Mr. Editor,

I write today to speak on the topic of materialism.

Materialism bears on Ayn Rand's "Objectivism".   Rand figures prominently in some circles within the liberty movement. My sense of Rand's "objectivism" is that it has a great deal in common with "materialism".  I view the terms as synonymous, approaching identical.

Newtonian physics are highly materialistic or objective in character.

At the other end of the spectrum from materialism or objectivism is spiritualism. More directly related to the term objectivism is the term subjectivism.  The existence of objects can be verified by various instruments.  The existence of subjects can only be measured with the instrument of the human heart.  A subjective opinion is a response to something a human being has seen, or heard or felt.  Its actual existence is known only to the person holding the opinion.  Others can judge the opinion worthy, unworthy, honest, dishonest etc.

But can you take a picture of an opinion?

Can you weigh an opinion on a set of balance scales?

Can you measure the length of an opinion?

You can do all three of these things with an object.

But not with subject.

Think of art.  When hearing the question, "What is the subject of this painting?" I used to think the word subject referred to a list of objects contained in the painting.  Birds, flowers, ocean, sky, faces, etc.  But no.  Subject is the response that the artist hopes to elicit from the viewer, the audience.

The question "What subjects are taught in the school attended by your child?" usually gets a list of words like English, arithmetic, geography, history, etc.  Each of these words refers to instruction in how to behave in a certain area.  How do you speak?  How do you respond in language?  How do you use numbers?  How do you refer to various locations around the world?  How are you supposed to think of past events?  Which of those events is important?  What do they mean?

Just to show that the term subject is about response in these examples of art and mass education.

And these responses are more or less known, based on "clinical" data.  Kids still find various subjects "hard".  Certain works of art tend to elicit responses in a rather narrow range.

Was it Plato who said, "Know thyself"?

Can each of us know in advance what our response will be to some situation?  In a few situations I experienced unexpectedly, the only thing more surprising than the situation itself was how I responded to it - what I did.  Do I know myself?

Not fully, if those occasions are any indication.

This segue' (which is all too long) is intended to lead up to an introduction to the song I wish to explicate as part of this letter.

The song is "Stairway to Heaven" written by Robert Plant of the Led Zeppelin band.

I suspect the lyrics may be somewhat autobiographical.

Here is an excerpt of what Plant says about the song's meaning from a site called songfacts.com:

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Robert Plant spent much of the '70s answering questions about the lyrics he wrote for "Stairway." When asked why the song was so popular, he said it could be its "abstraction," adding, "Depending on what day it is, I still interpret the song a different way - and I wrote the lyrics."

The lyrics take some pretty wild turns, but the beginning of the song is about a woman who accumulates money, only to find out the hard way her life had no meaning and will not get her into heaven. This is the only part Plant would really explain, as he said it was "a woman getting everything she wanted without giving anything back."

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If my hypothesis is correct, it is Plant himself who is disappointed by the material rewards already realized from his rock and roll career at the time he wrote Stairway's lyrics.

Think of the Beatles "Yesterday".  Yesterday?!  Really?  Where did that come from?!  All their fame and fortune inspires a lament pining over yesterday?!

I think Harrison and Lennon both pursued some Eastern religious disciplines with mixed results a few years later.

Did Plant foresee this disappointment?  (I'm discussing this song as if this hypothesis is true.  It might not be.  Maybe Plant was not disappointed.  True or not, a point that I, if nobody else, thinks worthy of consideration will be illustrated.)

For the purposes of this letter, I will answer the foregoing rhetorical question, "No." 

Which brings me to the central image of the song, named in its title.  Many people who went into popular music in the 50's 60's and 70's learned to sing and play instruments in church.  Not surprisingly, many songs from such musicians that made the charts alluded to things they learned in church.

I do not know if Plant attended or how much he knew about the Bible, but the image of a stairway to heaven is strikingly similar to a tower with its top in heaven (Genesis chapter 11).

This tower can be seen as a reference to Ziggurats, which where high structures, at the top of which worshippers hoped to get closer to their creator, nature, nature's god, the supreme judge of the world and the origin of divine providence.

But for whatever reason, this practice came to be frowned upon and the Ziggurats were abandoned.

The tower can also be seen as the Kingdom of Israel at its height under David and Solomon.  In under 100 years, that kingdom divided (over taxes!) and never fully recovered its unity.

Maybe the Ziggurats came to be frowned upon because the practice of worshipping there was seen rather clearly as not producing the results hoped for.  Had it been known the Ziggurats would fail in their mission, would they have been built?  (Not without fiat money, but I digress!)  Where does good judgment come from?  Experience.  Where does experience come from?  From the exercise of bad judgment!

Would our Hebrew brothers and sisters of long ago bother to build a Kingdom if they had known it would not long stand?  And the Kingdom they built had a fatal flaw.  And the fatal flaw was the cornerstone - the King!  The very office.  The very act of delegating to another person the responsibility of looking out for your interests.

If only Ernest could have been there to warn them!  Biblical history might read very differently.

Suffice it to say, the Biblical image of a tower with its top in heaven has collective implications and personal implications.  What is more personal than worship - trying to get closer to one's maker?  What is more collective than a nation?

But according to my hypothesis, Plant's words are personal in nature, autobiographical.

If Plant had known before pursuing his rock and roll career that he would not be fully satisfied, would he have taken that path?  For the purposes of this letter, I will answer, "No."

Plant did not know what is own response would be (slight dissatisfaction, or perhaps not so slight).  If he did not know what his own response would be, did he know himself?

No. 

(Does anyone know themselves?)

Enough.  You can listen to the song with lyrics on screen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpKR3KXpg_E

The lyrics appear below followed by my comments.

1 There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold

2 And she's buying a stairway to heaven.

3 When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed

4 With a word she can get what she came for.

5 Ooh, ooh, and she's buying a stairway to heaven.

6 There's a sign on the wall but she wants to be sure

7 'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings.

8 In a tree by the brook, there's a songbird who sings,

9 Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven.

10 Ooh, it makes me wonder,

11 Ooh, it makes me wonder.

12 There's a feeling I get when I look to the west,

13 And my spirit is crying for leaving.

14 In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees,

15 And the voices of those who stand looking.

16 Ooh, it makes me wonder,

17 Ooh, it really makes me wonder.

18 And it's whispered that soon if we all call the tune

19 Then the piper will lead us to reason.

20 And a new day will dawn for those who stand long

21 And the forests will echo with laughter.

22 If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now,

23 It's just a spring clean for the May queen.

24 Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run

25 There's still time to change the road you're on.

26 And it makes me wonder.

27 Your head is humming and it won't go, in case you don't know,

28 The piper's calling you to join him,

29 Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow, and did you know

30 Your stairway lies on the whispering wind.

31 And as we wind on down the road

32 Our shadows taller than our soul.

33 There walks a lady we all know

34 Who shines white light and wants to show

35 How everything still turns to gold.

36 And if you listen very hard

37 The tune will come to you at last.

38 When all is one and one is all

39 To be a rock and not to roll.

40 And she's buying a stairway to heaven.

If these lyrics are indeed autobiographical, as I am assuming for the purposes of this letter, the lady in line 1 is an obscure reference to Plant.  In dreams, various things are often represented as opposite their real counterpart.  Poetry is well on its way to the language of dreams as opposed to logic.  So Plant representing himself as female in a poem can be seen in that light.

Before undertaking his career in rock and roll, Plant may have thought that all that glittered was gold.  And it may be Plant who is buying the stairway to heaven in line 2.

Lines 3 and 4 may allude to a black market purchase in drugs, another "stairway to heaven".

Line 5 repeats the thought in line 2.  So here you have the stairway to heaven mentioned in the title and twice in the first verse.  Such emphasis tells the audience that this is a key image.

Lines 6 and 7 give the impression that the lady has entered a store of some kind and seeks clarification for a sign on the wall.

Lines 8 and 9 evoke the image of a muse, in the form of a bird singing by a brook.  The bird says sometime all our thoughts are misgiven.   So, the lady's need for clarification concerning the sign may mean she doubts her decision to come to that store in the first place.

Lines 10 and 11 sort of express a questioning (wonder) on the part of Plant himself.  If my hypothesis is correct, Plant himself might not be fully aware that his song is autobiographical.  He may not be aware that the lady's misgivings are his own.  And those misgivings arise out of an unexpected sense of dissatisfaction in his life at that time.  I can relate.  Sometimes in my own life, I found I did not fully appreciate the origin(s) of my discomfiture.

The reference to "the west" in line 12 evokes an image of a sunset.  One meaning (of many) of the setting sun is death.

Line 13 strengthens this interpretation of line 12 - "my spirit is crying for leaving" borders on a death wish. 

Lines 14 and 15 may be a reference to clouds of (marijuana) smoke at concerts.  The voices of those who stand looking are the voices of the audience, many of whom often sing along with the band.

Lines 16 and 17 express even greater puzzlement over these images than lines 10 and 11.  Plant may be wondering whether the audience feels satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their participation in rock and roll.

Line 18 speaks of something whispered.  I think that may be the vaguely recalled aims that Plant had when he set out on his rock and roll career.  Somehow if the whole audience sings together "the piper will lead us to reason."  It strikes me as wholly fitting that a song with such a reference to a piper begins with flutes prominently playing in the prelude.  I think the "reason" that the piper will lead everybody to are those vaguely recalled hopes.

Lines 20 and 21 along these lines mean that the audience will enjoy themselves very much, as well as the band and everyone else involved, if they just stay the course (stand long) and keep singing together.

Lines 22 and 23 mention a "bustle in your hedgerow".  I think this may be an oblique reference to Plant's misgivings about his life at that point.  Line 23 sort of dismisses any concern about his misgivings.

Lines 24 and 25 further rationalize on this quasi-denial.  He can choose another path anytime he gets ready.  (Which he hasn't done so far, even in 2013 as far as I know.  Stairway was written in 1971.)

Line 26 expresses puzzlement again.  This means puzzlement has been mentioned 3 times.  That gives it more emphasis than what was placed on the image of the stairway to heaven.

In lines 27 - 30, the lady from line 1 is addressed again.  It is her head that won't stop humming in line 27.  It is she whom the piper summons in line 28.

Or is it Plant?

Lines 29 and 30 mean that the stairway to heaven is not something that can be purchased.  It is a path that must be followed.  That path lies on the whispering wind. 

The next verse is interesting in more than one way.  One is the way it is performed.  The song has steadily risen in tempo and intensity.  This crescendo climaxes in the last full verse.

This last full verse has 9 lines.  The others have either 4 or 5 lines each.  The second verse has 6, but the last line repeats the next to the last line.

Line 31 refers to a continuation of Plant's personal journey, and everyone else's personal journey.

Line 32 requires some explanation.  The shadow is an unrealized part of a person's being.  It may be unrealized simply because it is undiscovered (as yet), or because it is frowned upon generally in the culture the person happens to be immersed in.  I think the soul is the total potential of a person's life.  If these terms are true to Plant's intent, line 32 refers to a general sense of a lack of fulfillment - the unrealized part of our being (existence) is even greater than the actual potential of our being (existence).

Line 33 refers to a lady "we all know."  Could this be the same lady in line 1?  I've tended to think of her as a different lady. 

Lines 34 and 35 describe this lady more fully and tell what she does.

Line 36 speaks of "listening very hard."  You have to "listen hard" to hear a whisper, right?  Line 30 refers to the whispering wind. 

A breath is quiet, eh?  Adam receives the "breath of life" from the creator and becomes "a living soul." 

The remarks about lines 33 - 36 taken into consideration with the other related lines in the lyrics may explain why Plant is presenting an aspect of himself in the feminine.  Plant presents himself as a rock star.  That is his ego.  It is also his shadow.  It does not fulfill him.  The lady is unsure about "the stairway to heaven."  But she follows the choices of ego.

This same lady thinks that "everything still turns to gold".

There is an Aesop's fable with the moral:  "All that glitters is not gold."

The most naive reading of this moral is something like this:  Many things in this world glitter and a few of those things that glitter are not gold.

A more realistic reading of the same moral is:  Gold glitters, and only gold is gold.  Nothing else that glitters is gold.

The harshest reading (and perhaps the truest) is:  Yeah, gold glitters, but not even gold is gold.  At least when it comes to buying your way into heaven.

But the lady in line 33 is Plant's soul.  It has infinite hope.  Even that which is not gold can become gold.  Plant's "not gold" life can become golden if he chooses the right path.

Again, to her, even that which does not glitter can be gold or can become gold.

Line 37 continues the thought in line 36 by telling you what you will hear if you listen very hard.

Line 38 says when that tune will come to you.  I want to hearken back to "Conquistador."  That song had a line which goes:  "There is no ONE, Only ALL."  This is similar in sentiment to line 38.

Line 39 may be a slightly off reference to rock and roll.  Or not.  In Jung's "Man and His Symbols" (which was a sequel to "The Little Boy and His Drums") equates a rock with an image of transformation. (There's that quasi-opposite motif.  Something that never changes represents a major change.)  In "Memories, Dreams, and Reflections" he shares a childhood memory of a rock that jutted up in his back yard.  That was HIS rock, somehow.

So, if Plant knew anything about that in 1971, he may have been referring to transforming his life to a more fulfilled condition and not going back (not roll) to his unfulfilled condition.

But the last line repeats that the lady is buying the stairway to heaven, and from that I infer that Plant does not make that change, as already mentioned in the comments on lines 24 and 25.

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In the Biblical story of "the tower with its top in heaven" (Genesis chapter 11), it is written, "slime had they for mortar and brick had they for stone."  So they had the necessary materials to build the tower.  But it was never completed.  And even if it had been completed . . .  well let's jump to Jonah . . .

From the belly of the whale, Jonah prays for deliverance, and delivered he is.  And he gives thanks, "From the depths of corruption cried I and thou heard my voice . . ."

God did God's part to deliver Jonah, but Jonah does not follow through in his ministries to the Ninevites.  He goes through the motions and it works.  The Ninevites are spared God's wrath as a result of Jonah's work.  But is Jonah happy about this?  Anything but.   He places himself in some sort of shelter overlooking their city and eagerly awaits their destruction - which does not come.  So distraught is Jonah over this he wishes to die.

The book of Jonah opens with a miserable Jonah.  And it closes with a miserable Jonah.  There is something that Jonah must do himself to gain deliverance from the miseries of his own making.  Like the wise man who, upon finding himself in a hole, immediately stopped digging, Jonah must stop digging his own grave.  He must stop hating the Ninevites.  He must get on the right path.

Jonah only keeps part of his deal with God, and is only partially delivered.  He is delivered from the belly of the whale, but not from his own self-made misery.

And it doesn't matter if you're in the belly of a whale in the depths of the ocean or atop the highest tower that could ever be built.  There is a step into heaven, and the step is exactly the same from either of these places and from any other place, into fulfillment, into completeness, that each of us must take.  If God couldn't help Jonah take that last step, how can we help each other?  Past a certain point, it's up to each of us alone.

What that last step yields is a state of being, the state of being fulfilled.  Or at least that is the hope.  It is not anything material.

Lest anyone take it that I am telling them to give away all their earthly possessions, that is not the case.  Like the inner struggle vs. outer struggle question I posed in my comments on "Conquistador", the allusion to materialism is something of a misdirect.  Certainly, physical needs must be met in order to sustain the body.  But there's more to life than basal metabolism.  And non-physical needs must be met as well.  Shall we call them spiritual needs?  Why not?

Almost any material need can be met working in concert with others.  (Note "Myth of Self-Sufficiency" article in this month's Freedom's Phoenix magazine.)  And much of the spiritual journey can be traveled in the company of others.  But, in that endeavor, in the spiritual journey, there is at least one step, or maybe the last few steps, that each of us must take alone.

Whether Plant ever took those last steps is known only to him.

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In the liberty movement, some changes that are necessary are in the outer world.  Others are in the inner self. 

I think the outer struggle aspect of the liberty movement is attended well enough.  Sometimes I'm fairly sure that many involved in the liberty movement neglect the inner work.

I find this ironic because one of the liberties that is worth defending and is defended by those in the liberty movement is usually called "religious freedom".    And attending to the inner work is a religious activity.

Many of the needs of the body are met much more readily and more conveniently than in times past.  This started somewhat with the steam engine and really exploded with the arrival of the practical electric motor in 1888 or so along with the internal combustion engine within a few years of that one way or the other.  After several thousand years of living with the constant threat of scarcity hanging over humanity’s head, the problem rather abruptly became a problem of abundance. 

While machines can free most of the population from many of the burdens of sustaining the body, no machine has been fashioned yet that can assist in the inner work.

The machines give us the time to do that work and make the environment more comfortable.  But that, in and of itself, will not get any of us anymore closer to that who/which is most high than the Ziggurats got the Hebrew worshippers closer to their God.  It is up to each person to summon the will to use that time to accomplish that work. 

Assuming Plant's lyrics in "Stairway" are indeed autobiographical is what led me to this conclusion.  I don't think that 2-year-long concert tours leave a lot of time for inner work or recreation. 

Such are the perils of materialism - even in a time of abundance, and even in a time of overabundance.

DC Treybil

FOOTNOTE:  My methods of dream interpretation are based on a variety of sources.  The stuff about the "shadow" comes from one of those "Dreams: God's Forgotten Language" by John A. Sanford.  Available on amazon.com or from your local library for anyone interested.