The Immense Error Of Richard Wagner

Dedicate yourself fully to a remarkable art, without depreciating your knowledge or drowning it into a lack of meaning.

According to Nietzsche, the composer Richard Wagner started out with an immense error… he devoted himself recklessly, but with good faith, to an art with the most revolting of structure, namely to that art form that sees its purpose only in "pulling success from the public", using every artistic means destined for this purpose. It is on this very path however that Wagner came to be aware of his mistake, to the awareness of the sterility of this path and its lack of meaning, because he realized, in the desperation stemming from the recognized mistake, the lying essence of modern success, of the modern public, of the entire modern art.

The feeling of disappointment and repentance led Richard Wagner to the awareness of the intermediary stage of his spiritual development. The stage which Nietzsche designates, unlike the former and the latter, in two words: "Wagner became a revolutionary of society." *

Leadership: What meaning can you give to an individual existence that is itself the result of the effects of "slow motion" in a space of art in which the form, the background and the meaning intersect in a barometer of public interest?

By increasing the knowledge capital, which unites elements of old and new to form others more evolved, into an array of matured ideas, of innovations fueled by that same source of revelations, is trying to actually support a position of authority in what regards performance in achieving scientific creations. Art is not just a privilege to unite your feelings in one place, but it is more of a privilege to see new perspectives of spiritual development that give you a certain social status.

And the man who cannot distinguish clearly between science and pseudo-science, neglecting any implementation of experience, which should start with extensive research and the formulation of new constructive conclusions, will suffer defeat precisely because of the limits of the science he loves. In him the feeling of disappointment and repentance will settle, if their views are invalidated by others and if their values become restrictions for different areas or thought patterns.

An artist’s mistake may consist in forgetting his calling to direct, guide, and influence the knowledge he proves in establishing conceptual distinctions in favor of the desire to amaze. Reaching your fault awareness, awareness of the sterility of this path of development and its lack of meaning, in the desperation stemming from the recognized mistake, is the consequence of a lack of perspective or of an under appreciation of personal creation.

In terms of leadership, the “slow motion” effect refers precisely to this slowing, on its own initiative, of the pace of development due to imbalances in reversing the conditions of exploitation of already existing science – in favor of obtaining as many “applauses” as possible. The man who knows his own limits only invests time in a new form of interaction with the public as a way to understand himself, to self-evaluate by comparison with the public’s reaction.

Therefore, the development of new methods of creation is a requirement of the evolution of art, but at the same time presupposes a standstill pending a reaction from the public. And it is more important to achieve a version of how to rethink and reform your own version of being smart and brilliant than to raise the value of your own image in the eyes of others.

Leadership: Do you value or eliminate the errors of exploration of new forms of innovation based on the hope of providing the general public a full picture of the "reaction-counter-reaction" phenomenon?

Often these artisans of scientific compositions, instead of basing their creations on the research data obtained, start out with great errors of exploration of new forms of innovation, uncertain and burdensome trials, setbacks, stops, in a field that does not ensure a guaranteed scientific intake.

They dedicated themselves, in good faith, to an art that has its purpose only in obtaining artistic and technical effects by completely new means, often combining reality with the fantastical. And this doesn’t only make them "revolutionaries" but also propagandists, whose stake is the pride of being in control, of being superior, of achieving maximum success.

Innovation must not be an instrument to control news for the general public, but it is rather a demonstration of virtue in requiring you to do works of a certain standard offered only by the one who guarantees the assurance of an ideal aspiration that is purely scientific and cultural.

A great disorientation, a lack of meaning of the process of self-improvement, are the negative factors that determine or influence the strength characteristics of the personality of the leader, of his reason to look at all the "faces" of science in an objective or subjective manner. Leadership intervenes into this equation of effects, of their causes and risks, which can depreciate science or drown it into a lack of meaning, if its user falls prey to anxiety. He who cares more for his pride than his conscience, makes a grave mistake, eventually coming to hate himself.

The “stimulus-response” phenomenon aims at assessing the artist’s ability to properly manage the balance between what he exposes to the world (as a culture and education entity) and what he must accept as “disappointment” when he denies merit due to his tendency to amaze.

The Great Error Of Richard Wagner concerns the possibility of making a mistake and failing in a field such as leadership, if the followed purpose is only temporary success, without bringing a significant and revolutionary contribution, worthy of being adopted and followed, to the renewal of a vision that meets people's preoccupations for art.

* Note: I. Davidov - Arta şi elita , Editura Univers, 1973.