Bill Hong wrote concerning an article in "The Atlantic":

>The premise (not just limited to America, I would think) is not all
>that unfamiliar, at lest in the backs of our minds--that the increasingly
>ubiquitous presence of music as a background to every activity in our
>lives is making us less susceptible to its powers.

Thanks to Bill for providing the URL for this article.  After reading
it, I agree with the premise noted by Bill.  But, I don't agree with the
writer's premise.  I think that music as "background" is a time honored
tradition; it is much more prevalent in today's society simply because
technological advances in sound reproduction allow it.  I don't think that
that the article showed any evidence that this prevalence of background
music does any damage to us.

I did detect in the article two other themes:

1.  Current technology is throwing people into a musical "nose-dive".
This theme is convoluted.  We always need to try to live well within our
technology.  In and of itself, technological advances are wonderful, but
humans often utilize technology in damaging ways.  The generation and
distribution of atomic/nuclear energy immediately comes to mind.  What a
great discovery!  Yet, one of the first things we did with it was build
bombs and, in essence, threaten the entire world's population.  Humans
are a wonder.

2.  The Past is better than the Present.  This is an old refrain that's
often heard from middle-aged and older individuals.  The writer of the
article even throws in some negative comments about what's happening these
days in the world of sex.  I can't buy into this "the sky is falling"
approach to life.

My basic belief is that, with a few exceptions, the world of music gets
better all the time, because we are evolving toward higher levels of
communication, understanding, and accomplishment.

Don Satz
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