A New American NeoClassicism

Upon hearing a local Irish duo play this evening, once again I am inspired to discuss an issue that has been on my mind.  Previously I suggested that the reason why America is faltering is because we are engaging in a war on the wrong front.  Listening to this music tonight only I could think the same thing.  The music was emotionally clad.  It could be said its whole intent was to express deep emotion.  Unfortunately I was not in the frame of mind to be able to similarly express this particular kind of sentiment.  My view is that is where America is making her mistake.  We have become so fractured as a nation, we cannot uncover America's true sentiment.  Once America's "mainstream" represented a cohesion of this sentiment.  Often it was aided by a war or a a resultant cultural ideology.  When soldiers are dying overseas this sentiment could become crystalline.  It was easy to figure out how you felt over "baby burners."  Wars it seems were efficient in sparking nationalist sentiment, but should we rely upon them for this?  World War II was sentimentalized but for a necessary result.  We as American citizens were responsible for supporting the troops who were dying for our freedom.  Certainly the wars in Korea and Viet Nam created great music voicing opinions and sentiments about them.  I don't really know what the the Gulf War achieved in this department.  Certainly it created an entire new generation of war torn veterans.  I think America has yet to understand exactly what our role is in any war in the Middle East.  First we heard it was "Weapons of mass destruction."  Still to this day I do not know why we are in Afghanistan, except that were are fighting the Taliban.  It is all sketchy.  Now we are being invited once again to participate in yet another war, but the reasons are not clear.  With this misunderstanding come the confusion of the population.  We really can't have a mainstream until something unites America's sentiments.  Something, something has to glue the fabric of the American people together in some way.  Historically the arts have aided this process.  Artists once studied, understood, and represented metaphorically the difficulties of life.  I have yet to witness anything to this order.  Only once have I heard a kind of music that suggested a presence of the religion of Muslim or simply an Eastern sentiment.  For America to figure out why terrorism is occurring, we first must understand our foes.  Listening to their concerns is a good starting point.  "Get out of our countries."  That is the first one.  While we are being assaulted by psychotic irrational acts of terrorism,  it would be helpful to fight on the alternate platform.  If jazz is war and classical is peace, then we should be fighting on the peaceful platform.  Peace recognizes spirituality as a core component.  That means that to pacify the desires of an insane murderer, we must refuse to lower ourselves to that level.  It is the quintessential war scenario.  The Joint Chiefs of Staff are sitting in a room with the president and vice president.  They are contemplating war.  One response is "Engage."  Fight the fight.  The other is attempting to play our opponent intellectually with the aid of a spiritual confidence.  At the moment the American media, probably because of the upcoming November 4th election, are lobbing grenades in a very low brow-type shouting match.  It is ignorant.  I do not know to whom this faction is trying to appeal.  Most Americans see through this petty bickering.  Because truly we are engaged in a war of spirituality, the actual existence of God, the only way to fight is with spirituality.  These could be represented by the teaching of Jesus Christ.  Simply He said, "Sell all of your belonging and come follow Me."  By disarming at the visceral level and engaging at the spiritual level, America only can be empowered.  We will conserve our physical resources, we will discover and reinforce our beliefs, and we will rise above the enemy.  My suggestion is that metaphorically jazz music is war, and classical music is peace.  We are fighting on the jazz stage.  We are wearing our emotions on our sleeves.  We are baring our souls.  We are engaging in something that should be beneath us.  On the classical stage we can be reflective.  We can fail to be provoked by an school yard taunt.  We can see beyond the limited scope of our adversaries often who are drunk, high, desperate, and ignorant.  We with experience, knowledge, wisdom, and God can refuse to sling mud in a pig pen.  Simply we can say and mean, "We are more evolved than this."  Refusing to be the victim in a bullying is the key.  Brute force is not necessary to teach the bully a lesson.  Wisdom, incentive, and patience are. Eventually they will create serenity, an ability not to live on the jazz stage but continue to engage.  Simply it means every provocation is not life or death.  America's music could as it traditionally has aid in this self analysis.  We need a mainstream musical representation on the classical stage that has considered these ideas.  It cannot exist in an artistic vacuum.  It cannot only imply it's self.  It must examine, understand, and then express new mainstream American sentiments.  Then we would have something to guide Americans thought and feelings to a more cohesive understanding of what and who we are as a country.  This cannot come from the jazz stage, although it is well known and appreciated jazz music has changed America philosophically.  It must come from the spiritual realm of classical.  America must invent and utilize a neo-classical period of evolution.