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09.06  II...  III...  IV...  Scraping noises of the shovelling-snow variety began at 08.22. Local butcherly accents of the landlordly kind came through the wall at 08.27, followed by further scrapings & then more of accent. Several cars have been pulling out from nearby houses & slushing their way Eastwards. DGM Parking…  DGM Park…  09.27 Mr. Stormy has called in. Alex’ neighbours in their cul-de-sac have dug out the snow & he is now about to drive slushwards & smightily-tormily to DGM HQ. 09.51 Hooray! The new central-heating oil-provider has arrived & is providing heating oil. 10.20 Kitchen discussion with David on the implications of our yesterday-evening telephone discussion with Mr Boss of Sanctuary UMG. The challenge is not to be become cynical: for the artist, cynicism is death. Cynicism is where we allow what is lowest in all of us to triumph over what is highest. The role of the artist in popular culture, after all, is to call on what is highest in all of us, to remind us of what is Real & Good & True in humanity, but which we forget. When we forget our realities & qualities, this is expressed in behaviour: we live lesser lives than we might. This, in turn, reinforces, in our culture & media & business lives, less than the creative, conscious & sensitive living that is properly human behaviour. Lest the gentle visiting reader assume that the RHVL has partaken of morning hippy grass, I quote (what was intended to be an insult) an early Crim: you were never a hippy! Among our challenges at DGM: how to combat piracy in the online world when the main copyright violations DGM / KC has suffered is by two of the four global corporations in the music industry: EMI & Universal. One example of the problem: a complaint of copyright violation in the UK is made to the BPI; and, to a large extent, the BPI is Universal. A challenge of the professional artist: to act in the market place, free of the values of the market place. A challenge of contemporary living: the Old World is dying, and in places is already dead; yet continues to exert a crushing denial over much of our professional, social & personal lives. How to create a New World? An opportunity: to rediscover, recreate & re-fashion the structures of our commercial life. We don’t exist to serve the interests of commerce; commerce exists to support useful interactions of people & provide our necessities. At the beginning of this morning’s kitchen discussion, the RHVL quoted to David the Preface to Conflict And Creativity At Work by Albert Low: The corruption and lack of corporate responsibility that occurred during the eighties and nineties in some corporations… compels us all to question the very basis on which our industrial society has been built. I note, en passant, that I knew some of these corporations. Zen And Creative Management pointed out the main defect in the corporate structure: the widespread assumption that a company operates simply in the interests of its stockholders…  This book is a gift from Dr. Alfonso Montuori of the CIIS, published by Sussex Academic Press, and sent to me by a Sussex Academic’s Power Possessor, Anthony Grahame. I was with Anthony, and around 100 other people, at the IACE for Sherborne V. As Michael Legg would say: you can’t break out of your circle. From the SA website… Conflict and Creativity at Work contributes to the tide of activism that is calling for higher ethical standards and corporate social responsibility within the corporate world… Nobel prizewinner Milton Friedman says that the only social responsibility a company has is to make a profit. Albert Low questions this basic assumption and provides an alternative view: a company is a complex field of interacting and conflicting forces out of which a product emerges. The interests of the stockholder make up just one set of these forces. The corporate system arises out of the natural creativity of human beings and is expressed in the work that we do. Therefore to understand a company, its organization and its reason for being, we must understand creativity and work – what they involve, and their importance to our mental health… Depression is widespread throughout western society. A contributing factor is the way the corporate system operates. People are now adjuncts to the system and the result is alienation and impotence. And this… Peter Hadekel, The Gazette: Years of financial excess have plunged us into a severe economic downturn. For many observers, it's time to take a fresh look at the moral and ethical dimensions of capitalism… Corporate law is built around the preeminence of shareholder rights and financial markets have taken the cue by putting short-term shareholder interests first. Challenging this notion is outright heresy in some circles… The profit motive has led to disaster as well - to a wave of wrongdoing at Enron, WorldCom, Cineplex, Hollinger and many other companies. The current economic crisis and stock-market collapse had their roots in untrammeled greed and irresponsibility, leaving many questions about whether the corporate system makes sense or can even survive… But Low says: "In a truly creative and productive group, the centre will move freely from person to person depending upon the needs of the moment." Those with experience of working in the Guitar Craft Circle will know the experience of the moving centre; and which we will be addressing shortly (February 20th. – 1st. March) with The Orchestra Of Crafty Guitarists in Sant Cugat. I note, the centre moves, while continuing where it is. 13.20 BenH & Mr. Stormy are in DGM SoundWorld II. I am off to Bournemouth, driving down country lanes of slushiness, to visit Don Hardyman & then have coffee with Brother Road Warrior, Johnny the W. 20.04 A 28-mile journey, with closed roads & detours, is 40 miles today. Don has turned some superb new pendula, and John is radiating good health & cheer, fit for his tomorrow-journeying to Japan with Icon. David has set off in to the night, before his Wife calls the police to report a missing person…  Computing ahead. It waits…  Search Robert Fripp's diary archive. |
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