'Sustainability with music: What does Bach’s Musical Offering tell us about Sustainability?'

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One of my favourite historical references to understand sustainability is linked to the story of Bach’s Musical Offering. Bach had once made an impromptu visit to King Frederick, the Great of Prussia. On his visit he was requested to improvise on a theme presented by the King to him. Bach had no clue about the theme. Bach composed a musical offering and made fifteen two part inventions. These two part inventions were later written by Lewis Carroll in 1895. While explaining these inventions Carroll referred to Achilles and Tortoise from Zeno. Here in turn, I am borrowing it from Carroll and Bach. What did these inventions say about sustainability?

The inventions essentially talked about reasoning and then reasoning (about reasoning) and a reasoning about (reasoning about reasoning). The loop of musical reasoning continued this way in Bach’s musical offering to King Frederick.  Lewis Carroll proved that if we use an infinite regress of reasoning then reasoning actually becomes impossible. Today, often the notions of sustainability and the irresponsible actions taken by various sections of the society towards denial of climate, ecologically, culturally, sociologically and politically responsible actions are defended by means of an infinite regress of reasoning which was explained by Bach and later on by Lewis Carroll. A pattern of this infinite regress of reasoning by different groups of countries exists clearly in climate negotiations and sustainability related discourses.

Prof. Albert Einstein said that we cannot have the same way of thinking, reasoning to solve the problems which created them. Similarly, when we are at the brink of an anthropocene driven by human materialism, consumerism and capitalism interfering in the natural processes destroying the mother earth, the importance of breaking the inertia of infinite regress of reasoning has to stop. Sustainability can then only be attained on this planet at the backdrop of an anthropocentric culture of complexity.