 Anyway, I'm just going to play this. Now, we're going to start with a discussion of Mozart. And this is an end of itself. I'm including it because it's interesting. Again, this is more going to be about a little bit about the history of music and about the different way in which audiences listen to music in Mozart's era and the way in which audiences listen to music in Beethoven's era. And they won't tell you why and I will. And I think it's important. And I think it's important in the history of the Enlightenment. I think it's important in the history of Western culture. I think it's important in just the evolution of things. So I think it's good to understand. I mean, those of you are interested, of course, and I'm not surprised there are not that many people lie because this is not going to be one of those shows that thousands of people listen to because it's not slamming the left enough. Although it is slamming the left, it's not slamming the left in politics. It's slamming effort culture, which is less interesting. You have to talk about Mozart and Beethoven. Who wants to do that? Anyway, here we go. This is the Switched on Pop, talking about Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. And this is 18 minutes into the podcast. And they are going to introduce you to Mr. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Want to introduce someone you may have heard of. Hello, I'm Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. I'll just say, just that voice is insulting. Just why is it necessary when you're talking about classical music, or when you're going to talk about somebody like Mozart, to infantilize it? Mozart was a child when he wrote much of his music. But why is he talking here like a retarded five-year-old or 10-year-old? Again, this is the kind of thing people think is cool. This is the kind of thing people think is OK. And I guess they really like Mozart. They don't like Beethoven. But this is what they do to people they like. I can just imagine, if Beethoven, if they had Beethoven speaking. You've been talking about Beethoven for like an hour, and you haven't mentioned me in advance. What does Wolfgang have to do with this? I asked Mozart to read us a letter to his dad, Leopold, in which he talks about the premiere of his symphony number 31 in Paris, because I think it tells us a lot about how classical music used to be before Beethoven. You just called up Mozart. I've got him on speed dial, NBD. So what's the letter say? Behold, the symphony began. Used in the middle of the first Allegro, there was a passage which I feel sure must please. The audience was quite carried away, and there was a tremendous burst of applause. But as I knew, when I wrote it, what effect it would surely produce, I had introduced the passage again at the close. There was shouts of de capo, de capo. Charlie de capo means again. It's like people are yelling. Play that again, right now, again. I'm not finished. Sorry, Wolfgang. I am. The entente also found favor, but particularly the last Allegro, because having observed that all last as well as first Allegros begin here with all the instruments playing together and generally in unison, I began mine with two violins only followed instantly by a forte. The audience, as I expected, said, hush at the soft beginning. And when they heard the forte, they began to want to clap their hands. I was so happy that as soon as the symphony was over, I went off to the Palais Royal, where I had a large ice centrosi as I had bound to do, and went home. I asked Mozart to read this letter because I think it shows us that classical music before Beethoven was more like a rock show, right? There's people yelling. There's people shushing each other. There's people bursting into applause in the middle of passages. Don't get you kicked out of the concert hall today. So somebody asked, why help propagate such nonsense? Because I think there's an important point here. And the letter that Mozart read is a real letter. I mean, and that's its real evidence about how concerts were played in the 18th century in the pre-Bate of an era. And it's absolutely true. Audiences would yell, they would shout, they would talk, they would, it was like a rock concert. And the only place where there was kind of, you know, the audiences for classical music in those days were split into two. There was the aristocrats who paid primarily for the creation of this music and who had the music named after them and so on, where this music was played in hush silence and where there was immense respect for the composers and the music. And in halls for, you know, the common people, where the music was not taken too seriously, where it was viewed more as entertainment as a profound art, and where there was yelling, shouting, screaming and mayhem. And where they behaved as they do at a rock concert. And by the way, to me, the audience behavior at a rock concert and why that's appropriate and the audience behavior at a classical music concert, the quiet and reverence that it has, reflect the seriousness by which each type of music should and is indeed taken. During the time of Mozart, music was not taken seriously. It was new. The idea of popular, of classical music, this kind of music being played to a common people was a new phenomena. And it was not dealt with with much seriousness. The music was viewed as frivolous. It was just a fun time to be had. And it was background music. And if you've watched Amadeus, the movie, you see this in the movie, and there was just no seriousness about it. And indeed, while in this letter, Mozart celebrates the fact that they liked his concert. As far as I can tell, Mozart didn't enjoy the fact that they were talking while the music was playing. He didn't enjoy the fact that there was this un-seriousness about his music. When Mozart had enjoyed people listening to his music in silence, fully, you know, being affected by the music, fully being impacted by the emotions the music evoked, I'm sure you would have loved that. But that wasn't the reality in which he lived. And it's absolutely true, as they will suggest, that Beethoven is, represents a change. Beethoven is the first composer, and I've said this on some shows, Beethoven is the first composer, who really is functioning under, if you will, capitalism or the birth of capitalism and initial idea of capitalism. The rise of the bourgeoisie, the middle class, a rise of a people who love music, appreciate it, are non aristocratic, and who are the first generation to be able to really go and appreciate it. The first generation who can buy musical notes, the first generation who can afford to buy pianos, the first generation who can actually participate for the first time in musical life. They can go and buy tickets and listen to serious music, that was mostly relegated just to the aristocrats. And Beethoven, and this is, in my view, something to be massively celebrated. Suddenly, the middle class, first of all, there is a middle class, but suddenly, large numbers of people can enjoy beautiful music, inspiring music, and enjoy it, what I would consider, properly, with the kind of reverence that it deserves. And concert halls started demanding that people be quiet, not because some elitists decided that that's the right way to listen to music, although that might be the case in some places, but primarily because people wanted to listen quietly to the music, because the music moved them, and noises distracted them. Yelling was a distraction. Now, it happens that right now, I'm listening to a book, an audio, on the life of Toscanini, Attura Toscanini. Attura Toscanini is considered one of the great conductors of all time, and he had a fascinating life, and I'll probably talk about him on a future show because of how fascinating a life he lived and how many different dimensions his life was fascinating. And he's one of my personal heroes because of the kind of life he lived and because of the stands he took, because primarily of his integrity. He was a man of unbelievable integrity. Anyway, one of the manifestations of that integrity is Toscanini, particularly early in his life, he was the main conductor of La Scala Orchestra at the early part of the 20th century, like 1903 to something, 1909. And then he went to the Metropolitan, he went to the Metropolitan opera house in New York. And one of the things that Toscanini instituted as a standard in opera in Italy, and this was very difficult, was the idea of no on-course for the singer. So it used to happen in opera, and I don't know how many of you have gone to opera, is if a singer sang a beautiful aria, the audience would clap and cheer and yeah, demand that the singer sing it again. And Toscanini's view, which was consistent with people like Wagner and Mahler and other but non-Italian conductors and composers, and by the view consistent with the view of Verdi, the great conductor, the great composer, but who during his life, I've never really got to implement this. The idea was, no, wait a minute, stop. Opera is drama. Opera has a continuation. You don't stop an opera in the middle to clap or to cheer to have aria sung over again. You have to view it as musical drama with a beginning, middle, and end, and you have to experience the whole thing in one flow. And that flow is significant. That flow is important. And Toscanini stuck with that and he would refuse to stop and slow down. He would refuse to repeat it. And he changed the way Italian audiences listened to opera. And he had to fight them. He had to walk off the stage sometimes. He had to show them the extent to which he hated it, hated what they were doing. And slowly over many years, he reeducated Italian audiences and Italians. This is hard. They're emotional people. They like to express themselves. He reeducated the Italian public in how to listen quietly and experience an opera from beginning to end as a work of art, as a theatrical musical experience. Not as triviality. Not as you listen to a little tune and hey, it's a little tune, but as something deep and important, even funny operas. There's musical comedy and it's got an arc. It's flows. And to stop it in the middle breaks that flow, destroys that humor, destroys what's going on. And even the story itself is less important, of course, in music. It's the music that's important in music and that continuity in the music is so crucial. The emotional states that the music evokes, the ability to move from one emotional state to another is interrupted by people standing up and yelling and screaming and shouting. And often they would do that. If Italians didn't like an opera, they would start yelling and calling it down. But what about the people in the audience who do like the opera? Why are you disturbing them? How is this not violating their rights? So theaters started having rules. And one of those rules was sit in silence. Don't disturb your neighbor. You might not like the peace if you don't get up and leave. But don't interrupt your neighbor from listening. Now, to me, this is just basic respect, but it's a recognition of how deep the music is, how significant the music is, how moving the music is, and how complex the music is. That you don't want to miss a segment. It's not about, here's a pretty tune and there's a pretty tune and there's another pretty tune. It's not about three minute songs. It's about half an hour, maybe an hour of emotional aesthetic engagement. And to do that, you have to be focused. You have to concentrate. You have to be quiet. You have to be really focused on the music and on your own emotions and on what it's evoking in you. Rather be distracted by chatter and by noises and by all kind of other stuff going on. It pisses me off to no end when people start talking or coughing or unwrapping candy or whatever during a time when I'm trying to focus on the music and suddenly you're in the background. I mean, it's distracting, but these guys, these guys think it's the epitome of, I don't know, oppression. All right, let's keep listening. So I want to give you that sense of history. You know, Casca music was not taken very seriously. People would yell, people would scream, people would shout, people would clap, people would cheer, people would boo. And then it, during Beethoven's time, it transitioned into something serious, something important, something that people took as important and therefore, sudden rules evolved on how to listen, particularly when you're with other people. You can do whatever the hell you want in your own home. All right, we'll keep listening. Yes, in fact, if you go to an orchestra today, you might be required to read something called the Symphony Concert Etiquette Guide before you attend. Now this is a joke because I'm sure there is such a thing as a symphony etiquette guide, but how many of you read it before you went to a symphony concert? I've been going to concerts since I was 20, early 20s, and I've never read the symphony etiquette guide and I probably violate some of the principles in the etiquette guide. We'll get to some of them in a minute, but it's just, it's a straw man. And they have to put up the straw man so that they can knock down everything, including Beethoven. Get out of here. Okay, what's in the etiquette guide? It tells you what kind of clothes you should wear, jeans and Tivas. They say business attire. Okay, it directs you to unwrap your lozenges ahead of time. Now, I have not worn business attire to the concert or to the opera ever. And maybe I have by accident, but now I've wore jeans. I've worn sandals. I wore short sleeved shirts. I wear a jacket when it's cold. I wear sweater when it's cold. I wore T-shirts. This idea that you cannot go to the classical music, listen to classical music and clothes that are comfortable. Now, some people dress up, away, that's fine. It's a sign of respect. It's a sign of a lot of things. Maybe it's a sign of second hand it is. I don't know, it's up to them. But why is this offending these guys? So think about, why are these guys doing this? What pisses them off? Okay, I didn't know that was a problem. Unlike what most. So yes, please, if you're bringing lozenges to the concert hall, please unwrap them beforehand because that sound when you do it is really disturbing to like a lot of people around you. What's wrong with that? What's wrong with asking people not to disturb their neighbors? Sarge described, it has very specific rules about clapping. It says, if you're listening to Beethoven's symphony number nine, which has four movements, it is appropriate to clap only after the last movement. You can look at your program book to find out how many movements a piece has. Usually there's a 15 to 30 second pause between movements. So in the case of Beethoven's science symphony, you know you're hearing the finale after three pauses. If you're unsure, you can wait for the rest of the audience to clap before you join in. Again, this is more of an issue of respect than anything else. This is more of an issue of getting the entire piece ready together before, why is this so disturbing to them? Oh my gosh. So if you're feeling moved, wait till the end of the fourth movement. Yeah, because there are other people in the audience next to you. You're not alone at home. As I do, you can stand up and conduct. You can yell. You can sing what the singer is. You can applaud whenever you want. When you go to a movie theater, you don't applaud every time a character says something you like. You don't talk on the phone. Why is that okay in the movies, but not in a symphony orchestra? We'll get to that. You can't have any emotive experience during this incredibly emotional roller coaster of a symphony. Yeah, you know, that last sentence of the concert that the guy says so much. It's like to listen to this music, you have to know the rules and you have to behave in a certain way. The Philharmonic's percussionist, Kyle Zirna, told me that he wished the audiences gave more feedback the way they did back in Mozart's day. In a weird way, I kind of wished it was like that. Typically, in an orchestra concert, even if I felt it didn't go that well, usually we get a pretty decent applause at the end. So there's this, I don't think you'd actually want that. Really? I mean, I think musicians, oh my God. You want people not to pay attention to what you're doing. You want people to be chatting. You want people to be on their phones. You want people to be engaged in all this other activity. Really? Really, yes. You would get most spontaneous responses, but you would also get complete, them completely ignoring you on times. Radical shift that takes place within the concert hall. Is it because of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony? That's what I'm not understanding here. Yeah, connection to Beethoven. I think it's that the popularity of the Fifth Symphony introduces this new way of listening. So in the decades after the... Now, he's not mentioning the fact that it's not only about the popularity of Beethoven's Symphony. It's about, and this is what they don't want you to know, this is the knowledge that they are hiding from you. It's because classical music became this kind of music, this serious music, this engaging music became popular during this period. Popular among the middle class and the working classes. Popular among people who now could afford to buy a ticket and go to these concerts. And who wanted to experience this. Who wanted this sense of reverence that this music can provide. And they, that's what they don't want you to know. They don't want you to quite fully appreciate the extent to which the 19th century changed our lives. Not just materially, but also aesthetically. There's no accident that Beethoven comes when he does. And that the rest of the 19th century, so rich in music, it's because it is a post-enlightment era. It is because of capitalism. And the real source of this so-called depression in the concert hall is capitalism. It's because this is what custom is demanded. But they hate that because they are snobs. Premier of the Fifth Symphony, if you went to the concert hall, you'd find that it was a vastly different space than the one that Mozart would have been used to. It was a place where they used a word called zitzfleisch. I'm sorry, that one's not in my vocabulary. That means like sitting flesh. It's a weird word that describes how you are supposed to stay perfectly still in your seat. You're not supposed to tap your foot. You're not supposed to clap your hands. You're not even supposed to nod your head. You are supposed to sit in silent communion with this godlike composer. So what changed from Mozart to Beethoven? How did we get this rigid, rule-bound classical culture today? Not again, rigid, rule-bound. Think about who hates rules. Who hates rigidity? What attitude towards life hates any kind of rules, any kind of focus, any kind of rigidity in anything? I asked our friends, the classical music critic, James Bennett, why there are so many rules when you go to see classical music. I think the best way to really think about that is the role that so-called genius plays in this discussion of elitism. It's almost as if we go to listen to this music in these quiet halls of like sanctified music. It's holy. It's almost like we're going to worship at the altars of these classical gods. And I can really not think of any other setting in which that kind of musical communion and reverence is expected. What do they hate about this? What they hate about it is the genius. What they hate about it is that, yes, this is a worship of genius. This is a worship of greatness. This is about something holy in the secular sense. This is about reverence. This is about beauty and genius and holy and revered and about worshiping that. What is it that hates reverence, that hates genius, that hates the worship of genius? Well, it's certainly nihilism. It's a particular form of nihilism, although maybe all nihilism comes from this. But what are they trying to do? What are they trying by knocking Beethoven down? What are they trying to do? What is the goal? What is the purpose? What is the philosophy that animates this? Well, the philosophy is egalitarianism. What they want us is to view all music as equal. Why should classical music be different than rock? Why should classical music be different than country? Why should we have reverence to Beethoven just because he was a genius? What they really after is equality, egalitarianism. And we know that the only way to achieve equality, the only way to achieve equality is to knock down genius, is to destroy the holy, holy again in a secular term, to destroy that which deserves worship. It's to bring everything down to the level of everything else, of the most common, of the most base, of the most easy. Why do they care? They care because they're about destroying. They care because they're about pulling down genius. They care because they're about their woke. And it's wrong to review genius. It's wrong to feel a sense of awe when facing them, when facing greatness. This is interesting. I like this comparison. The fact that we're even going to buildings made by famous architects, everything about it is. Isn't that amazing that we're going to buildings built by famous architects to celebrate this great music and these geniuses and this wonderful, fantastic experience that we have when we go there and when we go into the building, the acoustics are perfect. The acoustics are amazing. They're better than your best sound system at home. The acoustics is just out of this world. Isn't that stunning the science that goes into creating that acoustics to make it that good? But no, they find this offensive. They want to tear this down because they are nihilistic egalitarians who just want to tear everything down and bring it down to the same level. Almost religious-like. We're bowing down to these great intellects. It's not about bowing down. It's about treating them with respect. It's not about groveling on your knees. It's about enjoying the genius of art and music. And like in religion, there's a certain set of rituals that you have to enact when you go to the classical concert hall. They're not necessarily even obvious. They're all these unwritten rules where you have to go check the etiquette guide in order to follow along. Again, bullshit. It's almost as if it's not just about appreciating the music. It's about showing whether you belong or not. Whether you know how to listen the right way. And James Bennett has some pretty strong feelings about those rules. It doesn't make any sense. I would never want to go to someone's home and be like, we're going to go listen to this music, by the way, change your clothes, sit on your hands, and don't get up to go to the bathroom. It's going to be easy on the drinks before. So by the way, if you ever invited in my home to listen to classical music, I mean to listen to classical music. I don't care what you wear as much. And I do care how much you drink before. And I do ask that you shut up, that you stay quiet, that you listen, that you don't distract me from enjoying the music. I don't like it when people talk over music or over a movie when I'm watching. I like to be fully immersed. I like to experience it fully. So yeah, I will do this at home as well. Because that's what it means to review something. That's what it means to take it seriously. That's what it means to fully immerse yourself in the experience. And by the way, if I go to a museum and I am looking at Michelangelo's David and you come next to me and start yapping, then beware. Now, I know when you go and see Michelangelo's David, there are a lot of other people around you and I try to go during the day when there are very few people around me and when they're making a lot of noise, it upsets me. I want to be with this sculpture, not with all these people. And luckily, in a concert hall, they keep them quiet so I can focus, so I can concentrate. I love it. And I do that in my house when people come and watch a movie with me or listen to classical music with me. And when you have all of this stuff together, everyone acting a certain way around the music as expected, it seems like it's part of a club. I feel James here. A club of people appreciating the music to see the orchestra. And yet when I do, it throws my whole life out of order because it's the only place that I ever go that actually starts perfectly on time. If you're like one minute late, they throw you out. Oh, now he's complaining because it starts on time. I don't know what shoes to wear. He doesn't have shoes. He doesn't have shoes. Exactly, I'm supposed to, do I wear a jacket? I don't own a blazer. Do I need a blazer? I haven't been to a blade with a blazer to a concert. I feel like I fit in. It's so dishonest. I'm on my way slowly to middle age. I'm still like extremely young for the space. It feels so guarded by an older generation and I'd never know if I even belong there. Did he just call me old? Just make sure you unwrap your lozenges in advance, okay? Please unwrap your lozenges in advance. And did he commit ageism? I think he just committed ageism because he accused me of being old. No, that became a problem. I hear you and I hear James. It's almost like there's two sides to the legacy of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. You know, on one hand, it's a symbol of overcoming and resilience and inspiration. And on the other hand, it's used to create this narrative that turns classical music into a culture of exclusivity and elitism. What's wrong with exclusivity? And what's wrong with elitism? And aren't you, in a sense, exhibiting elitism here? And there might be an even kind of darker part of that story too in which the symphony becomes the soundtrack for a new class of self-made white men. White men. It becomes the marker of their belonging and their individuality. What about women who like going to concerts? And they use the symphony as a way to police who belongs to this cast and who doesn't. If you can understand this harmonic journey from C minor to C major, if you know how to behave in the concert hall, then you're welcome. And they're not so subtle about who is allowed in this symphony club and who's... I mean, anybody's allowed. Is there no, you know, something allowed? Right? What are you talking about? Just don't disturb your neighbors. The only real rule in a classical music concert is don't disturb your neighbor. And we'll see an example of that in a minute. By the way, I get into trouble when I go to classical music concerts. At the very beginning of this episode, we heard from that New York music lover writing in his diary about how this symphony is the source of all freedom and joy and wisdom in the world. Yeah, I'm gonna guess that maybe later on in his diary entry, it is not the case that this is the place for equality and every person to enjoy. This is how he would have preferred that the orchestra dealt with members of the opposite. Talk about creating a strawman. Quote, all women shall be gagged by officers duly licensed for the purpose before they're allowed to enter a concert room. If that won't answer, then there shall be a sentry with a ball cartridge stationed at due intervals about the room with instructions to shoot the first female that opens her mouth. Oh my gosh. And that is a common attitude. That this idea of like, oh, be quiet in the concert hall. It's not just about we need to appreciate the music. It's like, we need to shut up the people who we don't want to be part of this world. And of course, it's not just women. Like, nearly all other institutions, the symphony has been a site of outright segregation for black Americans during the Jim Crow era. That was 50 years ago. And it's no surprise that black audiences continue to be excluded today. Often in the name of written etiquette and unwritten cultural norms. Let me call that bullshit. Minorities are not excluded from the symphony orchestra today. All they have to do is not disturb the proceedings. They can wear whatever they want. They can come wherever they want. I mean, really? Well, almost done. So stick with us till the end. And just, I just want to show the full hypocrisy. It's a full evil of this- The kinds of aggressions are something that James Bennett encounters as a black critic working in these spaces. Oh, he's a black critic, okay. Like, in a recent experience he had while reviewing a classical concert. I was taking notes, and during the end of the piece, and we're all applauding, the guy that I'm sitting next to when he's over to me. And he's just kind of like, I enjoy the concert, but you're writing, you're taking notes, it's getting on my nerves. And it's disrespectful, and you should, you know, be mindful of how I feel as I'm doing it. And I'm like, all right, man, like, what the? And I was like, I'll try to write quieter, keep my elbow more tucked into my side, but like, there's not much more than I can like, do about it. And then the ensemble does an encore. I'm still taking notes, obviously. He looks over to me. He's like, I don't understand what you don't get about me telling you to stop. And then he's like, who do you work for? Do work for the time zone to call the times up tomorrow and tell them to fire you. And I was like, okay, great, do it. This is wonderful. I did not and have not ever worked for the New York Times. So it was a feudal chaser hand. But like, yeah, I mean, it's stuff like that. It happens like all the time. And I don't want to say it rolls off of one's back or that, you know, I don't care, but it's very revealing. Yeah, what's revealing here is what is the relevance of being black? Now, if somebody sat next to me and wrote all the time, and particularly if it was scratchy and it made a noise, I would comment on that. Now, I get into trouble all the time in concert halls. I'm not black, by the way, because I like to conduct. And I sometimes can't help myself and my hand rises and I go like this while the music is playing and my head bobs and so on. And people tell me it distracts them. And I get it. I try to, you know, I don't try too much because it's part of the experience, but I get it. But, and I'm white and people offended by the fact that I conduct in Salzburg once. We attended, my wife and I attended the Verdi's Requiem and it was a phenomenal performance of Verdi's Requiem with Daniel Barenbaum conducting and everything. And we were like conducting all over. And the couple next to us, as soon as the concert ended, really were angry with us. I mean, really, really angry with us. And I'm white. Now I'm Jewish, but I don't think they knew that. Maybe that was it. Maybe they can tell who are Jews and they're all racist really. No, they just used the sitting really, really quietly in stone face and listening to music. And they found what we did distracting and I apologized to them. And I said, you should have not just joined the performance, we would have stopped. James' story kind of breaks my heart here. It doesn't break my heart. You know, he wasn't revealing a Beethoven concert. What he's describing here is a culture that was created by Beethoven's legacy and the legacy of this piece. And it's a culture that tries to divide. It's a beautiful culture. And excludes. It's a culture that embraces the music. Think about all the performers. Think about all the different nationalities from which performers are on stage. Think of all the so-called colors, skins of people who perform. Think of the emotions that evoke the universality of this music. The fact that this music is not just appealing to anyone. Think of the fact that Christ came music today is unbelievably popular in places like Japan and China and Africa. There are orchestras in Africa and even some places in the Middle East, but in Asia and all over the world, this music is universally loved. Beethoven is universally loved. And yes, racism is horrible, but there's no racism here. Not anymore, maybe there was. Certainly there was in the Jim Crow era. Certainly it was in the 19th century. Let's celebrate the fact that it's gone. Let's celebrate. I think I did a show on the fact that I saw this performance of Akhmanianov's third piano concert in London with an Uzbekistan-y pianist. And how beautiful it was and how amazing he played. And Uzbekistan's Central Asia probably raised Muslim. And look, he gets it and he's performing it. And wow. I mean, the one thing classical music does, the one thing Beethoven does is it demolishes barriers. It demolishes differences. It is a universal language. Music is a universal language in that sense. It moves all people, no matter what the color of the skin, no matter their backgrounds, no matter where they come from. And all we're asking for when you enter a concert hall is respect, appreciation, reverence, yes, for genius, because there is such thing as genius. All right, almost done. Just a minute. It's all about resilience and overcoming. It teaches me a lot about how the language of manners and etiquette is really often the language of exclusion. Really? It gives permission for all kinds of aggressions and microaggressions to perceive. Aggressions and microaggressions telling people they can't make noises while they're listening to music in a concert hall with other people. Sist in these spaces to push people out, to not let them have their experience. This is why the left is so hated. And in a specific example, I think it's particularly utterly absurd because if we're there to enjoy the genius of a work, perhaps taking notes on it is a great way to get to understand and appreciate it. Yeah, I agree. And I think that brings up a really provocative question. Listen to question, which is in 2020, are we still going to keep celebrating this composer? Are we gonna decide that maybe it's time that we break up with Beethoven once and for all? There we go. We should give up on Beethoven because the sensitive people, they can't stand having to sit quietly for performance. So episode four, which is gonna air in a few days, they will tell us whether they have decided to cancel Beethoven or not. I'm looking forward to that. I might have to have them on again to discuss that. I hope not. But anyway, I mean, it's just insanity. What we need today, what I call the new intellectual, would be any man or woman who is willing to think. Meaning any man or woman who knows that man's life must be guided by reason, by the intellect, not by feelings, wishes, whims or mystic revelations. Any man or woman who values his life and who does not want to give in to today's cult of despair, cynicism and impotence and does not intend to give up the world to the dark ages and to the role of the collectivist brought. All right, before we go on, reminder, please like the show. We've got 163 live listeners right now, 30 likes, that should be at least 100. I figure at least 100 of you actually like the show. Maybe they're like 60 of the Matthews out there who hate it, but at least the people who are liking it, you know, I wanna see a thumbs up. There you go. Start liking it. I wanna see that go to 100. All it takes is a click of a thing, whether you're looking at this. And you know, the likes matter. It's not an issue of my ego. It's an issue of the algorithm. The more you like something, the more the algorithm likes it. So, you know, and if you don't like the show, give it a thumbs down. Let's see your actual views being reflected in the likes. But if you like it, don't just sit there, help get the show promoted. Of course, you should also share. And you can support the show at youronbrookshow.com slash support on Patreon or Subscribestar or locals and show your support for the work, for the value, hopefully you're receiving from this. 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