This volcanic essay was written in the beginning of 2011, but it was revised ten years later (Fall of 2021). Herein I would like to touch upon the difficult questions of race (especially race-mixing), intelligence and music in USA, something many great writers have not done without a tinge of prejudice, racial discrimination or bias.
Accordingly, I would like to view the current topic fairly, and with an eye on the touchy sensitivity of the volatile issues at hand, especially by a large population of disgruntled people, time and time again, I have stressed the rise to civilization to the “fickle strokes of chance and fate,” but also “necessity and milieu" may have spurred some people to develop wonderful skills and methods to coping with the struggle of existence.
Unlike many other great philosophers (e.g., Hume, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche), I was able to trace moral decline, decadence and degeneration to mysterious, recurrent forces going beyond the mere racial or geographical.
Furthermore, the definition of "intelligence," as something that could be "extremely corrosive" if not guided with the light of wisdom, divinity and love, was recast on the basis and basic principles of respect to a larger community (including the animal kingdom) and Mother Nature.
I herein, would like to express my high regards to any group of people, and if I ever incurred offense or conflicts with any unwise remarks or personal opinion expressed with a hint of witty mockery, may you accept my most sincere apology?
And in doing so, you will blame me of little fault, for when perusing my observations, in comparison to men the likes of Jonathan Swift, Schopenhauer or Mark Twain, you will deem my remarks on race but soft, “optimistic” with the ever-vexing question of my fellow Homo sapiens. For, it is not a secret, that many great men and women in any shape, race and coloration have racked their brains trying to comprehend the recurrent lessons of history:
Why we, Homo sapiens (the off-spring of Adam and Eve), since times immemorial, cannot come to terms with our fellow creatures?
Our great fear is that, having laid waste the planet earth from any available resources to supporting our current civilization (racial clashes, riots and unemployment in USA are still major problems), our dear ethical people may have to resort to a mode of existence, which, in many ways and challenges, would task us all to seek solace and hope in a simpler, and yet greater fraternity: a brotherhood with the nexus-concept of Man and Nature!
Finally, reminding you, that I am a comedian in a serious stance. I am not advocating polygamy or cloning to the quick reproduction of the white race; if they are to survive, they must re-embrace themselves with greater love, family-values and respect for their own brothers and sisters.
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Year 2011: racist writings by principal Frank Borzellieri led to his firing from a Bronx school yesterday. There are very difficult questions pertaining to race-mixing and the decline of a nation, because when we examine the pages of history, there are the outstanding achievements of the Moors and Arabs, especially in mathematics, algebra and geometry. But, we are at a loss when finding the “trends and underlying forces“ that lead certain remarkable people to their disintegration and eventual disappearance.
Of course, one would be very careful, nay, cautious, when placing one race over another in terms of intellectual capacity and intelligence. David Hume believes certain differences do exist among the children of Adam and Eve, and led by the great civilization of Europe, he places the white race as superior to any other race. When speaking on the origin of the different races, Schopenhauer seems to follow on the same train of thoughts (On Philosophy and Natural Science, P. 156, Parerga and Paralipomena, Vol. 2).
Obviously, Schopenhauer, a stubborn empiricist, does not believe race to be a mere social construct. While he admires Hinduism and Buddhism as perhaps surpassing the metaphysical systems of the West, the flowers of civilization, culture and technology have bloomed with greater splendor and beauty in the magnificent cities of Europe. United States, at least for the last one hundred years, may have surpassed Europe in technological prowess, but we are simply heir to the master-builders of civilizations.
But such superior intelligence, well-designed polis, huge buildings and impressive scientific advances, strictly speaking, such “superiority,” is not due to one race being physically more able, nor intellectually more fit than others in power of adaptation and reproduction; but it is noteworthy, that the immediate struggle of survival and existence may have compelled certain people to exceed more than others in the best form of government, and with the spread of knowledge, methodology and technicality, some races (as the Chinese today) became the ruling masters and the lords of the earth (Note: Egypt was ruled by a now extinct dark race of people, for the Egyptian masters who built the Great Pyramids could not be said to be either black or white). True. To deny a glorious past to the African people may argue our intelligence, for it is a well-known fact that the Sphinx’s face in Egypt is chiseled in the likeness of Ham, the beloved son of Noah.
The man of color, whom, according to both archeology and philosophy, is but the cradle of humanity in the natural state, for only with a proper mild climate and milieu --quite often the tropical and torrid zones of the planet earth-- could certain primitive people survive to their present form of development with little cultivation and rudimentary tools to cope with a simple existence.
Nevertheless, the man of color is found today in high places once reserved for the exclusive white elite of England, Austria and France (e.g., Barack Obama, former president of the United States of America, held a position of power, once reserved for kings in Germany or Spain); and some black men could outsmart others in certain intellectual tasks requiring very high degree of intelligence.
But the privilege of the white race is their thousands of years of experience with the rough, the precipitous, the difficult and complicated issues of existence in the cold zones of the planet earth --that is their most trustworthy resume: a history of labyrinths, wars and endless calamities at every turn and twist of history. (Note: It is worth recalling that the Roman Empire collapsed and was trampled, sacked and subjugated by the white barbarian tribes of the North of Europe).
When dealing with the Schooling System of the United State of America, one would forget that perhaps Shakespeare was not Anglo-Saxon but of Spaniard origin; that the Moors, in the seventh century, learned from the Hindu people the number-series and zero concept as we know it and use it today for very far-fetched calculus, economics and other puzzles; and for the first time, the European man could deal with the Law of Infinity and Probability as never thought possible, nor dreamed by the the ancient Greek philosophers or Roman mathematicians.
Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and many other Renaissance artists and scientists, in all likelihood, had Moorish blood running through their veins as the other branches of knowledge.
Nevertheless, secretly, everybody would like to be white or whitish (as evinced in the face of famed baseball player Sammy Sosa) even yellow or sallow, because among the tropical people, with needs and poverty the skin would be exposed to the sun’s scorching rays, and a tanned skin is the stigma of servitude, “the mark of status” in the social caste of the Dominican Republic; and to walk miles by feet in a hot-dog day (a man without a car in DR, is a nobody, “un salta pa-atrás,” in typical Dominican vernacular) would be a form of punishment in certain parts of the globe: hence, a dark coloration, throughout history, according to Arthur Schopenhauer, has been associated with the working class, and the elite, la aristocracia, quite often would look fairer and princely in their cozy palaces, comfy cars and mansions. This is, of course, an absurd social stratification in the frigid zones of the Planet Earth, but it may hold true in the tropics.
Nevertheless, in those underdeveloped countries and places where everybody is either black or brown, a white person would seem a most ghostly thing and unnatural phenomenon at midnight.
In the Dominican Republic, where most people are either brown or mulatto (mixed), a white or black person seen late in the night, and without electricity, could be one of the most frightening experiences.
A white person (especially people of milky complexion like the Spaniard and British) would seem as if popping out of darkness like a hovering phantom, thus defying the Kingdom of Darkness; whereas a truly black person would easily camouflage and blend-in with the realm of the surrounding spacious night. This phenomenon, to be able to “camouflage,“ like the unnoticeable chameleon with the surrounding environment, is one of the advantages of the black soldier over the white foe, thus defying the sense of perception, any radar or detector in the most amusing conceivable manners and survival advantages bestowed among certain dark people.
Now, Mother Nature, as she is concerned with the protection of the human race in the child of the tropics, she has likewise vouchsafed the black people with other admirable qualities: resilience, adaptability and a knack for comedy, entertainment and sport, to transforming the most serious issues (e.g., the dour existentialism of Sartre or Camus, or the sombre nihilism of Schopenhauer or Frederich Nietzsche) in a most “amusing nonchalance” or clannish insouciance to the chilly gloominess and terror of an existence full-fraught with uncertainties, sufferings, ennui and calamities.
Togetherness, like a family, even unto death, is one of the cardinal virtues of the black people, and rarely would they abandon an aging dearly loved mother at the mercy of a nursing home for the elderly.
On the other hand, it is quite moving to visit one of these upper-crusty rehabilitation centers for the wealthy in New York City, and marvel on how riches, prestige and material things not always accrue to the priceless treasures and benefits of a true family.
But it is even more striking when one comes across a lonely eminent white woman or man, a great writer, a great scientist or philosopher, and I wonder whether the intrinsic quality of life could be gauged by the distinction of solitude, or by the incomparable benefits of friendship?
Black people in the Dominican Republic, however ready for outings and picnics, may wonder at this connatural tendency among certain European tourists (especially among the Germans), a melancholic frame of mind, more pronounced in the well-educated ones with a penchant for deep thoughts, as observed by Aristotle when speaking of the staid philosopher’s worldview, to quite often see, even in the depths of things, something bleak, sombre, and darkly in the fundamentals of this brief existence.
Nevertheless, tropical people, at least in USA, with the few exceptions of course, in recent years, have perhaps enjoyed greater scope of freedom and social mobility, and at times, they have accomplished much by an exemplary emulation of the excellent teachings of Martin Luther King Jr., paragon of humanities and justice for all.
But if such a droll black person, convinced that he is still invisible and “undetectable” to both man and his law, would proceed to laugh at his enemies with his mouth wide open; moreover, if late in the night, the white streaks of his barbed teeth —like cutting-edge sabers— could be seen floating, brandishing, gnashing, clattering and suspended in mid air, cutting through the thickest shadows in the impenetrable conundrums of a precarious existence, “justice for all,” then our fright could be even greater.
To blame the white man for the injustices, grotesqueries and inequities of this world-samsara is one of the greatest fallacies ever taught in the schooling systems of United States of America.
Of course, I am not denying the evils of colonialism anymore than the evils of wars, corruption, mendacity, and anarchy. For these and other reasons, during difficult times, I would prefer to be a black man in the United States of America. Fortunately, in the Dominican Republic, we got used to such amusing people, and so, we would rather laugh with surprising terror, delight and jollity!
The only people we thought to be pleasant to the sight were the Tainos (indigenous people of cinnamon-colored complexion) and to a certain extent, some Germans, when properly tanned down in our splendid beaches, could be said to belong naturally to the hot climes of the planet earth.
In my opinion, with due respect to my Dominican patriots, the people of Mozart are still on top when it comes to orchestral music. God created children with certain in-born natural talents. To the German people alone we are, forever, indebted for the most beautiful music ever conceived.
Some people are afraid of acknowledging these facts of the German people, because of all the sad events during the Second World War. But the great German geniuses, so highly revered today, were not so appreciated by their own country-men. It is said (Nietzsche, Ecce Homo) that many great German artists, composers and philosophers were not “Aryans,” some were of Anglo-Saxon descent, Italians and even Jews became prominent artists and thinkers in Germany.
Schopenhauer's background was Dutch, and Kant looks very British to me. But Mozart was a true German soul and Germanic like J.S. Bach and the Faust of Goethe.
The moral decline of the Germans is proof that, behind the creative strength of whole group people, there are the values, ethos and forces that could mold beyond the mere racial and physical.
There are the special exceptions, as was the case of the wonderful Moors (a mixed people), so praised by Nietzsche (The Antichrist, page102), that a people may settle in certain areas of the planet Earth, and favored by the most fortunate strokes of chance and fate, could perfect their society, to such high degree, that other nations would think them superior.
There is one prerequisite for polished works of genius demanding the greatest intellectual exertion: first, that one privileged group of thinkers would be free from any drudgery or forced labor; and second, that such society could be tempered by the rigor of a rough milieu, which would require expertise, knowledge, certain talents, special tools, technology and some form of art and entertainment to sooth the sting of a miserable existence.
La Necesidad agudeza el ingenio (Spanish Proverb)
(Need is the mother of invention)
Necessity is the mother of all inventions, and good taste for excellence could be cultivated when a society has reached the acme-heaven of a free thinking mind; and philosophy and orderliness is the patrimony of the most privileged nations on earth.
Unfortunately, barbarism is a recurrent event even in the most beautiful form of civilization. We listen to Mozart and wonder how the once Barbarian tribes could produce minds the likes of Kant or Hegel?
Let us be careful when judging the bosom of the most profound tribes who ever lived among the impenetrable swamps of Europe and the wild woods of history.
What we admire of the most serious minds and hearts who ever thought and felt, is the scope of sensibilities to expressing themselves in such a string of ideas, feelings, emotions, writings and inspiring thoughts; for, when it comes to dealing with difficult problems of existence, some great masters have generously bequeathed to us a priceless trove of valuable insights, art-works and many experiences that could avail the wayfarer to reach a "true paradise" within the soul. I could live a tolerably contented life with few good books, the boon of Mother Nature and the healing power of music.
The art of building and writing have allowed some nations to produce great thinkers, poets, artists and philosophers, but the perfection of some musical instruments, like the well-tempered clavier, strings, the grandeur and beauty of pipe organ, the science of harmony and music notation, gave a tremendous impetus through aesthetic configurations.
And with the power of music, the Northern people, naturally gifted for the most subtle sounds of nature, joy and suffering, were able to stir up our passions and feelings, to such high chromatic pitch, that to this day, few composers would dare rival the musical narratives and profundity of Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Rachmaninoff or Wagner....
Perhaps some folks would disagree with me. They would try to convince that, as children of linear evolution, our hectic streets and thoroughfares, in due time, will be filled with Mozart by the dozens and Leonardo da Vinci by the scores; but our sad world rattles, thrums and ferments with very noxious stuff...
On How Intelligence Evolved Due To Needs and Milieu
When appraising the ethos and culture of different people, I must here agree with Montesquieu when ascribing to diet, topography and clime, the most decided effects in molding the qualities that make-up any particular group of people --not only at biological levels, but also at the most subtle, instinctual psychological impulses.
This is most evident in the areas of art, music and literature. The northern people, whether they would admit it or not, are more apt to seek the extremes of things than the tropical people; whether in shocking juxtapositions, sudden retreats to solitary wild places, mountain-climbing, the most riveting extravaganzas --like Thoreau building a cabin next to a pond in the wood, the so-called white people (more obvious in the most industrial races and their awful past through one thousand labyrinths) are admirably endowed, as stated earlier, with a penchant for things and activities requiring great mental fortitude and madness.
Accordingly, some white people are suited for the most daunting undertakings, which other people, like us the Latinos, the Hindus, the Jamaicans and among other tropical races, would back off in fright at even the courageous disposition of such incomprehensible travails.
Whereas the Northern people seem to be attracted to a tough existence in many colossal enterprises, museums, endless libraries, huge pavilions here and there and so on, we, the torrid people, with the few exceptions of course, are less inclined to finding pleasure in tedious works demanding the greatest exertion of the human mind.
Nevertheless, it would be silly to overlook such tendencies and immediate influences when assessing, placing and employing a particular group of people for their knacks, utility and intelligence.
That the current white people who rule us are more intelligent than the working classes, the proletariat, is due to the fact that the poor masses, under the burden of constant physical labors and menial chores, have little time for leisure, the cultivation of the higher intellectual faculties and the lexicon thereof.
That some very heavy food (like rice, beans and fried plantain, the main menu of the Dominican people) may have a detrimental effect in the mind, is not to be questioned; toad-like, it then reacts slowly, in thoughts and ideas lapsing coarsely slothful, dull, sluggish; and this “dozing-off effect” could be due to causes related to those sensitive substances as found in the cerebellum, which strained by the sudden tugs of a forced digestion, may ensue in lethargic giddiness and snooze.
Such unsound diets and roots as found in certain Dominican menu, could hold back the subtilest faculties of our mind, little by little benumbing our sensitivity to appreciating “a fine expressivo,” or a sotto voce, which, incidentally, this phenomenon could also explain why some Caribbean people would prefer a type of music highly more loud, noisy and rapid than any other groups of people could admit.
But of course, sociological behaviors could be communicated from one group to the other, indeed, bearing little relations to those above-mentioned causes. Once the pattern is established, and the menu already set out for sale, it could be contagious! Time and time again, I have seen some white conservative American folks as much enjoying the aforementioned food (e.g., mofongo, rice and beans with fried chicken) and dancing the merengue-jig of the Dominican community, as these latter pretending to enjoy the jazz and blues of their Northerner counterparts.
We, the torrid people, have talent and skills of a certain kind, and it should never be proper, nor worthy of educated minds, to belittle or underestimate the greatness of any group of people on the ground of aesthetic achievement, for, in the course of history, there are too many complex factors setting the unstable platform for any rise to civilization and culture.
However sensitive to any bias or prejudice, I must here admit that those privileged tribes or people whom, favored by a high degree of sensibilities and sensitiveness, nay, a rough mode of existence and suffering, could have, albeit over great periods of time, developed a “far-greater range of vivid stimuli in the brain's highly complex clusters of cells,“ formidable banks of datas, hence, the most subtle thought-perceptive powers; likewise, the keenest susceptibilities, sensibilities and feelings as honed and whetted-out by the rigor of many necessities in their rough milieu.
This could explain the remarkable descriptive power of the English Language, the German and the other Scandinavian languages. If these once barbarian tribes were able to find expression and linguistic outlet to such phenomena as perceived in their artworks and literature, what kind of caustic intelligence could have evolved to arresting in bold terms, both written and spoken, the subtlest nuances and shades in the cognitive power of the human mind?
Perhaps even more than the ancient Greeks and the Romans, the Barbarian people had a certain type of biological stamina, a certain vital impetus of tremendous biological force, which when favored by all the attendant circumstances leading to high civilization and refinement, could produce, indeed in great offspring, a remarkable progeny, capable of surpassing, in both subtlety and fortitude, those torrid races (e.g., the Mayan people, the Incas) grown mild and sagged-out by too much complacency and toilsome drudgeries.
Unfortunately, like any other civilization in the past, that first "vital stimulus" which once so overfilled the barbarian soul with the greatest fireworks, monumental artistic outputs in almost every single field of art and learning, eventually, became less forcible, nay, weak and feeble, in those northern people "too overly civilized" (especially the dwindling white people of USA and South America) whom, not so beset by the constant tweaks and throes of a dangerous existence in the struggle with nature and other species, have now lost the essential qualities of the 'hardy soul," the hard training in constant danger, which could so create a steel-people in the sublime America of landscape artist Frederick Church: a mighty nation once so terrible and rambunctious in the tidal waves of history, indeed, the dread and admiration of any other race who ever suffered to walk next to them...
A traveler:
“By their side, I was reduced to a mere pygmy."
Race is always a hot topic in America. I have lived for more than thirty years in New York City. When I first set foot in the John F. Kennedy Airport, I was quite amused by the numberless white people I saw back then in the lovely yesteryears of 1983, 1984...1990s.
One day, I took the number 1 train, and at Times Square, I was quite perplexed to see so many white people bustling, jostling, jamming themselves in the hectic hours of city-life: the so-called rushing hours.
I had seen these fair skin people on TV (Six Million Dollar Man movie series, starring Lee Majors), but now they are next to me, pushing and bustling to get some tiny space inside the wagons, and I was much willing to dispel some curiosity.
My! These people are so numerous. Sure, they would squeeze me if I ever come closer to them. So I thought as I walked up and down the spiraling stairways of a musical theater in Times Square (year 1984).
In the street, where I finally felt free from their ever-darting eyes, some Caucasian kids, on closer inspection, would cast a glance on me, and they were somewhat amused by the tanned, brownish tone of my complexion.
These silly children had perhaps mistaken me for a Hindu, or a Pakistani sojourner from farther-lands. I tried to amuse them by playing some antics, or, by displaying some waggish grimaces of amicability, an outlandish gesture of friendliness and solidarity, but it seems that my strange waggeries and apish behavior rather turned them into detached on-lookers, curious spectators in a city always bustling with comedies and entertainment.
So I reasoned to be a gentleman with a gratuitous token of good humor and pep, and this rationale as advised by the Spanish people, that the most effective way to winning a “sure-ticket“ into the mainstream culture of the American society is in the cheerful spirit of a comedian.
To put on a “gringo outfit“ would suit me well. And nowadays, it is pretty common to find this amusing creature of modern society, a grasshopper, seeking an opportunity in the United States of America.
After some hesitation, I made up my mind to go to 59th Street, Columbus Circles, and lo behold! like numberless sprawling cows grazing on a vast green field, in the very midst of the Central Park, I saw many white people supine, motionless, basking under the sunshine of fame, superiority and luxury.
These people were half-naked, and I was quite embarrassed to see such shameless nudity in public display. These early memories impressed me deeply, for I knew that, while staying in America, my existence would be tasked to finding amicability with these peevish, incomprehensible amigos. Every time I met a whitish person and he/she would treat me well, I would lift up my eyes to heaven in thanksgiving: "Thank you God, for it seems that you have sent me a beautiful angel to guide my steps."
These people were depicted in famous paintings, and here and there in my country, I saw traces of the white civilization, but in USA, their presence seems ubiquitous, religious, political, omnipresent, overpowering!
In Downtown Manhattan, whereat quite often I felt reduced to a mere pygmy, a tiny idiot babbling the English language, these throngs of peoples and nations seemed to me like a mighty army stretching far into the haze of distance; hither and thither, in every nook and cranny, lo! I saw the white people, strutting back and forth, shopping, dancing, singing, flying, crawling, creeping, wambling, leaping, flitting all over the scene like restless ants in a confusing maze of endless activities in New York City. Buzzing and fluttering like lightning beetles in the evening hours of action, Broadway musicals, drama, films and movies.
The question of race and adaptation is a daunting task. Spaniard artist Salvador Dali, who had lived for many years in USA, went back to his beloved mother land, Spain. Albert Einstein never denied his Jewish ancestry, and was even asked to run for presidency in Israel.
To deny the most subtle aspects of human interaction based on the color of your skin and phenotype would be sheer ignorance, because humans, for the most part, are led by the deceptive power of sight rather than by the sound judgment of reason and humanity. Discrimination based on the survival of specific groups of people may challenge any ethical system.
How often was I discriminated based on the color my skin and phenotype?
I have no clue. But, greatness for any human being, regardless of race or nationality, is to be lofty, noble, genuine, courageous, to accept yourself with your peculiar traits and characteristics. Such conviction would infuse and imprint beauty, originality, fire and strength on everything you do. Because, it is my firm belief, that we are all dear children of humanity...
On Wordless Communication And Physiognomy
I must here state very clearly, however sensitive to any race, bias or prejudice, that I am not a racialist, nor a racist; but If I believe Montesquieu's observations on clime, milieu, menu and how they affect and mold people's intrinsic fabric, not only at physiological levels, but even in the most subtle biological instincts, tendencies, "pre-sentiments,” then you may deem me a passive racialist along the lines of Mahatma Gandhi, Arthur Schopenhauer, Martin Luther King Jr., Henry D. Thoreau.
In fact, among any group of people of the same race, mere gestures, “tacit glimpses as conveyed through the subtle language of the countenance” would suffice to carry out the most meaningful communication. Thus, two people of the same race facing each other, could communicate at levels of intuitive perceptions (pre-fixes) that would require but few words, either written or spoken, in their social gathering.
(Note: white people, as their delicate skin is the most susceptible to faintest ruffles, nuisances, peeve, and brushes, I am bound to admit, are the most facially expressive, not only in what is praiseworthy, but also in what is apprehensive in human nature).
Of course, as we get older, our human nature, regardless of race, seems to finally stamp our faces with the book-revelation of our personality.
The fact that we often fail to unravel a potential character, good or bad in the incipient fruition phase, does not render my observations completely erroneous, for the art of reading faces is a long training, and it is not based on rational inquiries, but on purely intuitive perceptions, the wisdom of psychology in the keenest minds.
This is not just a cultural or social phenomenon, but it is highly biological, profoundly psychological. It is just incredible how two Chinese people could understand each other with little facial expression; and with some Hindu people, loquaciousness and constant chattering (so common among some tropical people), are capital sins, for periodic silence and pauses, as a cardinal virtue to the wonderful quality of the afore-mentioned Oriental people and their mild ethical system, a placid mellifluous conversation would amount, nay, accrue to a highly more meaningful, instructive and enjoyable communication than the most pedantic of conversations.
Silence and pauses, are, therefore, the hallmark of the wonderful character of the Oriental People, to interact with them is to undergo an internal transformative experience, a divine metamorphosis. We close our eyes, and forthwith, may feel the healing pulses of the soul with a greater sense of self-awareness, peace and well-being with the sublime teachings of the oriental masters.
The serious reader would peruse the placid writings of my admirable Jiddu Krishnamurti: "The Art of Listening." The nobility of his writings, the serenity of his orderly organized thoughts, the gentle ripples of his ever-flowing ideas could be compared to St. Paul's uplifting epistles (Letters to the Philippians) to the early humble Christians. But in post-America, peevishness, loquaciousness, incomprehensible chattering, babbling and noise have made our gathering-places an unpleasant experience.
Quoting from Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, What Is Noble page 217:
"...Therefore the human beings of one people understand one another better than those belonging to different peoples even if they employ the same language; or rather when human beings have long lived together under similar conditions (of climate, soil, danger, needs, and work), what results from this is people 'understand' one another --a people.”
Now, when speaking of the remarkable Power of Wordless Communication among certain races, with the "White Man," I must here concede, that few people could have ever found the eyes as living portals to the very seat of the soul, but also the brow (seat of fine thoughts for intelligent people, and accordingly, they would have a proper forehead) and even mere twisting or pressing of the lips have been found to be so necessary when conversing: it is, indeed, a faithful representation of their innermost thoughts, feelings, ideas.
Thus, moral character, good or bad, and the most recondite, indeed, hidden aspects, impulses of human nature, as conveyed by the transparent and yet subtle language of physiognomy, is quite often more manifest in the faces of some White people than in the serene mild expression of the Oriental stock.
Having said this, I am not denying this most ancient of wordless language (not to be confused with Gesticulation) to any group of people, but that with some Northern people in their cold habitation, as they age tempered and conditioned by the most admirable, self-imposed disciplines and temperance, the outward nature would be molded and agreeably affected by countless expressions as aroused by sundry passions and sentiments (winces, grimaces, lips-pressing and the other contortions of the face springing from both joy and pain) seem to be more pronounced in their peculiar facial features than in any other race (take a look at Rembrandt's self--portraits)
I have finally made it clear, that those Homo sapiens whom can think like Socrates or Plato, should have the right to become rulers and kings:
On the very top will be the Ancient Greeks of Pericles; then, if I believe Nietzsche, the strongest tribes from the Northern part of Europe could teach us something on matters of government, industry and methodology --even Dante Alighieri would agree with me.
Beauty and Form, the noblest poetry and literary afflatus, the best form of writings and euphonious sounds come from the divine Children of Aurora and Virgil.
The Oriental races, especially the Chinese, could teach us about diet, meditation, the art of listening, on how to live long, on how to prepare a good hot tea and so on and so forth.
The Tropical Races, so well known for their delightful humor and admirable knacks for sports, great orators and preachers, remarkable flair for imitation, family gathering, religions and warm affections, the match for women's erratic caprices, should be allowed to regale us with many forms of entertainment.
Serious music should be taught by the ancient Germans of J.S. Bach; and the Art of Refinement and Delicacy, like a fine Chopin's Polonaise or Mazurca, should be learned from the French People of William Bouguerrau.
From the Hindu people, we may learn something: the foggy history of by-gone, pre-dawned civilizations --a dream-time (Upanishads, the Mahabharata, extremely old literature). These mild people are the off-spring of some now forgotten great civilization, hence their very high ethical system...
Final Notes On Race and Religion:
Joseph Smith, whose ancestor didn't spring out from the Middle East, nor from the mainland of Asia, was founder of the admirable Mormon religion, and he was a devoted polygamist; but this was a wise decision if you consider how the white people in USA are being quickly out-raced by other people.
To this day, the Jews of Moises, the Arabs and the other Semitic errant races, especially the Gypsy people --condemned to roam the earth like the wandering Cain of the Old Testament, are still looking for the promised land of Milk and Honey in the Middle East.
Nevertheless, we all need hope and faith, so would remind us Harold Camping, the learned seer of doom, who in a gruff tone of solemnest seriousness, accurately predicted the Second Coming of the Lord back On May 21, 2011. Soon after, it was the sedate, senile prophet himself who collapsed by the faulty gravity of his imminent prophecies.
The scandalous fallacy of Harold Camping's prophecy was not so much in the abstractus as it was in the concrete fulfillment of the specific doomsday, because any serious mind, by a careful study of History and Its Moral Lessons, would be able to predict, indeed, with great accuracy and scholarly research, how and where a civilization would decline, and finally, how it would fall by simply tracing the underlying forces that, however stealthy, mummy-like and furtive, could be found to obey the gruff voice of history.
The truth is that, whether you like it or not, the sacred writings of the Iliad and Mahabharata, and more so, the ineluctable truths as found in the New Testament, are as relevant today, as when in the wood or in the desert of hope and despair (constant exodus for the Hebrew people of Moises), life was a matter of struggle, sword, bloodletting, hardships for the hapless caveman of Charles Darwin.
Today, modern man, rightly called mass-man by my admirable Jose Ortega y Gasset, is not a free thinker but a stranded wayfarer —a cosmic caricature— a confused character in the play-thing and fleeting pageants of so-called "civilized society:" sometimes we may see the creature sashaying back and forth the brilliant pathway of success, happiness, narcissism (especially some charismatic evangelists and pseudo geniuses): but soon after, we may find the aforesaid character, yawning and immured in the comfort-walls of complacency, unsound promises, ennui, disappointment.
Such generation is no less haunted by premonitions, shadows, ghosts, shackles and suicidal thoughts than the troglodytic people of Plato’s Republic. Nevertheless, there are the looming ominous clouds of further economic depressions for countless people out there; and any serious mind could see where and whither, our dear American people, like a cattle grazing in a green field of Nihilism and Consumerism, have finally lost the sturdy qualities that once made them so powerful, punctilious and industrial.
Surprisingly, our post-modern generation, especially the Western countries, USA and Europe, may think themselves finally free from new throngs of Hunnish barbarians, strange religious sects, genies and ghouls coming in-land from those parched dismal lands, indeed, desolate places, smirched with the blood of many martyrs and prophets, realm of despair and fanaticism for countless souls waiting for a day of prophetic fulfillment.
Meanwhile, my American country men, like the ancient Romans, however pragmatic, intelligent, superior and politically savvy, are, frankly speaking, but deceiving themselves on the table-talk of self-congratulatory odysseys, rhetorics and twaddles. On this old mid-hellish planet Earth, realm of seismic surprises, snakes, thistles, thorns, wars, famine, revolutions, convulsion, we are all compelled to wake up to the reality of existence....
(Note: India, in all likelihood, enjoyed a great civilization, a great nation comparable to United States of America. Today the Hindu people are a mild generation, docile, listening, sheepish, metaphysical, passive but beset by countless squalid ghettos and slums; and in every nook and cranny, there are many ascetic people stricken with poverty, malnutrition and yoga practice.
Atch! Unforgettable Night of March 26, 2011! Music or Noise?
The other day, much distracted by a folk song, Old Black Joe, ever re-sounding in my head, I almost broke right foot as I stepped on the very edge of a slab by 164TH Street, Broadway avenue, Washington Height.
The acute pain was most piercingly felt in my poor swelling toes and conscience, and I closed my eyes to reduce the intensity of my excruciating agony. As I write these notes, the memory of such sad experiences, still throw me back in a state of fear and apprehension: my sad musical experiences in Washington Height.
Those were the nights, when I had to suffer quietly the forever-continuum of a mercilessly repeated beat-whip. The most ingenious devil was much at pain to let the other tortured tenants know that this was his sole domain; that if we were to remain safe under his hauling clutches, let this awful music keep us within bound while dancing this most horrendous of hellish conceptions: the netherworld of every big city's din and noise. Later on, I felt that my faculties became dull, toad-reactive, insipid and addle-pated at every turn of thought --I am not kidding.
Of course, let me assure you that that colossal stupidity was not wholly mine to blame, many other people may share the same fate.
How many?
Billions of people never bother about where to find good music and the blissful hours spent near a lovely wood. And even if they find it, they would have but little joy in such thrilling trills, shades, harmonies, it would pass their tufted ears and eyes as boring and lackadaisical.
How often I had to bolt to the Hudson River, Fort Tryon Park, the Central Park, to look for another "I am" in the promising voyage of this short existence, and perhaps, if fate is on my side, I would bring in fresh healing-ambrosia into my nostrils, another, preferable ethereal form of silent existence: a quiet existence, that is, nevertheless, very healing, inspiring and consoling, like a tad-sip of hot Chinese tea at early morning.
If one cannot compose good music, it would be better to keep silence. But in a broader scheme of things, even noise may have a utilitarian place in this mad universe of Carl Sagan.
Transcendentally speaking, in the question of good and evil, music may have some decided influence in the development of our character. And quite often, we may find a well-disposed attitude in those quiet fellows who are fond and adaptive to an easy-going melody: the starry indigo sky and the boon of capricious nature.
Against any type of prejudice and bias, music may touch the deepest emotions that define us as humanity, and this may go beyond the phenotype. With due respect to any race or any ethnic group out there, I don't find any correlation, whatsoever, between the most sensible forms of music, art, religion, justice and the constitutional make-up of whole nations replete with noise --bad guys equipped with computers.
Nevertheless, there is here and there, in every country, a very common propensity, a bad predisposition among certain people, however hard-working and decent, these “god-bless-you folks” would prefer din and noise for the music of the Eastern Island's birds --the latitude of the soul.
In Manhattan, to my surprise, I have seen many bleached-out, blond creatures, dancing a most appalling Danza Macabre while mocking the sublime Music of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony; and likewise, I have seen many a poor, indigenous stranded creatures from South America, nay, people of color as well, the most faithful devotees for the superior music and quality of the Germanic tribes...
Intelligence and Music
Striking a yes with Montesquieu, On the Spirit of Laws, back in the eighteen century, some white folks composed remarkably well because their clime and temperament, aptly appropriate for deep thoughts, and these frigid places allowing little revels in the hours of leisure in the open air, inside their dwelling place, the European races, in profound introspection and philosophizing, could fetch out the most subtle, profound reverberating echoes as found in the soul's sense of awe.
But this musical sensibility may be patrimony to us all, we all may share, to a certain extent, of this heaven-sent Phoenix-blessing, provided all the attendant circumstances of a natural milieu free from noise and pollution, would eventually allow whole groups of people, regardless of race, to become divine and receptive to those rebounding sounds: a supernal music that may attest to a Superior Form of Thinking Power: myriad concepts revolving the spacious realm of our mysterious mind's abode, whence bouncing-off light-reflexes and insights are constantly checked and re-checked by our self-awareness; and with this terrific self-felt statement "I AM," the pleasantest sound-feelings navigating, to and fro, in the unfathomable depths of our all-sharing uncreated consciousness.
Hence, a type of high-pitched Intelligence would eventually be developed, a form of intuitive perceptions, and even pre-fixed feelings prior to our daily experiences, that seem more chromatically attuned with a higher understanding of ourselves; and with this arcane knowledge, a complete revaluation on the true definition of evolution through divinity: the phenomena of the psyche.
(Note: To understand the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, one would have to listen to a superb violinist, Einstein knew this trick of epistemology through the dint of music.)
We must admit, that those groups of people badly reared under the “peal-affliction” of very coarse sounds and loud percussion, would have a less agile mind in the apprehension of the most subtle strokes of the brain's susceptibility and capacity therein.
To comprehend this mysterious world of one thousand impressions, sundry perceptions and one thousand enigmas as those mysterious echoes in the music of Claude Debussy, one would be required to live in a healthy environment, even to scan the cumulous clouds' hieroglyphs from time to time!
Sadly, nowadays, through such heinous din and noise as we hear everywhere in New York City, the concept-sphere of our mind has become weak, feeble, dull and superficial, neither reaching, nor conceiving any close-knit relationship between the many forms of representational connotations, motley perceptions and the cobweb of feelings in sentient beings that, fortunately like those of humans, have susceptible power for beautifully compounding and interweaving the most disconnected data and events for an aesthetic flight-delight within artistic configuration --this could be the golden nexus for a privileged mind!
Sounds, numbers, figures and concepts, from a higher unity of thought-material and evolutionary perspective, are intrinsically related. Unfortunately, today, in these decadent times, in the scale of chromatic thinking for the Mass of Ortega y Gasset in the nadir of degeneration, the most basic timbre of low frequencies and pitch, have been relegated to a type of very monotonous tune that , like the Yahoos of Mr. Swift with their awful grimaces and long faces, such noisy music do smack of a certain squalid section of our society: the Pit of Hell, is not a theological conundrum, it is a reality!
Frankly speaking, the most beautiful form of music, like a fine French Belle, should have, by necessary, a greater palette of colors, sounds, perfumes, texture, pitch, dynamics, variety and so on and so forth.
Accordingly, I would like to view the current topic fairly, and with an eye on the touchy sensitivity of the volatile issues at hand, especially by a large population of disgruntled people, time and time again, I have stressed the rise to civilization to the “fickle strokes of chance and fate,” but also “necessity and milieu" may have spurred some people to develop wonderful skills and methods to coping with the struggle of existence.
Unlike many other great philosophers (e.g., Hume, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche), I was able to trace moral decline, decadence and degeneration to mysterious, recurrent forces going beyond the mere racial or geographical.
Furthermore, the definition of "intelligence," as something that could be "extremely corrosive" if not guided with the light of wisdom, divinity and love, was recast on the basis and basic principles of respect to a larger community (including the animal kingdom) and Mother Nature.
I herein, would like to express my high regards to any group of people, and if I ever incurred offense or conflicts with any unwise remarks or personal opinion expressed with a hint of witty mockery, may you accept my most sincere apology?
And in doing so, you will blame me of little fault, for when perusing my observations, in comparison to men the likes of Jonathan Swift, Schopenhauer or Mark Twain, you will deem my remarks on race but soft, “optimistic” with the ever-vexing question of my fellow Homo sapiens. For, it is not a secret, that many great men and women in any shape, race and coloration have racked their brains trying to comprehend the recurrent lessons of history:
Why we, Homo sapiens (the off-spring of Adam and Eve), since times immemorial, cannot come to terms with our fellow creatures?
Our great fear is that, having laid waste the planet earth from any available resources to supporting our current civilization (racial clashes, riots and unemployment in USA are still major problems), our dear ethical people may have to resort to a mode of existence, which, in many ways and challenges, would task us all to seek solace and hope in a simpler, and yet greater fraternity: a brotherhood with the nexus-concept of Man and Nature!
Finally, reminding you, that I am a comedian in a serious stance. I am not advocating polygamy or cloning to the quick reproduction of the white race; if they are to survive, they must re-embrace themselves with greater love, family-values and respect for their own brothers and sisters.
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Year 2011: racist writings by principal Frank Borzellieri led to his firing from a Bronx school yesterday. There are very difficult questions pertaining to race-mixing and the decline of a nation, because when we examine the pages of history, there are the outstanding achievements of the Moors and Arabs, especially in mathematics, algebra and geometry. But, we are at a loss when finding the “trends and underlying forces“ that lead certain remarkable people to their disintegration and eventual disappearance.
Of course, one would be very careful, nay, cautious, when placing one race over another in terms of intellectual capacity and intelligence. David Hume believes certain differences do exist among the children of Adam and Eve, and led by the great civilization of Europe, he places the white race as superior to any other race. When speaking on the origin of the different races, Schopenhauer seems to follow on the same train of thoughts (On Philosophy and Natural Science, P. 156, Parerga and Paralipomena, Vol. 2).
Obviously, Schopenhauer, a stubborn empiricist, does not believe race to be a mere social construct. While he admires Hinduism and Buddhism as perhaps surpassing the metaphysical systems of the West, the flowers of civilization, culture and technology have bloomed with greater splendor and beauty in the magnificent cities of Europe. United States, at least for the last one hundred years, may have surpassed Europe in technological prowess, but we are simply heir to the master-builders of civilizations.
But such superior intelligence, well-designed polis, huge buildings and impressive scientific advances, strictly speaking, such “superiority,” is not due to one race being physically more able, nor intellectually more fit than others in power of adaptation and reproduction; but it is noteworthy, that the immediate struggle of survival and existence may have compelled certain people to exceed more than others in the best form of government, and with the spread of knowledge, methodology and technicality, some races (as the Chinese today) became the ruling masters and the lords of the earth (Note: Egypt was ruled by a now extinct dark race of people, for the Egyptian masters who built the Great Pyramids could not be said to be either black or white). True. To deny a glorious past to the African people may argue our intelligence, for it is a well-known fact that the Sphinx’s face in Egypt is chiseled in the likeness of Ham, the beloved son of Noah.
The man of color, whom, according to both archeology and philosophy, is but the cradle of humanity in the natural state, for only with a proper mild climate and milieu --quite often the tropical and torrid zones of the planet earth-- could certain primitive people survive to their present form of development with little cultivation and rudimentary tools to cope with a simple existence.
Nevertheless, the man of color is found today in high places once reserved for the exclusive white elite of England, Austria and France (e.g., Barack Obama, former president of the United States of America, held a position of power, once reserved for kings in Germany or Spain); and some black men could outsmart others in certain intellectual tasks requiring very high degree of intelligence.
But the privilege of the white race is their thousands of years of experience with the rough, the precipitous, the difficult and complicated issues of existence in the cold zones of the planet earth --that is their most trustworthy resume: a history of labyrinths, wars and endless calamities at every turn and twist of history. (Note: It is worth recalling that the Roman Empire collapsed and was trampled, sacked and subjugated by the white barbarian tribes of the North of Europe).
When dealing with the Schooling System of the United State of America, one would forget that perhaps Shakespeare was not Anglo-Saxon but of Spaniard origin; that the Moors, in the seventh century, learned from the Hindu people the number-series and zero concept as we know it and use it today for very far-fetched calculus, economics and other puzzles; and for the first time, the European man could deal with the Law of Infinity and Probability as never thought possible, nor dreamed by the the ancient Greek philosophers or Roman mathematicians.
Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and many other Renaissance artists and scientists, in all likelihood, had Moorish blood running through their veins as the other branches of knowledge.
Nevertheless, secretly, everybody would like to be white or whitish (as evinced in the face of famed baseball player Sammy Sosa) even yellow or sallow, because among the tropical people, with needs and poverty the skin would be exposed to the sun’s scorching rays, and a tanned skin is the stigma of servitude, “the mark of status” in the social caste of the Dominican Republic; and to walk miles by feet in a hot-dog day (a man without a car in DR, is a nobody, “un salta pa-atrás,” in typical Dominican vernacular) would be a form of punishment in certain parts of the globe: hence, a dark coloration, throughout history, according to Arthur Schopenhauer, has been associated with the working class, and the elite, la aristocracia, quite often would look fairer and princely in their cozy palaces, comfy cars and mansions. This is, of course, an absurd social stratification in the frigid zones of the Planet Earth, but it may hold true in the tropics.
Nevertheless, in those underdeveloped countries and places where everybody is either black or brown, a white person would seem a most ghostly thing and unnatural phenomenon at midnight.
In the Dominican Republic, where most people are either brown or mulatto (mixed), a white or black person seen late in the night, and without electricity, could be one of the most frightening experiences.
A white person (especially people of milky complexion like the Spaniard and British) would seem as if popping out of darkness like a hovering phantom, thus defying the Kingdom of Darkness; whereas a truly black person would easily camouflage and blend-in with the realm of the surrounding spacious night. This phenomenon, to be able to “camouflage,“ like the unnoticeable chameleon with the surrounding environment, is one of the advantages of the black soldier over the white foe, thus defying the sense of perception, any radar or detector in the most amusing conceivable manners and survival advantages bestowed among certain dark people.
Now, Mother Nature, as she is concerned with the protection of the human race in the child of the tropics, she has likewise vouchsafed the black people with other admirable qualities: resilience, adaptability and a knack for comedy, entertainment and sport, to transforming the most serious issues (e.g., the dour existentialism of Sartre or Camus, or the sombre nihilism of Schopenhauer or Frederich Nietzsche) in a most “amusing nonchalance” or clannish insouciance to the chilly gloominess and terror of an existence full-fraught with uncertainties, sufferings, ennui and calamities.
Togetherness, like a family, even unto death, is one of the cardinal virtues of the black people, and rarely would they abandon an aging dearly loved mother at the mercy of a nursing home for the elderly.
On the other hand, it is quite moving to visit one of these upper-crusty rehabilitation centers for the wealthy in New York City, and marvel on how riches, prestige and material things not always accrue to the priceless treasures and benefits of a true family.
But it is even more striking when one comes across a lonely eminent white woman or man, a great writer, a great scientist or philosopher, and I wonder whether the intrinsic quality of life could be gauged by the distinction of solitude, or by the incomparable benefits of friendship?
Black people in the Dominican Republic, however ready for outings and picnics, may wonder at this connatural tendency among certain European tourists (especially among the Germans), a melancholic frame of mind, more pronounced in the well-educated ones with a penchant for deep thoughts, as observed by Aristotle when speaking of the staid philosopher’s worldview, to quite often see, even in the depths of things, something bleak, sombre, and darkly in the fundamentals of this brief existence.
Nevertheless, tropical people, at least in USA, with the few exceptions of course, in recent years, have perhaps enjoyed greater scope of freedom and social mobility, and at times, they have accomplished much by an exemplary emulation of the excellent teachings of Martin Luther King Jr., paragon of humanities and justice for all.
But if such a droll black person, convinced that he is still invisible and “undetectable” to both man and his law, would proceed to laugh at his enemies with his mouth wide open; moreover, if late in the night, the white streaks of his barbed teeth —like cutting-edge sabers— could be seen floating, brandishing, gnashing, clattering and suspended in mid air, cutting through the thickest shadows in the impenetrable conundrums of a precarious existence, “justice for all,” then our fright could be even greater.
To blame the white man for the injustices, grotesqueries and inequities of this world-samsara is one of the greatest fallacies ever taught in the schooling systems of United States of America.
Of course, I am not denying the evils of colonialism anymore than the evils of wars, corruption, mendacity, and anarchy. For these and other reasons, during difficult times, I would prefer to be a black man in the United States of America. Fortunately, in the Dominican Republic, we got used to such amusing people, and so, we would rather laugh with surprising terror, delight and jollity!
The only people we thought to be pleasant to the sight were the Tainos (indigenous people of cinnamon-colored complexion) and to a certain extent, some Germans, when properly tanned down in our splendid beaches, could be said to belong naturally to the hot climes of the planet earth.
In my opinion, with due respect to my Dominican patriots, the people of Mozart are still on top when it comes to orchestral music. God created children with certain in-born natural talents. To the German people alone we are, forever, indebted for the most beautiful music ever conceived.
Some people are afraid of acknowledging these facts of the German people, because of all the sad events during the Second World War. But the great German geniuses, so highly revered today, were not so appreciated by their own country-men. It is said (Nietzsche, Ecce Homo) that many great German artists, composers and philosophers were not “Aryans,” some were of Anglo-Saxon descent, Italians and even Jews became prominent artists and thinkers in Germany.
Schopenhauer's background was Dutch, and Kant looks very British to me. But Mozart was a true German soul and Germanic like J.S. Bach and the Faust of Goethe.
The moral decline of the Germans is proof that, behind the creative strength of whole group people, there are the values, ethos and forces that could mold beyond the mere racial and physical.
There are the special exceptions, as was the case of the wonderful Moors (a mixed people), so praised by Nietzsche (The Antichrist, page102), that a people may settle in certain areas of the planet Earth, and favored by the most fortunate strokes of chance and fate, could perfect their society, to such high degree, that other nations would think them superior.
There is one prerequisite for polished works of genius demanding the greatest intellectual exertion: first, that one privileged group of thinkers would be free from any drudgery or forced labor; and second, that such society could be tempered by the rigor of a rough milieu, which would require expertise, knowledge, certain talents, special tools, technology and some form of art and entertainment to sooth the sting of a miserable existence.
La Necesidad agudeza el ingenio (Spanish Proverb)
(Need is the mother of invention)
Necessity is the mother of all inventions, and good taste for excellence could be cultivated when a society has reached the acme-heaven of a free thinking mind; and philosophy and orderliness is the patrimony of the most privileged nations on earth.
Unfortunately, barbarism is a recurrent event even in the most beautiful form of civilization. We listen to Mozart and wonder how the once Barbarian tribes could produce minds the likes of Kant or Hegel?
Let us be careful when judging the bosom of the most profound tribes who ever lived among the impenetrable swamps of Europe and the wild woods of history.
What we admire of the most serious minds and hearts who ever thought and felt, is the scope of sensibilities to expressing themselves in such a string of ideas, feelings, emotions, writings and inspiring thoughts; for, when it comes to dealing with difficult problems of existence, some great masters have generously bequeathed to us a priceless trove of valuable insights, art-works and many experiences that could avail the wayfarer to reach a "true paradise" within the soul. I could live a tolerably contented life with few good books, the boon of Mother Nature and the healing power of music.
The art of building and writing have allowed some nations to produce great thinkers, poets, artists and philosophers, but the perfection of some musical instruments, like the well-tempered clavier, strings, the grandeur and beauty of pipe organ, the science of harmony and music notation, gave a tremendous impetus through aesthetic configurations.
And with the power of music, the Northern people, naturally gifted for the most subtle sounds of nature, joy and suffering, were able to stir up our passions and feelings, to such high chromatic pitch, that to this day, few composers would dare rival the musical narratives and profundity of Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Rachmaninoff or Wagner....
Perhaps some folks would disagree with me. They would try to convince that, as children of linear evolution, our hectic streets and thoroughfares, in due time, will be filled with Mozart by the dozens and Leonardo da Vinci by the scores; but our sad world rattles, thrums and ferments with very noxious stuff...
On How Intelligence Evolved Due To Needs and Milieu
When appraising the ethos and culture of different people, I must here agree with Montesquieu when ascribing to diet, topography and clime, the most decided effects in molding the qualities that make-up any particular group of people --not only at biological levels, but also at the most subtle, instinctual psychological impulses.
This is most evident in the areas of art, music and literature. The northern people, whether they would admit it or not, are more apt to seek the extremes of things than the tropical people; whether in shocking juxtapositions, sudden retreats to solitary wild places, mountain-climbing, the most riveting extravaganzas --like Thoreau building a cabin next to a pond in the wood, the so-called white people (more obvious in the most industrial races and their awful past through one thousand labyrinths) are admirably endowed, as stated earlier, with a penchant for things and activities requiring great mental fortitude and madness.
Accordingly, some white people are suited for the most daunting undertakings, which other people, like us the Latinos, the Hindus, the Jamaicans and among other tropical races, would back off in fright at even the courageous disposition of such incomprehensible travails.
Whereas the Northern people seem to be attracted to a tough existence in many colossal enterprises, museums, endless libraries, huge pavilions here and there and so on, we, the torrid people, with the few exceptions of course, are less inclined to finding pleasure in tedious works demanding the greatest exertion of the human mind.
Nevertheless, it would be silly to overlook such tendencies and immediate influences when assessing, placing and employing a particular group of people for their knacks, utility and intelligence.
That the current white people who rule us are more intelligent than the working classes, the proletariat, is due to the fact that the poor masses, under the burden of constant physical labors and menial chores, have little time for leisure, the cultivation of the higher intellectual faculties and the lexicon thereof.
That some very heavy food (like rice, beans and fried plantain, the main menu of the Dominican people) may have a detrimental effect in the mind, is not to be questioned; toad-like, it then reacts slowly, in thoughts and ideas lapsing coarsely slothful, dull, sluggish; and this “dozing-off effect” could be due to causes related to those sensitive substances as found in the cerebellum, which strained by the sudden tugs of a forced digestion, may ensue in lethargic giddiness and snooze.
Such unsound diets and roots as found in certain Dominican menu, could hold back the subtilest faculties of our mind, little by little benumbing our sensitivity to appreciating “a fine expressivo,” or a sotto voce, which, incidentally, this phenomenon could also explain why some Caribbean people would prefer a type of music highly more loud, noisy and rapid than any other groups of people could admit.
But of course, sociological behaviors could be communicated from one group to the other, indeed, bearing little relations to those above-mentioned causes. Once the pattern is established, and the menu already set out for sale, it could be contagious! Time and time again, I have seen some white conservative American folks as much enjoying the aforementioned food (e.g., mofongo, rice and beans with fried chicken) and dancing the merengue-jig of the Dominican community, as these latter pretending to enjoy the jazz and blues of their Northerner counterparts.
We, the torrid people, have talent and skills of a certain kind, and it should never be proper, nor worthy of educated minds, to belittle or underestimate the greatness of any group of people on the ground of aesthetic achievement, for, in the course of history, there are too many complex factors setting the unstable platform for any rise to civilization and culture.
However sensitive to any bias or prejudice, I must here admit that those privileged tribes or people whom, favored by a high degree of sensibilities and sensitiveness, nay, a rough mode of existence and suffering, could have, albeit over great periods of time, developed a “far-greater range of vivid stimuli in the brain's highly complex clusters of cells,“ formidable banks of datas, hence, the most subtle thought-perceptive powers; likewise, the keenest susceptibilities, sensibilities and feelings as honed and whetted-out by the rigor of many necessities in their rough milieu.
This could explain the remarkable descriptive power of the English Language, the German and the other Scandinavian languages. If these once barbarian tribes were able to find expression and linguistic outlet to such phenomena as perceived in their artworks and literature, what kind of caustic intelligence could have evolved to arresting in bold terms, both written and spoken, the subtlest nuances and shades in the cognitive power of the human mind?
Perhaps even more than the ancient Greeks and the Romans, the Barbarian people had a certain type of biological stamina, a certain vital impetus of tremendous biological force, which when favored by all the attendant circumstances leading to high civilization and refinement, could produce, indeed in great offspring, a remarkable progeny, capable of surpassing, in both subtlety and fortitude, those torrid races (e.g., the Mayan people, the Incas) grown mild and sagged-out by too much complacency and toilsome drudgeries.
Unfortunately, like any other civilization in the past, that first "vital stimulus" which once so overfilled the barbarian soul with the greatest fireworks, monumental artistic outputs in almost every single field of art and learning, eventually, became less forcible, nay, weak and feeble, in those northern people "too overly civilized" (especially the dwindling white people of USA and South America) whom, not so beset by the constant tweaks and throes of a dangerous existence in the struggle with nature and other species, have now lost the essential qualities of the 'hardy soul," the hard training in constant danger, which could so create a steel-people in the sublime America of landscape artist Frederick Church: a mighty nation once so terrible and rambunctious in the tidal waves of history, indeed, the dread and admiration of any other race who ever suffered to walk next to them...
A traveler:
“By their side, I was reduced to a mere pygmy."
Race is always a hot topic in America. I have lived for more than thirty years in New York City. When I first set foot in the John F. Kennedy Airport, I was quite amused by the numberless white people I saw back then in the lovely yesteryears of 1983, 1984...1990s.
One day, I took the number 1 train, and at Times Square, I was quite perplexed to see so many white people bustling, jostling, jamming themselves in the hectic hours of city-life: the so-called rushing hours.
I had seen these fair skin people on TV (Six Million Dollar Man movie series, starring Lee Majors), but now they are next to me, pushing and bustling to get some tiny space inside the wagons, and I was much willing to dispel some curiosity.
My! These people are so numerous. Sure, they would squeeze me if I ever come closer to them. So I thought as I walked up and down the spiraling stairways of a musical theater in Times Square (year 1984).
In the street, where I finally felt free from their ever-darting eyes, some Caucasian kids, on closer inspection, would cast a glance on me, and they were somewhat amused by the tanned, brownish tone of my complexion.
These silly children had perhaps mistaken me for a Hindu, or a Pakistani sojourner from farther-lands. I tried to amuse them by playing some antics, or, by displaying some waggish grimaces of amicability, an outlandish gesture of friendliness and solidarity, but it seems that my strange waggeries and apish behavior rather turned them into detached on-lookers, curious spectators in a city always bustling with comedies and entertainment.
So I reasoned to be a gentleman with a gratuitous token of good humor and pep, and this rationale as advised by the Spanish people, that the most effective way to winning a “sure-ticket“ into the mainstream culture of the American society is in the cheerful spirit of a comedian.
To put on a “gringo outfit“ would suit me well. And nowadays, it is pretty common to find this amusing creature of modern society, a grasshopper, seeking an opportunity in the United States of America.
After some hesitation, I made up my mind to go to 59th Street, Columbus Circles, and lo behold! like numberless sprawling cows grazing on a vast green field, in the very midst of the Central Park, I saw many white people supine, motionless, basking under the sunshine of fame, superiority and luxury.
These people were half-naked, and I was quite embarrassed to see such shameless nudity in public display. These early memories impressed me deeply, for I knew that, while staying in America, my existence would be tasked to finding amicability with these peevish, incomprehensible amigos. Every time I met a whitish person and he/she would treat me well, I would lift up my eyes to heaven in thanksgiving: "Thank you God, for it seems that you have sent me a beautiful angel to guide my steps."
These people were depicted in famous paintings, and here and there in my country, I saw traces of the white civilization, but in USA, their presence seems ubiquitous, religious, political, omnipresent, overpowering!
In Downtown Manhattan, whereat quite often I felt reduced to a mere pygmy, a tiny idiot babbling the English language, these throngs of peoples and nations seemed to me like a mighty army stretching far into the haze of distance; hither and thither, in every nook and cranny, lo! I saw the white people, strutting back and forth, shopping, dancing, singing, flying, crawling, creeping, wambling, leaping, flitting all over the scene like restless ants in a confusing maze of endless activities in New York City. Buzzing and fluttering like lightning beetles in the evening hours of action, Broadway musicals, drama, films and movies.
The question of race and adaptation is a daunting task. Spaniard artist Salvador Dali, who had lived for many years in USA, went back to his beloved mother land, Spain. Albert Einstein never denied his Jewish ancestry, and was even asked to run for presidency in Israel.
To deny the most subtle aspects of human interaction based on the color of your skin and phenotype would be sheer ignorance, because humans, for the most part, are led by the deceptive power of sight rather than by the sound judgment of reason and humanity. Discrimination based on the survival of specific groups of people may challenge any ethical system.
How often was I discriminated based on the color my skin and phenotype?
I have no clue. But, greatness for any human being, regardless of race or nationality, is to be lofty, noble, genuine, courageous, to accept yourself with your peculiar traits and characteristics. Such conviction would infuse and imprint beauty, originality, fire and strength on everything you do. Because, it is my firm belief, that we are all dear children of humanity...
On Wordless Communication And Physiognomy
I must here state very clearly, however sensitive to any race, bias or prejudice, that I am not a racialist, nor a racist; but If I believe Montesquieu's observations on clime, milieu, menu and how they affect and mold people's intrinsic fabric, not only at physiological levels, but even in the most subtle biological instincts, tendencies, "pre-sentiments,” then you may deem me a passive racialist along the lines of Mahatma Gandhi, Arthur Schopenhauer, Martin Luther King Jr., Henry D. Thoreau.
In fact, among any group of people of the same race, mere gestures, “tacit glimpses as conveyed through the subtle language of the countenance” would suffice to carry out the most meaningful communication. Thus, two people of the same race facing each other, could communicate at levels of intuitive perceptions (pre-fixes) that would require but few words, either written or spoken, in their social gathering.
(Note: white people, as their delicate skin is the most susceptible to faintest ruffles, nuisances, peeve, and brushes, I am bound to admit, are the most facially expressive, not only in what is praiseworthy, but also in what is apprehensive in human nature).
Of course, as we get older, our human nature, regardless of race, seems to finally stamp our faces with the book-revelation of our personality.
The fact that we often fail to unravel a potential character, good or bad in the incipient fruition phase, does not render my observations completely erroneous, for the art of reading faces is a long training, and it is not based on rational inquiries, but on purely intuitive perceptions, the wisdom of psychology in the keenest minds.
This is not just a cultural or social phenomenon, but it is highly biological, profoundly psychological. It is just incredible how two Chinese people could understand each other with little facial expression; and with some Hindu people, loquaciousness and constant chattering (so common among some tropical people), are capital sins, for periodic silence and pauses, as a cardinal virtue to the wonderful quality of the afore-mentioned Oriental people and their mild ethical system, a placid mellifluous conversation would amount, nay, accrue to a highly more meaningful, instructive and enjoyable communication than the most pedantic of conversations.
Silence and pauses, are, therefore, the hallmark of the wonderful character of the Oriental People, to interact with them is to undergo an internal transformative experience, a divine metamorphosis. We close our eyes, and forthwith, may feel the healing pulses of the soul with a greater sense of self-awareness, peace and well-being with the sublime teachings of the oriental masters.
The serious reader would peruse the placid writings of my admirable Jiddu Krishnamurti: "The Art of Listening." The nobility of his writings, the serenity of his orderly organized thoughts, the gentle ripples of his ever-flowing ideas could be compared to St. Paul's uplifting epistles (Letters to the Philippians) to the early humble Christians. But in post-America, peevishness, loquaciousness, incomprehensible chattering, babbling and noise have made our gathering-places an unpleasant experience.
Quoting from Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, What Is Noble page 217:
"...Therefore the human beings of one people understand one another better than those belonging to different peoples even if they employ the same language; or rather when human beings have long lived together under similar conditions (of climate, soil, danger, needs, and work), what results from this is people 'understand' one another --a people.”
Now, when speaking of the remarkable Power of Wordless Communication among certain races, with the "White Man," I must here concede, that few people could have ever found the eyes as living portals to the very seat of the soul, but also the brow (seat of fine thoughts for intelligent people, and accordingly, they would have a proper forehead) and even mere twisting or pressing of the lips have been found to be so necessary when conversing: it is, indeed, a faithful representation of their innermost thoughts, feelings, ideas.
Thus, moral character, good or bad, and the most recondite, indeed, hidden aspects, impulses of human nature, as conveyed by the transparent and yet subtle language of physiognomy, is quite often more manifest in the faces of some White people than in the serene mild expression of the Oriental stock.
Having said this, I am not denying this most ancient of wordless language (not to be confused with Gesticulation) to any group of people, but that with some Northern people in their cold habitation, as they age tempered and conditioned by the most admirable, self-imposed disciplines and temperance, the outward nature would be molded and agreeably affected by countless expressions as aroused by sundry passions and sentiments (winces, grimaces, lips-pressing and the other contortions of the face springing from both joy and pain) seem to be more pronounced in their peculiar facial features than in any other race (take a look at Rembrandt's self--portraits)
I have finally made it clear, that those Homo sapiens whom can think like Socrates or Plato, should have the right to become rulers and kings:
On the very top will be the Ancient Greeks of Pericles; then, if I believe Nietzsche, the strongest tribes from the Northern part of Europe could teach us something on matters of government, industry and methodology --even Dante Alighieri would agree with me.
Beauty and Form, the noblest poetry and literary afflatus, the best form of writings and euphonious sounds come from the divine Children of Aurora and Virgil.
The Oriental races, especially the Chinese, could teach us about diet, meditation, the art of listening, on how to live long, on how to prepare a good hot tea and so on and so forth.
The Tropical Races, so well known for their delightful humor and admirable knacks for sports, great orators and preachers, remarkable flair for imitation, family gathering, religions and warm affections, the match for women's erratic caprices, should be allowed to regale us with many forms of entertainment.
Serious music should be taught by the ancient Germans of J.S. Bach; and the Art of Refinement and Delicacy, like a fine Chopin's Polonaise or Mazurca, should be learned from the French People of William Bouguerrau.
From the Hindu people, we may learn something: the foggy history of by-gone, pre-dawned civilizations --a dream-time (Upanishads, the Mahabharata, extremely old literature). These mild people are the off-spring of some now forgotten great civilization, hence their very high ethical system...
Final Notes On Race and Religion:
Joseph Smith, whose ancestor didn't spring out from the Middle East, nor from the mainland of Asia, was founder of the admirable Mormon religion, and he was a devoted polygamist; but this was a wise decision if you consider how the white people in USA are being quickly out-raced by other people.
To this day, the Jews of Moises, the Arabs and the other Semitic errant races, especially the Gypsy people --condemned to roam the earth like the wandering Cain of the Old Testament, are still looking for the promised land of Milk and Honey in the Middle East.
Nevertheless, we all need hope and faith, so would remind us Harold Camping, the learned seer of doom, who in a gruff tone of solemnest seriousness, accurately predicted the Second Coming of the Lord back On May 21, 2011. Soon after, it was the sedate, senile prophet himself who collapsed by the faulty gravity of his imminent prophecies.
The scandalous fallacy of Harold Camping's prophecy was not so much in the abstractus as it was in the concrete fulfillment of the specific doomsday, because any serious mind, by a careful study of History and Its Moral Lessons, would be able to predict, indeed, with great accuracy and scholarly research, how and where a civilization would decline, and finally, how it would fall by simply tracing the underlying forces that, however stealthy, mummy-like and furtive, could be found to obey the gruff voice of history.
The truth is that, whether you like it or not, the sacred writings of the Iliad and Mahabharata, and more so, the ineluctable truths as found in the New Testament, are as relevant today, as when in the wood or in the desert of hope and despair (constant exodus for the Hebrew people of Moises), life was a matter of struggle, sword, bloodletting, hardships for the hapless caveman of Charles Darwin.
Today, modern man, rightly called mass-man by my admirable Jose Ortega y Gasset, is not a free thinker but a stranded wayfarer —a cosmic caricature— a confused character in the play-thing and fleeting pageants of so-called "civilized society:" sometimes we may see the creature sashaying back and forth the brilliant pathway of success, happiness, narcissism (especially some charismatic evangelists and pseudo geniuses): but soon after, we may find the aforesaid character, yawning and immured in the comfort-walls of complacency, unsound promises, ennui, disappointment.
Such generation is no less haunted by premonitions, shadows, ghosts, shackles and suicidal thoughts than the troglodytic people of Plato’s Republic. Nevertheless, there are the looming ominous clouds of further economic depressions for countless people out there; and any serious mind could see where and whither, our dear American people, like a cattle grazing in a green field of Nihilism and Consumerism, have finally lost the sturdy qualities that once made them so powerful, punctilious and industrial.
Surprisingly, our post-modern generation, especially the Western countries, USA and Europe, may think themselves finally free from new throngs of Hunnish barbarians, strange religious sects, genies and ghouls coming in-land from those parched dismal lands, indeed, desolate places, smirched with the blood of many martyrs and prophets, realm of despair and fanaticism for countless souls waiting for a day of prophetic fulfillment.
Meanwhile, my American country men, like the ancient Romans, however pragmatic, intelligent, superior and politically savvy, are, frankly speaking, but deceiving themselves on the table-talk of self-congratulatory odysseys, rhetorics and twaddles. On this old mid-hellish planet Earth, realm of seismic surprises, snakes, thistles, thorns, wars, famine, revolutions, convulsion, we are all compelled to wake up to the reality of existence....
(Note: India, in all likelihood, enjoyed a great civilization, a great nation comparable to United States of America. Today the Hindu people are a mild generation, docile, listening, sheepish, metaphysical, passive but beset by countless squalid ghettos and slums; and in every nook and cranny, there are many ascetic people stricken with poverty, malnutrition and yoga practice.
Atch! Unforgettable Night of March 26, 2011! Music or Noise?
The other day, much distracted by a folk song, Old Black Joe, ever re-sounding in my head, I almost broke right foot as I stepped on the very edge of a slab by 164TH Street, Broadway avenue, Washington Height.
The acute pain was most piercingly felt in my poor swelling toes and conscience, and I closed my eyes to reduce the intensity of my excruciating agony. As I write these notes, the memory of such sad experiences, still throw me back in a state of fear and apprehension: my sad musical experiences in Washington Height.
Those were the nights, when I had to suffer quietly the forever-continuum of a mercilessly repeated beat-whip. The most ingenious devil was much at pain to let the other tortured tenants know that this was his sole domain; that if we were to remain safe under his hauling clutches, let this awful music keep us within bound while dancing this most horrendous of hellish conceptions: the netherworld of every big city's din and noise. Later on, I felt that my faculties became dull, toad-reactive, insipid and addle-pated at every turn of thought --I am not kidding.
Of course, let me assure you that that colossal stupidity was not wholly mine to blame, many other people may share the same fate.
How many?
Billions of people never bother about where to find good music and the blissful hours spent near a lovely wood. And even if they find it, they would have but little joy in such thrilling trills, shades, harmonies, it would pass their tufted ears and eyes as boring and lackadaisical.
How often I had to bolt to the Hudson River, Fort Tryon Park, the Central Park, to look for another "I am" in the promising voyage of this short existence, and perhaps, if fate is on my side, I would bring in fresh healing-ambrosia into my nostrils, another, preferable ethereal form of silent existence: a quiet existence, that is, nevertheless, very healing, inspiring and consoling, like a tad-sip of hot Chinese tea at early morning.
If one cannot compose good music, it would be better to keep silence. But in a broader scheme of things, even noise may have a utilitarian place in this mad universe of Carl Sagan.
Transcendentally speaking, in the question of good and evil, music may have some decided influence in the development of our character. And quite often, we may find a well-disposed attitude in those quiet fellows who are fond and adaptive to an easy-going melody: the starry indigo sky and the boon of capricious nature.
Against any type of prejudice and bias, music may touch the deepest emotions that define us as humanity, and this may go beyond the phenotype. With due respect to any race or any ethnic group out there, I don't find any correlation, whatsoever, between the most sensible forms of music, art, religion, justice and the constitutional make-up of whole nations replete with noise --bad guys equipped with computers.
Nevertheless, there is here and there, in every country, a very common propensity, a bad predisposition among certain people, however hard-working and decent, these “god-bless-you folks” would prefer din and noise for the music of the Eastern Island's birds --the latitude of the soul.
In Manhattan, to my surprise, I have seen many bleached-out, blond creatures, dancing a most appalling Danza Macabre while mocking the sublime Music of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony; and likewise, I have seen many a poor, indigenous stranded creatures from South America, nay, people of color as well, the most faithful devotees for the superior music and quality of the Germanic tribes...
Intelligence and Music
Striking a yes with Montesquieu, On the Spirit of Laws, back in the eighteen century, some white folks composed remarkably well because their clime and temperament, aptly appropriate for deep thoughts, and these frigid places allowing little revels in the hours of leisure in the open air, inside their dwelling place, the European races, in profound introspection and philosophizing, could fetch out the most subtle, profound reverberating echoes as found in the soul's sense of awe.
But this musical sensibility may be patrimony to us all, we all may share, to a certain extent, of this heaven-sent Phoenix-blessing, provided all the attendant circumstances of a natural milieu free from noise and pollution, would eventually allow whole groups of people, regardless of race, to become divine and receptive to those rebounding sounds: a supernal music that may attest to a Superior Form of Thinking Power: myriad concepts revolving the spacious realm of our mysterious mind's abode, whence bouncing-off light-reflexes and insights are constantly checked and re-checked by our self-awareness; and with this terrific self-felt statement "I AM," the pleasantest sound-feelings navigating, to and fro, in the unfathomable depths of our all-sharing uncreated consciousness.
Hence, a type of high-pitched Intelligence would eventually be developed, a form of intuitive perceptions, and even pre-fixed feelings prior to our daily experiences, that seem more chromatically attuned with a higher understanding of ourselves; and with this arcane knowledge, a complete revaluation on the true definition of evolution through divinity: the phenomena of the psyche.
(Note: To understand the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, one would have to listen to a superb violinist, Einstein knew this trick of epistemology through the dint of music.)
We must admit, that those groups of people badly reared under the “peal-affliction” of very coarse sounds and loud percussion, would have a less agile mind in the apprehension of the most subtle strokes of the brain's susceptibility and capacity therein.
To comprehend this mysterious world of one thousand impressions, sundry perceptions and one thousand enigmas as those mysterious echoes in the music of Claude Debussy, one would be required to live in a healthy environment, even to scan the cumulous clouds' hieroglyphs from time to time!
Sadly, nowadays, through such heinous din and noise as we hear everywhere in New York City, the concept-sphere of our mind has become weak, feeble, dull and superficial, neither reaching, nor conceiving any close-knit relationship between the many forms of representational connotations, motley perceptions and the cobweb of feelings in sentient beings that, fortunately like those of humans, have susceptible power for beautifully compounding and interweaving the most disconnected data and events for an aesthetic flight-delight within artistic configuration --this could be the golden nexus for a privileged mind!
Sounds, numbers, figures and concepts, from a higher unity of thought-material and evolutionary perspective, are intrinsically related. Unfortunately, today, in these decadent times, in the scale of chromatic thinking for the Mass of Ortega y Gasset in the nadir of degeneration, the most basic timbre of low frequencies and pitch, have been relegated to a type of very monotonous tune that , like the Yahoos of Mr. Swift with their awful grimaces and long faces, such noisy music do smack of a certain squalid section of our society: the Pit of Hell, is not a theological conundrum, it is a reality!
Frankly speaking, the most beautiful form of music, like a fine French Belle, should have, by necessary, a greater palette of colors, sounds, perfumes, texture, pitch, dynamics, variety and so on and so forth.