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Audio, Politics, and the Asylum

Posted by Bambi B (A) on July 29, 2009 at 15:46:42

PAINTING: "Welcome to Oklahoma"

Audio, Politics, and the Asylum

7.29.09

Mates,

In the nine years and 2,800 posts since first visiting here, one aspect of this site has consistently and increasingly bothered me and threatens to destroy this part of the pleasure of my audio /music avocation.

I’m referring to the considerable and intense political comment that is creeping from Outside to Water Cooler to Central - former refuge of cat lovers- to Music to Prop Head to Critics and beyond. Every so often- and more often lately- I find myself thinking of a way to dramatically declare my objection to the derisive, divisive, and sign off forever, but this mood I know is the petulant tot in me and I’d be back in no time, not as Bambi B- the innocent in the woods looking for answers but as my evil alter ego HonQui Ice TrĚ, angry rapper and hater of beauty and suburban sensibilities.

I wouldn’t mind if there were civil and reasoned exposition and discussion on political themes relating to cultural matters and the oddly political world of the audio business, and the strange combination of the objective and subjective, the technical and aesthetic will forever confront one another, but what is unnecessary and in my view destructive is the encroachment here of the cornucopia of the weird and provocative, the true and the false, the exultant and the denigrating, the bigoted and the compassionate. These issues, as they become insinuated to audio and cultural, means that as this site is rapidly losing it's focus and indeed becoming contrary to it's conception as an "Asylum":

asylum (-slm)
n.
1. An institution for the care of people, especially those with physical or mental impairments, who require organized supervision or assistance.
2. A place offering protection and safety; a shelter.
3. A place, such as a church, formerly constituting an inviolable refuge for criminals or debtors.
4. The protection afforded by a sanctuary. See Synonyms at shelter.
5. Protection and immunity from extradition granted by a government to a political refugee from another country.

We all recognize that we are in a virtual institution, but the “place” of protection and safety”, the bit of “sanctuary” from the brutality of the realms of war, economic disaster, divisive religious belief, the stupidities of proto-fascism and retro-collectivism, and just plain civility has eroded to new lows and for me, the delight of corresponding with enthusiasts full of energy and knowledge, supportive and friendly- the sense of a community of friends seeking a common respite from the shite of the crudity and commercial pressures of the World is slipping away. People that I’m sure I’d enjoy meeting in person and talking audio gear, music, and recordings are for me become suspect and belligerent ravers and though I’ve increasingly tried to moderate any political comment in my posts, and that I imagine I might appear a pompous, wordy loon to some, at least my brand of insanity is mostly friendly!

I read and sometimes post at Audiokarma and when I visit there, I sense two effects in contrast to the current state of the Asylum: first, a relief from the gainsaying and name-calling, purposeful provocations, and alienating crackpottery of politics- a kind of peace of being among the calm and like-minded in purpose and secondly, a resultant ability to focus on the purposes and pleasures motivating me to visit an audio site.

It is expected and reasonable for those who enjoy the cut and thrust of the politics here to assert that I should just avoid the political threads and forums, but the atmosphere here is become poisoned and every forum polluted with sudden pop-up cynicism, falsehoods, and decision. I notice that adversaries on Outside increasingly deride each other on other forums, and it seems obvious that these confrontations are not related to the topic at hand, but to injuries and animosities developed and festering elsewhere.

This is of course a privately owned and controlled site with no aspirations to democracy, but what say you to considering a ban on politics? Does anyone else wish as I do to put the world of comment on health care, stimulus, wars, greed, snake oil brokers, religion, abortion, racism, Obama’s birth certificate, Palin, Evolution, out to the innumerable other pastures thus dedicated and spend our rare leisure time in the pursuit of that other world of serenity and common purpose of music, sound gear, and art?

That is, might it be possible to make again an “asylum”?

Cheers,

Bambi B

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