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From: jeffw@tekecs.UUCP (Jeff Winslow)
Newsgroups: net.music,net.music.classical
Subject: Why classical music isn't / Rich Rosen's overreaction
Message-ID: <3908@tekecs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 18-Jul-84 15:49:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekecs.3908
Posted: Wed Jul 18 15:49:48 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 22-Jul-84 02:55:16 EDT
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 34

Will you take it easy for a change? Read allegra!dep's article again. No
reference was made to any specific kind of music (except in the presumably
facetious bug-killer line). All he said was, most people prefer mediocrity
to excellence. Do you really want to dispute that? Doing so would not seem
to be consistent with many of your previous articles.

Ah, you say, but his article depends on the context of my original article.
Well, read my article again. Is the kind of "popular" music I described
the only kind there is? (Of course not.) Is it even the kind *you* like?
(I sincerely doubt it.) In fact, you'd probably condemn it as mindless just
as quickly as dep or I would. So stop screaming.

By the way, for anybody who missed it, my original article *was* a joke.
If you thought I was aiming at a serious, or even semi-serious putdown of
all non-classical music, take some chalk, go to the blackboard, and write
"I will not be paranoid" 500 times. Thank you.

Why do most people not prefer excellence? There's no mystery about it and
there's NOTHING WRONG WITH IT. Think of how many things there are to know
in this world. Think of all the different kinds of human endeavors there are.
The vast majority of us are good at only a few. A little arithmetic on this
shows that, in any particular field, only a few will really know what is
excellent. Does that mean the others shouldn't get what they want? Of course
not. But...

   does that mean that those who *do* appreciate excellence should have to
put up with cries of "snob! snob!" whenever they talk about what they like?

Guess.

If I see another article raving about snobs on this newsgroup, I am going to
get net.hit started, I swear I will...

						Jeff Winslow