Der destruktive Charakter lebt nicht aus dem Gefühl, daß das Leben lebenswert sei, sondern daß der Selbstmord die Mühe nicht lohnt.
Western society was, throughout all its history, moving from the natural, wild state of human being towards more civilized and thus more formal behavior, allowing little if none space for ancestral savage traditions. One of those is the tradition of dance: not dance as an element of the elitist culture, like, for example waltz or polonaise, which serve to separate the rich and privileged from the common people; but rather that ecstatic, almost ritual dance, unifying all the people of given community in the single impulse. Such type of dance is presented in the traditions of the majority of African, Oceanian and American tribes; it is also the dance of the Bacchants; it is – or, at least, it was - also characteristic for the western rural communities. This type of dance lacks any formalities; it has primarily practical significance: to get rid from the physical restrictions imposed by the ethos, to offload the desire to violence and aggression without accomplishing acts of violence and aggression.
It seems that in doing so, our ancestors were much more successful, than we are. One may argue, that it is possible to experience quite the same on a disco club dance floor; but, while offering the opportunity to deal with the unnecessary emotions, it lacks one essential quality of the tribal dancing tradition: feeling of belonging to the community. Dance floor, instead, concentrates on typically Western individualist psychology: psychology that may be beneficial in the sense of daily routine typical Western person lives through, but never in the sense of trust and security. Disco clubs, in fact, have an effect of the isolation of the given individual inside his personal space; at most, it unifies two individuals, in the same moment separating them from the outer world. It offers one greater feeling of individuality rather than this of community.
This brings to question the other kind of dance floors: not the ones of disco-clubs, but those of concert venues. Concerts are by no means the acts of individuality: they are acts of the unification; they unite those with the same taste, which very often is erected almost to the status of the religious belief. When being on a dance floor of the concert venues, one very often loses this feeling of shyness and reservation he so often feels in daily life, even when communicating with the members of his social circle. Here, however, the communication is brought to completely different, nonverbal level; necessity of choosing proper phrasing and register therefore disappears, allowing the individual to express all range of emotions on purely physical level. The borders between individuals fade: they are singing together, synchronizing thus their breathing; they are clapping and stomping simultaneously; they are shaking their heads; they are rising their arms with the fists clenched in exactly the same moment. Separate bodies are merged into one single collective body. They may seem unconscious of what they are doing: in fact, they are as conscious as ever, only the individual consciousness is being replaced by the collective consciousness, controlled by the ancient natural forces, which are violently oppressed in modern daily life. Here, these old spirits have back their true power.
And this power is the power of consolation: as Frantz Fanon had written, it serves to canalize, transform and conjure away the aggression. Subdued to this power, people finally get the opportunity to forget about their own troubles along with their own needs; perhaps, the unique opportunity, which one can use without violating the law in the present-day life.
It seems that in doing so, our ancestors were much more successful, than we are. One may argue, that it is possible to experience quite the same on a disco club dance floor; but, while offering the opportunity to deal with the unnecessary emotions, it lacks one essential quality of the tribal dancing tradition: feeling of belonging to the community. Dance floor, instead, concentrates on typically Western individualist psychology: psychology that may be beneficial in the sense of daily routine typical Western person lives through, but never in the sense of trust and security. Disco clubs, in fact, have an effect of the isolation of the given individual inside his personal space; at most, it unifies two individuals, in the same moment separating them from the outer world. It offers one greater feeling of individuality rather than this of community.
This brings to question the other kind of dance floors: not the ones of disco-clubs, but those of concert venues. Concerts are by no means the acts of individuality: they are acts of the unification; they unite those with the same taste, which very often is erected almost to the status of the religious belief. When being on a dance floor of the concert venues, one very often loses this feeling of shyness and reservation he so often feels in daily life, even when communicating with the members of his social circle. Here, however, the communication is brought to completely different, nonverbal level; necessity of choosing proper phrasing and register therefore disappears, allowing the individual to express all range of emotions on purely physical level. The borders between individuals fade: they are singing together, synchronizing thus their breathing; they are clapping and stomping simultaneously; they are shaking their heads; they are rising their arms with the fists clenched in exactly the same moment. Separate bodies are merged into one single collective body. They may seem unconscious of what they are doing: in fact, they are as conscious as ever, only the individual consciousness is being replaced by the collective consciousness, controlled by the ancient natural forces, which are violently oppressed in modern daily life. Here, these old spirits have back their true power.
And this power is the power of consolation: as Frantz Fanon had written, it serves to canalize, transform and conjure away the aggression. Subdued to this power, people finally get the opportunity to forget about their own troubles along with their own needs; perhaps, the unique opportunity, which one can use without violating the law in the present-day life.