Like, for instance, if one happens to be on a cruise, and one’s preferences are for the more subtle enjoyments of a more civilized age. With the exception of the lack of gyroscopic stabilizers, I’d be perfectly content sailing a century ago, as my favored amusements tend to involve sitting out with a view of the water before me, a book in one hand and a cool beverage in the other.
Or perhaps walking on the promenade for a post-prandial constitutional, gazing out at the distant horizon and Thinking Big Thoughts.
Best of all, listening to live music, as Rachel and I did most evenings. We’d settle in to listen to a Ukrainian classical trio, whose music was utterly delightful and gracefully selected.
But right next to the venue where the loveliest of music played, there was a casino, filled with the bingings and clangings of slot machines. Not that they were slot machines, technically, as nobody drops quarters into slots anymore. Instead, the spinning wheels are simulated, and the clattering sounds of coins cascading to jackpot are synthetic noise.
One evening, as the first movement of Ludwig’s Trio in C Sharp Minor began its vigorous dance between piano, violin, and cello, the pauses and intentional silences were filled with the nearby cacophony of mechanisms designed to clinically separate human beings from both time and their money.
I felt my enjoyment of the sublime music I was trying to hear soured by irritation. My internal monologue muttered at those hapless uncultured philistines, oblivious to Truth and Beauty, unappreciative of skill and training and subtle sensibilities.
This, I sniffed, is precisely why Western culture is failing and empty, as the clangour of blind predatory systems and the hoi polloi that know no better drowns out all that’s worthy and wise.
Those listening attentively were Us, and those pressing buttons like conditioned rats in a Skinner Box were Them, and Lord, but did I feel superior and self-righteous. Which, of course, is a sign that I remain both a fool and a sinner.
Divisions form so quickly, and we are so very good at them.
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