuff published in order to gain "credibilty" and enact this strategy effectively. There are, actually, too many devices to go into here.
On HP, and the above is not in reference to him in particular - he had decent ears when I knew him, excepting the bias towards bass. We had our run arounds - he was going through a rough time and I had little patience then - but I will say that he was a good Editor on the writing. And, a good writer himself. I have chosen to remember that. |
I'm sorry Zaikes, I got you confused with Muralman. |
Yes, Hassel, you've seen this: coersion/censorship through omission. As I said, there are many tacit dynamics which work to produce the same end of false guru and prostrate acolyte. People, because they are focused on what is "done" - focused on action - many times do not see to a sufficient degree what is not done (interestingly, some of you may note that, once more, there is an attachment to seeing the object rather than the space around the object; this is another manifestation of objectified thinking - sorry, just had to get that in there...).
The mags, and all authoritative hierarchies, including our government, attempt to control information (the thought-objects, so to speak) that you see, and shepard away from your sight thoughts that are contrary to their intent - which is, invariably, the accumulation of more power over that information, and, hence, your mind. People who want someone to tell them what the world is, then conform to the thought-objects given to them and never see wider to see the ones that are omitted.
Don't you know, folks, the apex actor in the hierarchy - the pharaoh, the king, the false guru, the imperialized president - they think that you are stupid for not seeing what they are not-doing right in front of your face, all in trade for your false security (in what gear to choose, in what to think, in who is your enemy...). They think you are sheep, and, as such, do not deserve what they have, or seek to have more of.
The Pharoah is the Pharoah, Caesar is Caesar, the King is the King, the false guru becomes your false guru, the false leader's false ideas become your mind's false ideas, not because they "do" it to you, but because you have chosen not to SEE. You choose their omission. You choose them instead of yourself.
So, the blue pill or the red pill? |
Jeez guys, I tee'd it up with just the right dose of anarchistic flavor and not one bite. It's tough when when becomes a known quantity... |
Ah ha, I knew you wouldn't let me down Zaikes!
...but not too long, eh Zaikes? |
Hello Warrenh.
"The Kingdom of [cream] is within and all around but men do not see"
Zaikes and Warrenh. I take that back, Zaikes, I got two nibbles (saying known quantity IS a nibble...).
Nice nibbles though...
On cream in audio: we are all on a quest to experience music more deeply. In that quest, we rely upon the person sitting next to us to help us. We listen ourselves, but realize that others who have already traveled this way might give us some pointers. Giving pointers must, regardless of alternative profit motive, derive its impoetus from empathy; I must want you to experience what I have experienced, to join me in that experience. That is what we do here on this site - we share that experience. Now, some people pointing are disingenuous because they tell us that they are giving us the truth when actually they are dressing up facts to sound true only to induce a behavior on your behalf that is beneficial - in a material sense, or in terms of increased adoration, or both - for themselves. They give information to increase their power and fuel their narcissism rather than for you joining them.
This happens in the magazines and it acts as a skein over the Truth - but only if you conform to it exclusively and choose not to see what it is (the root of ignorance is to ignore): namely, Truth with a veil of their self-interest intervening. Then, it is a partial truth, and must be seen in that light, in the light of your sober equanimity, to see what it has to offer.
Zaikes, what happened to your speaker, really?
And, thinking about a tubed pre?
Hurricanes have too much tube hassle for you - me too - but I wonder how they'd sound on your Apogees. Probably not enough current overall, but it would be ineresting to hera what they sounded like within that parameter. |
