Music appreciation and history/Why we need essays about music

I'm not sure why we need essays about music. Personally, I need music, but can't explain why.

But I have lots to say about why we need essays.

I am a retired physics professor who also taught a lot of courses for people with little or no interest in science. A typical example would be Introductory Astronomy. I tried to make the course relevant to students by hinting at either the history of the subject, or why an understanding of science is essential to everybody in a democratic society. At all levels of everything we do, communication is essential. Scientific knowledge is developed and verified through scientific publications. These publications are an essential part of what we call the scientific method. And democracies make decisions based on knowledge that is created by scientific publications and communicated to the public through other publications (called secondary sources.)

When I look around the world, almost without exception, the only places I would want to live are democracies. I can't say whether the link between livability and democracy is causal: Perhaps only wealthy countries can afford democracy, or perhaps democracy itself is a source of wealth. Either way, supporting democracy is a safe bet. And democracies require an educated public, and that means we need to learn to communicate.

When I look at social media, political dialogue, and even much of what appears in the news, I do not see much communication. Instead I see a desert of cliches and meaningless attempts at rhetoric. So that brings us to the idea that you should learn how to write a thoughtful essay. I wrote a thoughtful essay, not on music, but on the need to write essays. It rambles a bit, but here it is:


 * Socialism/Is it a thing of the left?