Saturday, February 21, 2009

This is Getting Really Old.

Why do people keep using the Argument to the Poor whenever it comes to liturgy? Really, it makes no sense and is slightly elitist. The constant haranguing that things such as choral music and Latin aren't accessible to the poor, so stop being elitist and take it down to the lowest common denominator so that they can understand it. Yes, I've heard several more modern people say such things. It does'nt work because it builds on another mostly unproven argument, which presupposes it's conclusion ('X' is inaccessible except to the learned). I mean, ANYTING is inaccessible if you don't know what it is. An all-vernacular mass can be inaccessible. Much modern music is inacessible to a large majority of Catholics, a phenomenon so widely known that I'm surprised anyone would ever use the Argument from Inacessibility when it comes to music.
So we have the A.F.I. Now, what the A.T.P. does wrong is presuppose two things:

A) To understand 'X', you need a whole lot of really hard training.
B) Such training is totally inacessible to lower-class people.

Now, I call B.S. on A, firstly because no kind of quantifyer is given for 'understand'. how much do you need to understand 'X' ? I can basically read and interpret Gregorian Chant, but I don't know what any of the commonly used terms are. (Quilisma, pressus, epsilisma, etc.) I don't even know how to sing those squiggly things that look like trills.
So do I or do I not understand chant?
Untill a qualifyer is given, 'A' is subjective and fails, because I don't think you can use a subjective quality to prove an objective point.

It could also be a lie. Using myself as an example again, I do basically know chant, but without any sort of formal trianing or anything. I just downloaded a Graduale and started reading. Depending on what is spoken about, you could need little to no training at all. I have a very, very basic understanding of Latin. I can mostly translate it, but all I did was start using a Latin-English office book twice a day, and over the course of about 4 months, I became familiar with it.

I call B.S. on B as well. Super B.S. It's just a lie. Anyone with a computer can do a google search, and it's not like there's a dearth of info on the internet. And even there is, liturgical worship is something that parishes should be making sure that parishioners can take part of. If a parish really cares about people knowing 'X' they'll make some sort of attempt to teach it.
So yah, avoid fallacies and such or calico-colored hampster will eat your other leg.*

*G4 reference FTW!

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