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Tradition or Progress?
A suggestion for roots, growth, and moving forward.
If there is nothing else to be gleaned from the Austrian-American composer Arnold Schoenberg, at least we have a lesson in how to approach progress. Schoenberg’s name is often associated with the theoretical concept within music called atonality and the expressionist movement of the 20th century. However, we ought not to miss the very human lesson of his work; one in which we all must decide how we will proceed.
The inherent subtlety of human existence is that we are moving. Change is inevitable. It’s impossible to be static. One can, therefore, change poorly — akin to blocking the flowing water that is life to become a stagnant swamp — but one cannot hold on to what was because that is constantly an act of effervescent vanishing.
Yet, all movement is an adventure to the unknown. It’s as if we walk, but we walk toward a blinding sun, obstructing our view of the path before us. How, then, do we properly move in our lives and in the world?
Our culture has offered a rigid dichotomy of options most obvious in the language of conservative and progressive dispositions. One must either hold to the old or swear by the new. Such a dichotomy should not be so.
