Creativity

To build a structure that copies the function of a termite mound is very creative. How can we also act creatively without contributing to the loss of community, degradation of the environment, wasting of resources, support of tyrannies, lawlessness and prejudice? How can we give people real direction in their lives? How do we actually BUILD community and ENRICH the environment not just conserve the little resources we have left? These are very big questions indeed.

We need a liberated aesthetic beyond just creating the same mood of another culture’s music without knowing what we're doing or attempting to copy it in an authentic manner which is impossible for people who weren't brought up in it. Also, we can’t criticize other traditions for adopting western ways or changing their traditions. We cannot reserve innovation and the appropriation of other cultures music solely for ourselves. Their music hopefully was evolving long before they ever met westerners, the sign of a living tradition. Why should they stagnate now just because you want to maintain some kind of imagine!d purity in the music of the "noble savage" stuck in the time before “civilization” came along. Are you sure they’re so backwards and you’re so civilized?