RE: Schadenfreude
October 7, 2014 at 9:21 am
(This post was last modified: October 7, 2014 at 9:27 am by Alex K.)
(October 7, 2014 at 2:37 am)Exian Wrote: Alex,
That was awesome! Thanks for sharing the video. It wouldn't be easy describing the 'freude' I felt listening to that. Must be my German descent.
Schiller's original poem and also Beethoven's ideas were all about seeing humanity as a whole, not about being German or not. Quoth Schiller:
Joy, beautiful sparkle of god,
Daughter of Elysium,
We enter, fire-drunk,
Heavenly one, your shrine.
Your magics bind again
What custom has strictly parted.
All men(*) become brothers
Where your tender wing lingers.
That's the antithesis of tribalism, and it's from 1808 no less, a time when the nationalists were the progressive movement. And of course, Beethoven moved to Vienna pretty quickly because that's where it was at back then.
(*) In the original it's alle Menschen, i.e. all of humankind
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
