Good afternoon, wise and benevolent readers. Today we are going to discuss geometry and arithmetic, whose historical quarrel knows few bounds. Even today, individuals can easily be classified as geometrically-minded people and arithmetically-minded people, and these people surely despise one another, or at least they have grounds to do so, for as a rule, geometry is good and arithmetic is bad. Furthermore, geometrically-minded people are good, and arithmetically minded people are bad.
This truth has proved itself to be empirically true time and time again. For example, the tuning of musical instruments based on an arithmetic invariably leads to a irregular intervals, whereas the use of a geometric sequence, as in well-temperament, leads to a rational and equal sequence of pitches, liberating the musician to modulate freely. Is that not a delight? Of course, that did not stop certain silly arithmeticians from complaining about the diminished purity of their precious harmonic intervals, but who wants a dishonest and irrational purity?
Another instance of this conflict was observed by Thomas Malthus, who purported that while food supply increases arithmetically, population increases geometrically, the implication being that mankind is doomed to starve, and by "mankind" I mean those lacking the resources to purchase food freely. Not long after this came the Irish potato blight, which was observed to have made only the dogs fat. Very cleverly, the British looked to Malthusian ideas and refused to do much to help the Irishfolk. While this worked out fine for the British and the dogs, both profiting on the deaths of Irishfolk, the Irishfolk evidently turned at times to the eating of grass, in the style of cattle, which typically did not work out very well. For this reason, those of us descended from Irishfolk, which includes myself and a large proportion of those around me, should have a particular distaste for arithmetic. Arithmetic starves Irishfolk!
So thus far we have seen that arithmetic not only seeks to undermine Artistic principle, but it also just may kill you. Just imagine, on that first point, the application of arithmetic over geometry in the visual arts. Art the formal arrangements of beauty not geometrically founded? What would become of the Golden ratio, the arrangement which defines all Life, from veins in leaves to the human body itself? What would we make of the hexagon, the arrangement of non-organic nature? Arithmetic is a denial of the Divine Art of Creation itself, and thus arithmetic also necessarily leads to spiritual death.
It comes as no surprise that the arithmeticians rule the world, inheriting the establishment from the legacy of the British empiricists of the Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge. Incidentally, the Irish strike back at this with their own Royal Irish Academy, which in fact acknowledges that Art might be a rational subject matter after all. Regardless, I am very sorry to report that, with little doubt, you, O kind and gentle reader, were educated on the basis of arithmetic. Do not shoot the messenger, that is me; it is not my fault, and I have suffered these things, as well.
At least the Greeks knew better, but as a result we have difficulty adapting to their geometric mode of thinking, which I remind you makes far better philosophical sense. The sooner we turn to geometry, the sooner we realize that this whole universe is defined in terms of the number three, from the three dimensions of space the trigonometrically expressed motion of waves to (I at least believe this to probably be true) the trinitarian nature of the human being, consisting of spirit, mind (or soul), and flesh. In conclusion, whenever I make comments about the sacredness of the number three, I am serious by exactly the ratio of phi.
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2 comments:
Yay geometry! I've probably already told you that I also think it's the most superior form of math. I also love the number three and all its multiples.
I did not know you were part Irish. You seem to have an accent from some other nationality, but I can't place it. I've wondered about it from time to time, and, if you don't mind me asking, I'd like to know where your accent comes from.
You probably have told me that about geometry, I think. I often engage in the inverse, every so often harassing my brother for being an arithmetically-minded person.
Also, on the number three, I forgot to mention that three notes make up a perfect major triad, classically symbolic of the Holy Trinity.
As for Irishness, though I do not expect you to know my grandmother's maiden name, I do imagine you have picked up on my own last name.
I shall speak on my speech later, and no, I by no means mind your asking.
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