Maybe it's True . . .

It seems beauty really can save the world, or at least a part of it.

60 Minutes reported on a man in Venezuela who has been teaching poor and at-risk city youth, boys and girls, how to read music, play instruments and perform in a symphony. And not just any music, they are learning classical composers like Beethoven and Bach. The program is called El Sistema, started in 1975 by José Antonio Abreu, and now consisting of 300,000 children, the best of whom perform internationally under the direction of conductor Gustavo Dudamel, himself a former student of Senor Abreu and El Sistema.

The phrase, "Beauty will save the world," taken from a Dostoevsky novel, has been quoted and interpreted by hundreds of writers including Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who said this,

. . . there is a special quality in the essence of beauty, a special quality in the status of art: the conviction carried by a genuine work of art is absolutely indisputable and tames even the strongly opposed heart. One can construct a political speech, an assertive journalistic polemic, a program for organizing society, a philosophical system, so that in appearance it is smooth, well structured, and yet it is built upon a mistake, a lie . . . and one has faith in them—yet one has no faith.

These at-risk youth were never persuaded as to what constitutes a good life, they fell in love with something good, which is what beauty is, and now it seems a couple hundred thousand kids are doing something well and loving it. And in a way experiencing a good, or at least a better, way of life.

The report is worth seeing, especially the little 14 year old girl who plays the trumpet, or the blind boy that plays the violin at the end. If that doesn't get you, you're not breathing. It's all pretty good stuff.

The 60 Minutes report:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/11/60minutes/main4009335.shtml

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Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
John Keats / Ode to a Grecian Urn

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Verizon Ad / Art / Coming to America

Main Street Arts Festival



The Main St. Art Festival starts today. It costs nothing to walk around and look and you get to see some really good art. There is a long line of artists who want to display at this show and very few are selected. This is one of my favorite Fort Worth events of the year. Remember, it's good food, entertainment and art, too. http://www.mainstreetartsfest.org/home.aspx

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Hey Brad!

It's official. After one year of posting, the one post to receive the most comments is the Verizon ad post. I still get about one comment a day. The last comment, in case you're not keeping up with it, asked about the background music. I like it, too, but don't know where it's from. I love the tuba.

Commentor Anonymous, I'm sorry, you're wrong, this is a great advertisement (hey, my weblog, my rules).

The ad doesn't play much anymore. Too bad, for me. If you didn't get enough of it, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gpxEdRPttk&feature=related

Last thought: today the post received three comments, for a total of 24. if you want to read them go back to April's posts.
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A comment on Pope Benedict XVI.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected by the College of Cardinals to lead the Roman Catholic Church this month 3 years ago. He succeeded a Pope who had served for over 25 years and who almost single-handedly threw the burden of the Church on his shoulders and carried it through the troubles of the post modern age. It's difficult to talk about John Paul II without using words like greatness and saint, both as person and as a man of accomplishment.
Cardinal Ratzinger was by JPII's side as head of the Prefect for the Congregation of Faith for 24 years. When he was elected Pope he did so with respect for his immediate predecessor's calling, and with a vision of addressing the consequences of modern theology and philosophy, especially in Europe. Read his address to the Italian Parliament reprinted in a book titled, Without Roots. John Paul 2 was a very bright man, few will attempt to match wits with Pope Benedict in theology, philosophy, Church doctrine and history, and especially European history. That given, his first papal encyclical was Deus Caritas Est, (God is Love). Thanks for coming to America Pope Benedict XVI.

What's Wrong With Majorities:

A minority may be right, and a majority is always wrong.
Henrik Ibsen

If the commonly held notion, that the majority opinion is, ipso facto, the right opinion, are we to assume that evils of the past, such as human slave trading as a commercial activity, were good while a majority of voters considered them so?

If there was one idea that I wish would regain popularity in media discourse, it is the notion that the the rule of law protects the minority from the majority, mob-rule is restrained by a higher law. An idea, by the way, Americans adopted from the Romans, the Greeks, the Jewish Torah, a few Teuton tribes, the French (well some of them, as in baron de Montesquieu), and the Brits (Common Law, Magna Charta, etc). Americans just got lucky with their parents, so to speak.

Which leads me to the point (like I always say, it helps to have a point). To wit:

I keep hearing on the news shows and reading in the newspapers the use of the majority argument against the war in Iraq, that is, polls showing a vast majority of Americans "against the war in Iraq." Therefore, I suppose I am to conclude that it is wrong. The war in Iraq may be wrong, I do not know if it is or isn't, but the "majority argument" has nothing to do with it, unless it is a majority of Congressman who rule that we should get out.

That is our system of government, and it is called a Republic.

(Andrew: comment, por favor)