Delphic Maxim 107: Pursue harmony

I’ve set myself the challenge of responding to each of the Delphic Maxims for 15 minutes a day.

107. Pursue harmony

Harmony is a beautiful concept. The first thing that comes to mind is music, naturally. Harmony capture the way different melodies combine, play against each other, support and enhance each other, or the way different musical instruments work in tandem to create a more perfect whole. It’s a powerful metaphor for the way we should live our lives.

The beauty of harmony is that it comes from difference — it is not the same thing as equality or sameness, rather it is the idea that different things work together to create something more beautiful. Isn’t that the essence of a successful multicultural nation or city?

At the moment I am in Prague, the fourth most popular tourist city in Europe (and I can tell — the crowds right now are stretching my sense of harmony to its absolute limit). What is impressive about Prague is the stunning architecture of the city. This is a common thing throughout the old world: there is a sense of unique style and place that creates a sense of identity. In Prague, it is the combination of cobblestoned streets, wide in places, narrow in others, but deeply friendly to pedestrians. It is the soaring towers with spiky turrets, the old bridges, the gold detailing on the buildings, the simple and elegant architecture set against the heavily stylised castles and clocktowers, the castle on the hill, the river that bounds the city, the symmetry and scale of Wenceslas Square, and the streets that are alive with shops and food.

All of these elements make the city a harmonious whole — each has its different role in that harmony. These elements are not equal — some make a disproportionate contribution to the whole, but balance is not essential to harmony. (Having said that, extreme imbalance can compromise harmony — and I daresay Prague is hitting the limits of enjoyable tourism. But then, I hate crowds.)

One of the interesting phenomena that has emerged in the course of the free speech obsession over the past few years has been the interest in ‘balance’. Specifically, the idea that news outlets need to present a ‘balanced’ view of a debate — and that this means providing equal time to both sides. I’m thinking particularly of the ABC’s difficulty in addressing scientific issues like climate change and vaccination. In reality, there isn’t a balance of evidence — so there shouldn’t be ‘equal’ representation of views. Balance is not a mathematical thing, it is a question of appropriateness to creating a sense of balance — and I wonder if harmony is a more useful notion.

So, pursuing harmony in life, a good thing. The idea of ‘inner balance’ is a bit of new age wank, for the most part. Finding yourself in harmony — where maybe the chaos of life, a stressor that makes us stronger, works neatly with the virtuous improvement of self.

Or just put on a symphony and enjoy the music.