Nietzsche and Runaway Audio Consumption


Came across this today. A lot of posts bring up the issue of "how much is enough?" or "when is audio consumption justified" etc.

Does this Nietzsche aphorism apply to audio buying? You be the judge! 

Friedrich Nietzsche“Danger in riches. — Only he who has spirit ought to have possessions: otherwise possessions are a public danger. For the possessor who does not know how to make use of the free time which his possessions could purchase him will always continue to strive after possessions: this striving will constitute his entertainment, his strategy in his war against boredom. 

Thus in the end the moderate possessions that would suffice the man of spirit are transformed into actual riches – riches which are in fact the glittering product of spiritual dependence and poverty. They only appear quite different from what their wretched origin would lead one to expect because they are able to mask themselves with art and culture: for they are, of course, able to purchase masks. By this means they arouse envy in the poorer and the uncultivated – who at bottom are envying culture and fail to recognize the masks as masks – and gradually prepare a social revolution: for gilded vulgarity and histrionic self-inflation in a supposed ‘enjoyment of culture’ instil into the latter the idea ‘it is only a matter of money’ – whereas, while it is to some extent a matter of money, it is much more a matter of spirit.” 

Nietzsche, Friedrich. 1996. Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits. Cambridge University Press. (p. 283-4, an aphorism no. 310)

I'm pretty sure @mahgister will want to read this one! (Because they speak so artfully about avoiding the diversion that consumption poses to the quest for true aesthetic and acoustic excellence.)

128x128hilde45

What a silly read on this Christmas of 2021. I have worked long and hard to buy the gear to build my system. And now that I'm retired I shall enjoy the music my system brings forth. 

@ mahgister - Thanks much for your latest response to me.  I'm all good, so no problem.  I also often regret my passions :) 

Second, in a forum such as this, it's a real challenge to adequately express complex philosophical, ethical, religious (spirit-ual) concepts, considering the nature of the medium and its audience.  In retrospect, maybe doing so is a fool's errand.

RE: N's use of the term/concept of "spirit" seems to me to be quite different from the Hebrew as used by the ancients (I have studied Hebrew), from which you make reference.  It would have been more helpful and clear had I effectively engaged this particular quibble. But again, the nature of the forum is challenging when attempting to engage even such limited scope.

All that said, Hilde does make an interesting and potentially profitable observation by posing the question he does - just in terms of an ethical consideration some may wish to ponder.  I'm merely observing that, perhaps, utilizing N does more to confuse or obscure the matter for interested readers than provide clarity necessary for arriving at a more mature understanding of the matter.  

Great post!

You are right about everything in your remarks...

But going back to the Dyonysian experience which inspire Nietszche and his sacred festivities but especially going back to the Mysteries Sacred schools experiment like in Eleusis, which was a center of sprit around for all people of the mediterranean sea, we realized the experience of spirit in Greece is not completely foreing to the ancient hebrew "ruach" perception and experience....

The intimate participation to the spirit mimic one another in Greek and Jews and in all cultures anyway , the spirit experience ultimately is the same, think about NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE for example or out of the body experiences, but the way to express it and partipate to nature differ...

One of the best book on that is Peter Kingsley "reality"....Jews civilization of the Alexandrine period and after it is way more nearer to the Greek that  what we had learned in our younger days...

Alexandria was the cosmopolitan Paris/ Newyork of the ancient world and jews scholars meets there with Greeks even were influenced by Greek thought on a level underestimated completely 50 years ago..

lIsten to this scholar takes about Alexandria era....

Plato All the Way Down: Solving Biblical Mysteries with Russell Gmirkin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsL7m6VSNTM&t=4995s

Just a meaningful anecdote: Egyptian priesthood at the bibliotheca of Alexandria, the biggest in the world collected all documents of ANY political constitution or about philosophy and science they coud grap... They ask Corinthians for example give us your city constituion written document, we will copy it and return you back, in the mean time we will send you a gold warrenty for sure... Corinthians obeyed and accepted the gold send their constitution; but after some years, the Egyptians never answering the Corenthians demands for the retrurn, said keep the gold we keep the constitution and we will send you a copy.... That speak a lot about their passionate urge to collect EVERYTHING ....They ask jews scholars what are your people think about God, your history , etc wrote it for us and we will keep it in the bibliotheca... Guess what comes from it? It is Gmirkin well researched thesis...

 

Humans of all culture are way more similar to one another that they ever think they are, but they dont understand it, they dont want to know it, and they do all they can to prove this wrong...The experience of the spirit is the SAME all over the world, but the way we participate to nature is not....

Humans are connected by the heart and separated by the body....

 

 

 

We must speak sometimes to one another from a wider perspective like the OP wisely suggest...

 

But you are right also for sure in some way about this perilous tentative...

Second, in a forum such as this, it’s a real challenge to adequately express complex philosophical, ethical, religious (spirit-ual) concepts, considering the nature of the medium and its audience. In retrospect, maybe doing so is a fool’s errand.

In the course to prove that they are much different than one another people buy artefacts, and create new one for the sake of the difference and feel then different at least if not superior...

This is a UNIVERSAL trends...

People are connected by the heart and differ by their bodies...

The spirit experience is the same all over the world but the way this experience manifest itself through the body and through our participation of nature differ...

Now read what Nietszche said:

«Only he who has spirit ought to have possessions: otherwise possessions are a public danger. »

Is it not clear?

Read audio thread where people vouch about gear forgetting the essential key to the experience: acoustic and psycho-acoustic....They think an amplifier is more important than the acoustic link between the gear/room/ears...

In audio experience it is not the possession that define the experience it is acoustic and psycho-acoustic law because the sound/music experience is the same, based on the same science, but artefacts differ and the way this experience manifested itself may differ...