I've just finished reading a book that was long overdue on my list: Three Cups of Tea, the story of Greg Mortenson and his amazing, heroic efforts to build schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. This book is a must-read for anyone who is feeling a little hopeless and cynical, and it should be required reading for Bush/Cheney types who think that the War on Terrorism is going to be won with guns.
In one small part of the book, the reader is reminded that the Taliban are not real fond of music--so much so that virtually all music has been banned at times in Afghanistan, with severe penalties for non-compliance. As someone who relies on his iPod Shuffle to get him through a six or eight mile run, I can't help but be struck by the notion that music is bad. Music--the very essence of human creativity, something that separates us from the beasts, one of our noblest enterprises, something that entertains and inspires--of all things, music is illegal.
I try to wrap my head around this idea. What planet are these people living on? What values underlie this perverse fear of a melody, with rhythm? Why so categorical and extreme? (It might be one thing to ban, say, certain rappers, but quite another to throw in Bach and Beethoven.) A world without music is a world without sunshine. You might as well ban chocolate syrup, popcorn, and re-runs of The Rockford Files while you're at it!
Yes, a hedonistic life is a potentially empty life. But listening to music is so far from mindless hedonism that I can only shake my head and say that it's quite a diverse world in which we live. I'd like to say that diversity is always wonderful, but sometimes it's a real headache. I'm happy today to be a "westerner"--one of those times when I appreciate and do not take for granted the pleasure of running around Lake Harriet with Dire Straits' "Walk of Life" pulsing into my ears.
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