Consonance and Dissonance

[Mole]

Of course there is cognitive dissonance and cognitive consonance.

And there is musical dissonance and musical consonance. Why, even the Ancient Sumarians, on their clay tablets, commented on musical dissonance and musical consonance. And in the 20th Century, the atonal composers gave us musical dissonance, while in the 19th Century, the Romantic composers gave us musical consonance.

And in art, Constable gave us consonance and Picasso gave us dissonance.

Baroque architecture gave us consonance, while Gothic architecture gave us dissonance.

And in ballet, the Dance of the Flowers gave us consonance, while the Rite of Spring gave us dissonance.

And in politics, democracy gives us dissonance while theocracy gives us consonance.

And even in literature there is consonance and dissonance. "Ulysses", is a good example of dissonance in literature, while, "The Mill on the Floss", gives us consonance.

But dissonance has never been popular whether musical, in politics, art, architecture, literature or ballet, or as cognitive dissonance.

And the whole tenor of this site can be seen as a struggle for consonance against dissonance.

And what is most interesting is that it takes the form of a moral struggle. Somehow consonance is seen as good and dissonance as bad.

This of course represents the great struggle of the 19th Century Romanticism against the 20th Century Modernism.

Just as, "Mein Kampf", can be seen as the last gasp of Wagnerian Romanticism, and, "Das Kapital", the dying chords of Modernism.

So here we live in the past - with passion.

We drive forward looking in the rear vision mirror.

And like children we argue in the back seat of the car - "Are we there yet?".

"We are there already", we hear, "we are driving through the 19th Century once again, just as, once again we are driving through the 20th Century - wave to all the familiar figures and watch them wave back - look, look, see them in the rear vision mirror".

Meanwhile the 21st Century is rushing towards us through the windscreen - and we can't bear to look.

So we comfort ourselves - and are comforted by - nostalgia and consonance.

 

[matmos]

Of course there is cognitive dissonance and cognitive consonance.

And there is musical dissonance and musical consonance. Why, even the Ancient Sumarians, on their clay tablets, commented on musical dissonance and musical consonance. And in the 20th Century, the atonal composers gave us musical dissonance, while in the 19th Century, the Romantic composers gave us musical consonance.

And even in literature there is consonance and dissonance. "Ulysses', is a good example of dissonance in literature.

But dissonance has never been popular whether musical, in literature or as cognitive dissonance.

And the whole tenor of this site can be seen as a struggle for consonance against dissonance.

And what is most interesting is that it takes the form of a moral struggle. Somehow consonance is seen as good and dissonance as bad.

This of course represents the great struggle of the 19th Century Romanticism against the 20th Century Modernism.

Just as, "Mein Kampf", can be seen as the last gasp of Wagnerian Romanticism, and, "Das Kapital", the dying chords of Modernism.

So here we live in the past - with passion.

We drive forward looking in the rear vision mirror.

And like children we argue in the back of the car - "Are we there yet?".

"We are there already", we say, "we are driving through the 19th Century once again, just as, once again we are driving through the 20th Century" - wave to all the familiar figures and watch them wave back.

Meanwhile the 21st Century is rushing towards us through the windscreen - and we can't bear to look.

So we comfort ourselves - and are comforted by - nostalgia.

In unison, nostalgia is seen as healthy. But nostalgia 'ain't like it used to be.

The past is a projection. A collection of apples turned into a box of oranges by wishful thinking.

Dissonance screams the emperor has no clothes. Consonance tells us how nicely the emperor's cloak is embroidered.

People don't like dissonance. It is painful: one cannot hold two contradictory beliefs, unless we add a big dollop of consonance to balance things out.

This is called bad faith. There's alot of it about.

 

[Mole]

In unison, nostalgia is seen as healthy. But nostalgia 'ain't like it used to be.

The past is a projection. A collection of apples turned into a box of oranges by wishful thinking.

Dissonance screams the emperor has no clothes. Consonance tells us how nicely the emperor's cloak is embroidered.

People don't like dissonance. It is painful: one cannot hold two contradictory beliefs, unless we add a big dollop of consonance to balance things out.

This is called bad faith. There's alot of it about.

Yes.

 

[matmos]

The road to hell is paved with fine intentions (sic).

 

[matmos]

Many years ago I had a flunky job in a bar. It demanded obedience, although the manager was as bent as they come. I'd do overtime and never get paid; I suspect he trousered the money that I'd worked for. I left - I confess at a time that caused maximum inconvenience. His last words, "you can't leave now". Mine to him: watch me.

Maybe I didn't behave like the kind of barman he expected. I believe he was later sacked for his various scams (including tax avoidance). He may have ended up in prison, but probably got a huge fine. He kept two sets of books. His photocopier sat in a little office near the kitchen. It wasn't locked. Fatal.