enthusiasm

enthusiasm (èn-th¡´zê-àz´em) noun
1. Great excitement for or interest in a subject or cause.
2. A source or cause of great excitement or interest.
3. Archaic. a. Ecstasy arising from supposed possession by a god. b. Religious fanaticism.
[Late Latin enthúsiasmus, from Greek enthousiasmos, from enthousiazein, to be inspired by a god, from entheos, possessed : en-, in. See EN-2 + theos, god.]
Word History: When the English philospher Henry More stated in a work published in 1660 that "If ever christianity be exterminated, it will be by Enthusiasme," he clearly used the word differently from the way we do now. He was also using a meaning that differed from the first sense, "possession by a god," recorded in English (1603). Enthusiasm and this sense of the word go back to the Greek word enthousiasmos, which ultimately comes from the adjective entheos, "having the god within," formed from en-, "in, within," and theos, "god." Henry More in 1660 was referring to belief, either mistaken or unsupported by evidence, in one's own inspiration by the christian god. Enthusiasm, as now most frequently used, has become secularized and at times weakened, so that one can speak of an enthusiasm for fast cars.

Enthusiasm

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82), U.S. essayist, poet, philosopher. Essays, "Circles" (First Series, 1841).

how do you focus and refine the universal solvent?  each explosion was set off by a critical mass reached within a bottleneck.  this intangible emotion could be analyzed and guided scientifically.  the mania of rock & roll in the fifties, which empowered jane and joe to be musicians and artists,  the drug and gender revolution set off in the sixties, the unfocused, purposeless backlash of hedonism of the seventies, the attention of the selfish individual in the eighties.  the gradual stripping away of ego based systems and empowerment of collective fruition of maximizing the individual in the nineties.  the purpose of the party is to focus joy within a contained space and time.  what will happen when this chaotic system is streamlined to maximum effect, and how will it be done?  what new technology will continue to create potent vibrations and frequencies to facilitate brain states that psychically manifests our ideals and fantasies into material reality? - @Om* 5/14/00

"None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm."
 - Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)

stage 1 is genuine.  they discover something that resonates within their cullar structure.  usually accompanied by great excitation about "spreading the word".

stage 2 - of course, humans are involved, and you learn that others do not share exactly, specifically, wholeheartedly your own values systems in conjunction with the experience.  you become more knowledgable, more defensive, and all the "newbies" have that enthusiasm that you used to have, but you know better now.  you laugh along with the rest of the second tier.  ego starts to expand.  you either teach the newbies, or feel above them.

stage 3 - you're so over it.  clueless morons start coming in, taking over and taking FROM YOU what is YOURS, forgetting that you took from those that preceded you, and they were already smart enough to move on, creating their own paths and finding new infrastructures.  you start deflating the energies brought about by others, waxing nostalgic and talking about the good old days when you owned the scene.

repeat.

this applies to all structures, all scales, "real" andvirtual: mailing lists, music genres, scenes, countries, frontiers, planets, dimensions, species.

the best remedy i've found so far is to move. TAZ.  don't stick around to argue.  when you know the feeling, it's time to bail, don't feed your ego and flaunt your "experience" and "wisdom" in the matter to "clueless newbies".  leave, and find your childhood again.  the territories are infinite, both outwardly and inwardly.  the potential is limitless.  why waste your time and attention on drama? - @Om* 10/2/01

"Enthusiasm as opposed to influence." - Coil

[Emotion] is a transformation of the world... We try to change the world, that is, to live as if the connection between things and their potentialities were not ruled by deterministic processes, but by magic. - Jean Paul Sartre

• entheogens
• Temporary Autonomous Zones
• rapture
• contagion
• Anomalog: Astonish Me With Enthusiastic Science
• virus
• energy
• punk pop track _Enthused_ MP3 (160k) by Blink182 off of _Dude Ranch_ on Grilled Cheese (1997)

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