[ Featuring Jordan Peterson ]
What would be the forms of culture that we would say to be necessary or most inclined
To foster in the individual that blowing of the flame?
I think the most accessible form for most people is music
And music to me is the most representational form of art
Because I think that the world is made out of patterns
And we perceive some patterns as objects but fundamentally
It's patterns and what you want is all the patterns of the world
To interact harmoniously in something
Where every element is related intelligibly to every other element
And I think that when your life is in harmony that you can feel that
When you're dancing to beautiful music you're acting that out
The music is the music of the spheres and you're participating
In the patterning of your being in accordance with that structure
And that gives you an intimation of transcendence
Music is everything
It's not criticisable, that's the thing that's so lovely about it
Is even as our society has become more cynical and more self-destructive
And more deconstructionist, the power of music has in fact grown
Because it speaks to that eternal harmony and the reality of that eternal harmony
In a way that that mere intellect cannot deny
And I mean I was always amused
I went to this show, the Ramones, a punk band from New York
It was the loudest concert I'd ever heard by by a good factor of ten
My ears rang for like three days afterward
There were all these like nihilistic punk rockers all crammed
Into this theatre and blow me there was a mosh pit
It was like ants on a frying pan and they were just smashing into each other
And throwing people around up above them
And it was quite rough and they were all having this beautifully transcendent musical experience
Which belied all of their nihilism and they absolutely thrived on it
It was like, and even the lyrics were harsh and nihilist but it didn't matter
Because the music in its rough form was something that united them in this sense of this
Like patterned beauty and brought them together
And so exposure to music, people die without music, it's like
Music is everything
