the Not Yet

There is something about the Utopic longing of modernity that is deeply appealing; not the possession of Truth or institutions built around the notion that some people do, in fact, possess it; not the attempt to build heaven-on-earth, for that often leads to disaster ("He who would play the angel ends up playing the beast"). But the open society that is an odd mixture of principles and uncertainty (a direction, rather than a place).

A democracy is founded on the notion that everyone's opinion counts. Is "founded" the right word? Doesn't the ability to ignore foundations, to not think of the "origin" as always the most perfect, define modernity itself? Isn't that, precisely, what the mullahs and the traditionalists call the nihilism, the uprootedness of, modernity: there is no cosmic, natural or divine order any more:the truth is lyingly added.

And "opinion," not the Truth! Doesn't the storyteller also have to be a truth-teller? Here, democratic institutions mirror and re-inforce the openness, vagueness and plurality of culture. Not just a pragmatic idealism (piecemeal change) but creativity as a tapping into the not-yet, a resistance to closure and finality..the introduction of beauty into time. In this sense, the market is also seen as a positive contribution to the dissolution of established hierarchies and inherited distinctions. Preferences are not just 'given' but refined through choices, constraints, interactions (Frank Knight, Hayek).

[Gosh, you never thought I'd be quoting Hayek did you?!]

Listening to Gould's Stokowski recording. Interesting idea that rehearsals are better than the actual live performance because in the former there is a chance for improvement, change, new insights. But the what of jazz and the 'open work' (Eco)?

Came across this lovely piece of music via Danny Norbury, via anton.