It should come as no surprise to percipient members of this list that those of
us who remain believers in progress in ANY form of the Enlightenment Project
(however loosely one may
interpret same) are these days rather discombobulated by the antics of not a
few world 'leaders' (to say nothing of their sycophants) in this time of global
crisis.
I am at the moment seeking solace by way of musical and mathematical diversion
and invite others to join me ...
At the moment I am listening to the band Karat's "Über sieben Brücken mußt du
gehn" [You have to go over seven bridges] in the version recorded with the Kiel
Philharmonic Orchestra in 2012. I attended the concert which Karat, accompanied
by the same orchestra, gave during Kiel Week in 2010. Karat? According to
Wikipedia, "a German rock band, founded in 1975 in East Berlin, then part of
the German Democratic Republic, or East Germany, who gained a strong following
in West Germany when its 1982 album Der blaue Planet [The Blue Planet] was one
of the year's top sellers in both East and West Germany, making Karat one of
the more prominent bands in German-language rock music."
Can it really have been a decade ago? Kiel Week (according to Wikipedia "an
annual sailing event in Kiel, the capital of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany; the
largest sailing event in the world, and also one of the largest Volksfeste in
Germany, attracting millions of people every year from all over Germany and
neighbouring countries) would have been celebrated a couple of weeks ago, but
owing to the COVID-19 pandemic was cancelled (and will be celebrated in a much
reduced version later in September of this year).
But what has this to do with the Enlightenment Project - and mathematical
diversion?
Perhaps mathematically-inclined list members are already knowingly nodding
their heads: "Of course, The Seven Bridges of Königsberg!" (Wikipedia once
more: "a historically notable problem in mathematics, the negative resolution
of which by Leonhard Euler in 1736 laid the foundations of graph theory and
prefigured the idea of topology.")
Philosophically-inclined list members will of course recognize Königsberg as
the resident city of Immanuel Kant, author of (among many other texts
fundamental to a history of the aforementioned Enlightenment Project) the essay
"Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung?" [Answering the Question: What Is
Enlightenment?].
And list members with a particularly long memory for obscure list arcana will
recall that I have I am sure more than once noted that the city of Kiel is
'twinned' with Kaliningrad.
All of which leads us back to the musical diversion, in which you may join me
on Spotify by searching for "Karat Symphony" or on YouTube at the following
address:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpzKM9aEG-0&list=OLAK5uy_kA2xveIhE_5KV-0y3EltaoyfxgsmQFwp4
I recognize that such diversion will not be to every list member's musical
taste, but those of you who enjoy, or at least entertain a willingness to
sample, German 'melodic progressive rock' music accompanied by a competent
symphonic orchestra (with or without the adding in the mathematical pleasures
of perusing Euler's analysis showing that in order to go over all seven bridges
you must traverse at least one of them more than once) may also find temporary
diversion, if not lasting solace, from aforementioned reprehensible antics ...
.. and I would very much appreciate the companionship.
Chris Bruce,
who, however mindful of Kant's cautions concerning emotionality,
cannot as the years advance entirely avoid lapses of sentimentality,
in Kiel, Germany
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