Published on 12, July, 2020
I have huge problems taking holiday, and previously only travelled to see my mother who I didn't get on with and it was always very traumatic. I stopped visiting her years ago and have a rue that l my holidays had to be productive and learning to justify the amount of anxiety preparing for them brings out. So it's been Thai boxing camp and Berlin as I was learning German. I haven't been away for almost 8 years. This was all before I even though I might be aspie. Just the preparing, arranging a sitter for my cats, getting to the airport on time and not missing the flight makes me tense and the whole thing not worth it.
I purchased tickets to see Rammstein in Berlin on Saturday. I bought the tickets last year as I really like their music and I haven't been away for a very long time and I though I would treat myself to a nice ticket and a trip as I though since I've been learning for a while and been hyperfixated on the band plus I could practice my German would be a good way to start again. Now, if you've read anything about Rammstein you'll know what a disaster this has turned out to be! The sex offence charges against the lead singer, the protest plant for this weekend in Berlin etc. I haven't been able to do much for the last week. I'm really conflicted but because reading all the facts it looks like the singer is guilty as charged. But my ticket was really expensive, and I worked so hard preparing everything and then there's the ticket price and obviously part of me feels duty bound to get this done. I can't help it! I don't know how to feel about any of this but I'm feeling increasingly, dangerously, upset. I have people telling me I shouldn't go, people telling me I should go. I'm still doing the flight part but I haven't thought past that point. It's weird, but it doesn't feel like it's moral decision. Maybe because I was more into the music than the individuals? Maybe I'm horrible and selfish, and a bad person who only cares about her tasks. Why am I still going? Why do I still want to? Just thinking about this is making me want to just run somewhere else and hide and never come back (even though I can't. cats.) I Don't see the band as people maybe, just sounds? I'm not sure.
I think I jut need a place to get this off my chest. I don't expect to hear nice things. or anything at all. Seeing bands live was the only place Ii felt I could relax. Weird isn't it. I can't do parties or dinners. But just drowning in a sea of people anonymously listing to music you like makes me relax. Not sue I can do that again though as people will always just be people.
I think that art is fundamentally independent of the morality of the artist. Caravaggio was a murderer, Picasso treated women abominably, Yukio Mishima was a Fascist who tried to engineer a right wing coup against the Japanese government, Richard Wagner was a racist, however, I can enjoy the art that these people created. Enjoying any artform is not an endorsement of the morals of its creators, the two are separate.
I think the key word there is "was". Most of the people you mention are not currently alive and reaping the benefits of their popularity. There's a difference between consuming art from a past age where things might have been viewed differently, and knowingly consuming art from someone current who has done something illegal/immoral by current standards. It's the difference between Wagner and his antisemitism, and Gary Glitter and his child pornography.
I’m pretty sure murder was still frowned upon in Caravaggio’s Time.
Indeed. Let's leave it there because I realise we've very much strayed from the topic of the post by this point and I'm sure everyone is probably fed up of the notifications popping up from our updates.