Philosophy of Danger

Dangerous ideas, individuals, and art imply transgression. Transgression against the set of social codes and norms that order and maintain a community. Schoenberg was a dangerous man when he dropped ATONALITY on the early 20th century European music scene, he was transgressing the forms of classical musical composition. You were a dangerous little kid in your parents home when you drew all over the walls--you were transgressing over the rules your parents had to maintain clean and stain-free walls. 

A community maintains its authority, social codes and practices through an inter-dependent, self-perpetuating, and unconscious  process of distributing the sensible--what feels comfortable, acceptable, and makes sense. The "creepy" guy outside the convenience store is a marked man because he doesnt look sensible, we feel weird when we see him, he falls outside our conception of normal. Thus your parents had reason to beat you when you drew across the walls because what you were doing was not acceptable, it didn't make sense. Schoenberg's music didnt make sense to the early 20th century community of classical music, thus he received death threats. 

Having dangerous ideas and practicing them against your community is a very dangerous position to be in. Some good historical and literary examples can illuminate this point--Socrates, Jesus, and Antigone. They began with what was right, not what was acceptable and thus became dangerous to their communities standards and laws. They were walking, speaking, and worse, embodied contradictions within their communities sense making. There resistance formed new sensibilities--Jesus's sensibility formed a new religion with billions of followers. Their ideas broke down the comfortable logic that propagated injustice and dumbness. And they were killed for it. 

Being brilliant is no great feat if you respect nothing, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

But back the present. Schoenberg's revolutionary music is now taught in academic music departments. And most rooms I walk into havent been drawn on--maybe we have forgotten the thrill of freedom. Schoenberg's danger has been domesticated, just as all of us. It is high-time to rethink the role of dangerous sensibilities and ideas in the time of our dilapidated and confused world. Our current conception of progress--Technology, Skyscrapers, Nuclear Bombs, Cities, Wal-Marts upon Wal-Marts--is a comforting idea to many in the world, maybe a dose of uncomfort is needed awake the decayed and senile  We need more people drawing on the walls and being punks, and less people worried about their pretty walls that hide injustice.