soundtracking of america

[Jim Westrich]

Actually, two stories of using music as punishment caught my attention this 
very week.  A dean at Eastern Connecticut U. has been sending misbehaving 
college students to the opera.  A teenager in Troy, Michigan was sentenced 
to listen to several hours of Wayne Newton for a noise complaint conviction 
(he was blasting rap music).

As for Mr. Bottum (yeah, snicker, snicker):

"HARDLY anyone seems to remember that music stands fairly low on the
traditional list of devices by which we try to understand human experience.
Who ever learned anything from music except the emotional power of music?"

I think the "emotivism" he decries is actually a good thing.  Yeah, there 
are alot of cheap emotions up for sale but that doesn't mean all emotions 
are cheap.  They are the most important parts of life.  Mr. Bottum may be a 
life long weanie (I can respect his uptightness) but hoping to convince the 
rest of the world to become boring, lifeless, Plato-quoting, self-satisfied 
shells is inexcusable.  I know he tries to come off sounding smart but the 
above quote is really stupid, indefensible, and obviously so (even it is 
true for him).

Peace,

Jim

At 08:38 AM 3/23/00 , you wrote:
>in keeping with recent thread on cruel and unusual punishment....
>
>The Soundtracking of America

"Today he plays jazz; tomorrow he betrays his country."

Slogan in the Soviet Union (1920s).