Reviewing Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, Part Two

In the previous post I review a Cleveland Orchestra performance of Belshazzar’s Feast. The Orchestra, the Chorus, the conductor were all wonderful. The music wasn’t bad, but nothing notable.

The words were the problem. They have legitimacy in our society because they come from a revered source, the bible. But they were telling a story that justified violence against those who had different beliefs than the story tellers.

There are people in the world today who claim than being sensitive to the feelings of others is “woke” and too politically correct. However, my review was written on the same day that these news items appeared.

A 23 year old woman is taken away at gunpoint from her home in West Gaza. It was midnight. She was asleep. Her elderly parents were forced to be silent and not say goodbye. The soldiers told them that, as soldiers, they could get away with anything as they were at war.

The same words were spoken in World War II against their own ethnic group 80 years ago.

China is arming Russia in its obliteration of Ukraine. And Ukraine is overwhelmed with missile attacks even as its energy infrastructure is being destroyed.

These same scenarios have been acted out before. In all cases, brutal wars are the result.

It’s world events like these that do not give me an optimistic feeling for the future. And it’s why we must search out and eliminate all sources of hate whenever and wherever it appears. Even in music.

Belshazzar’s Feast, a review

I enjoyed a performance of William Walton’s “Belshazzar’s Feast.” This was a few nights ago, by the Cleveland Orchestra.

• Choir performance – spectacular
• Baritone performance – fantastic
• Orchestra performance – their usual excellence
• Conductor performance – exuberant and joyful, and exacting
• Music itself – Most of the time it seemed more like the soundtrack to a Western movie.
• Words – Here, my appreciation plummets. Details below.

The words were are from the bible. This book of books is the basis of a particular ethnic group’s mythology. The story in Walton’s Feast tells of events that justify violence against others. The Babylonians are being punished because they stole items from a Zion temple. And their gods are being beaten by a better god.

The story throws shade on the Babylonians by making fun of their pantheism. The story says Babylonians have a god of gold, a god of silver, and others. In fact, Babylon’s mythology was both more complex and well constructed.

The story references Egyptian mythology. Egyptian faith is the foundation for many biblical beliefs, without credit. Here’s one example. The story mentions weighing the king’s deeds “in the balance” to see if he gets into heaven. This is a an Egyptian standard for determining the judgment of souls.

Worst of all, this story is relevant to the violence going on in Palestine today, 2024. (Please see my part two post for more.) This story justifies violence against those who are different. And it’s common to hear this from those doing most of the killing.

Pass on Walton’s piece if you come across it. If necessary, listen to it without words. Best of all, spurn all religious based story telling that’s used to denigrate others. Especially if it is justifying violence. There are many other better stories for our enjoyment.

Why is there War?

Why is there war? Why do people fight? Why do people hate each other? Will war ever stop? Will we always be at war? Why do people, tribes, nations, society, keep hurting children and women? Why must babies die even though there can be no chance that they have been alive long enough to insult anyone?

These are all excellent questions. These are exactly the kinds of questions every aware child has asked at some time, while they were still innocent of learning how to hate.

The Modern War Institute has ideas as to where there are wars. And so do many others.

I’m going to offer the simplest explanation fit for a child. The answer is something all of us already know. It’s the understanding of that answer that is the hardest part.

War is fighting. People fight for resources, like land or water or food.

War becomes most famous when a lot of people fight against a whole lot of other people.

The opposite of War is Peace. It sounds funny, but War can’t happen if Peace doesn’t happen.

Peace can’t happen if War doesn’t happen.

Anytime a person is not at peace, then there is some war. It will be a little bit of war. It might be so small it’s only between two people. It’s still war. The smallest war possible.

Then, when lots of people are not at peace, especially for the same reason, and the people are all similar in some way, then all those people are at war. A few of them become so unhappy that the do something terrible. Something that hurts other people.

At that point, the other side must make a decision. Will they work together to hurt the other people to get back at them? When they do this, it becomes a famous war.

So when a group in the Gaza strip hurt so many people who were having a party, it was because they were already at war at so unhappy that they did something terrible.

Then the other side, the Government of Israel, also had to make a decision. They were also already not at peace. They were already at war. So they decided to hurt the other people. And they still are.

That’s why there is war in the world. Like a fire in the forest, when it gets very big it gets famous. But in order to keep the forest safe, the forest ranger must look for every small fire and put it out quickly.

The same is true for people. If I am at war with my neighbor, it is a small war that should be put out before it grows into a big one.

Someone once said, love thy neighbor as much as you love yourself. So that’s a good place to start. Loving yourself. And your neighbor.

Family Measures

When Dad died, some surprising family dynamics emerged.  My youngest brother disowned me, vowing to never return.  My “older” brother (I’m the oldest) was executor, and blocked me from understanding what was going on.

Later on, the older brother gave me a lecture.  He declared our family dysfunctional and decried the ineffectiveness of holding a grudge.  He was diplomatic enough so that I couldn’t be sure who he was accusing, if anyone.  I sat there attempting to be a calming influence given that he had a lot on his shoulders, even though I found his words inconsistent and insulting.

Months later, my younger brother returned to our fair city.  His wife has cancer, and our hospitals are world famous.  We learned they’d come and gone too late to visit or offer support.  But this event did trigger a discussion among our little family about what it means to be a family.

Here’s my take.  More importantly, it’s something that you can measure and record.  It’s one small step towards making all those soft sciences a little bit harder.

Sharing information.  Let’s not worry about what’s true or false, what’s gossip and what’s important.  In a tight-knit family, information is shared quickly.  In today’s age, it can be shared among everyone instantly.  It doesn’t matter if it’s about Mom’s breakfast or sis-in-law is town for chemo.  Who knows what and when, among the family, is very important.  In our case, we found out through a very roundabout non-family member.

Mi casa, su casa.

Many times in the past my older brother came to town, sometimes with his wife, but never notified me, and never stayed with us.  They could have, but generally I didn’t find out that they’d arrived until they’d always booked accommodations.  Yes, we extended an invitation every time.

In the case of the sis-in-law, they also booked rooms.  In fact, their hotel wasn’t too far from us.  In both cases, they could have stayed with us.  The comforts of home, more time to spend with each other, more time to share experiences and give emotional support.

I know of families that always stay with each other, even if they live in trailers.  They can’t stand it for too long, after all they are human.  But they try.

You might argue that it’s a money thing, or a culture thing.  You’re partially right.  But you can ignore those factors and look at the willingness of people to be together, to be close.

My older brother lectured me that families are comprised of people who are different.  That’s a given, everyone is different.

What defines a family is the willingness of “different” people to be together, argue politely together, and support each other.

Measuring how fast they share information, how closely they spend their limited time together when able, how open their homes are to each other, that’s a great measure of family integrity.

My extended family scores fairly low, but our nuclear family is tight.

How about yours?

 

Bad Sex

Alright guys, another article that’s not what you think.

This is inspired by a woman named Germaine Greer.  What she says is thought provoking.  And since I like provoking thoughts, I’m going to repeat her words.

Rape is bad sex.

She’s written a book about it, but the summary is simple.  Lets stop treating rape as a hugely incredibly terrible event that puts ALL the responsibility upon the victim instead of the perpetrator.  Instead of having this ridiculous standard of proof, lets lower that standard, and lower the penalty.  You raped someone?  Pay the fine.  Make it a big fine.

Was there injury involved?  Then the fine is increased.

Did she say no?  Or was she incapacitated on her own?  Then even more fine.

Did YOU incapacitate her?  Increase the fine yet again.

Get the picture?  It’s like a speeding ticket.  Break it down into its respective components and penalize each of them.  Faster justice.  More impact upon the perps.  Easier to prove.

Are these thoughts controversial?   Oh yes.

Is there a right and a wrong here?  Absolutely not.

I’m not a proponent of following them.  However, I’m a big fan of discussing them.  Unless we start tackling all of our social problems head on in rational manners, we’re not going to be going anywhere.  If anything, we are slipping backwards.

So, consider the words, ponder the thoughts, and think through what we’re trying to achieve as a society.  There has to be a solution in there, somewhere.

Or else…