AI and the Blues Idiom Wisdom Tradition
Can the blues idiom help us navigate the changes and disruptions caused by the AI revolution? If indeed the blues idiom is a wisdom tradition, a source for better understanding and living life in uncertain and complex times, the answer is yes.
In part one of this exploration, I’ll summarize my case for the blues idiom as a wisdom tradition, drawing on previous writings and podcast appearances, touching briefly on AI. In the next essay of the series, I’ll dive more deeply into the challenges and potentials of AI, tempered through the prism of the blues.
Wisdom is rarely mentioned in our consumerist society of surfaces, where, as Yeats once wrote, “the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” However, wisdom is what we’ll need to confront the epochal transformations wrought by Artificial Intelligence.
Why is the Blues Idiom a Wisdom Tradition?
A "Survival Technology" for Confronting Adversity: The blues idiom, as a cultural form and lifestyle, is an essential survival technology; indeed, it was fundamental for the community of Afro-Americans who designed and innovated it. The essence of blues music isn’t about wallowing in sorrow, but rather about transforming hardship, struggle, and antagonism into expressive forms that affirm life. As Albert Murray explained, a key objective of blues musicians and blues people is to "stomp the blues," overcoming, even if just temporarily, rather than merely enduring. The blues idiom teaches those who adopt its wisdom how to navigate the inevitable suffering and absurdities of life with resilience, improvisation, and elegance. It's also a method for achieving "tragic optimism" or a "post-tragic awareness," acknowledging and accepting the tragic dimensions of life without being consumed by them.
Embodied, Non-Propositional Knowing: In my discussions with cognitive scientist and philosopher John Vervaeke, I emphasized the importance of embodied cognition and non-propositional knowing – ways of understanding that go beyond mere facts or explicit statements. The blues idiom isn’t just a philosophy to be intellectually grasped; it's a way of being, seeing, and acting in the world that's deeply embedded in cultural practices, music, and lived experience. This embodied wisdom provides practical guidance for navigating complex situations, as when jazz musicians play through intricate chord changes and syncopated rhythms at high velocities, while also conveying the soulfulness to speak and play from the heart during sultry ballads, evoking romance and love.
Integrating the Tragic and the Comic: As Ralph Ellison emphasized in his work, the blues idiom integrates the tragic dimensions of life with the comic. The blues acknowledge pain and suffering but also find humor, irony, and joy within that very experience. Such a holistic perspective hugs paradox and prevents one from getting stuck in either naïve optimism or paralyzing despair. To paraphrase and update F. Scott Fitzgerald, the test of a first-rate blues man or woman is the ability to hold tragedy and comedy in the mind and heart at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
Improvisation as Heroic Endowment: Murray, in the out chorus of The Hero and the Blues, described improvisation as the “ultimate human endowment” and a core aspect of the blues wisdom tradition. In a constantly changing world, the ability to "extemporize in response to the exigencies of the situation" – to adapt, innovate, and create with wise spontaneity – is a crucial human capacity in the age of AI. The lessons of improvisation teach that mastery is not about rigid adherence or conformity, but about flexible and intelligent responses within a given structure. This makes the blues idiom highly relevant for confronting unforeseen challenges, including those posed by AI.
Elegant Form Against Chaos: The blues is fundamentally about creating "elegant form" out of formlessness, chaos, and entropy. What some call the “meaning crisis” today reflects the human need to make sense of the world amid unbelievable complexity and confusion. The blues takes raw, often painful, experiences and gives them structure, rhythm, and beauty. The way the blues creates forms of meaning provides coherence and value amid absurdity.
Cultural and Existential Equipment for Living: The blues idiom serves as what Murray and Kenneth Burke called "existential equipment for living," emerging from the embodied experiences of Black Americans as they navigated unfreedom and injustice. This demonstrates how culture can provide the tools for survival and flourishing even in the most challenging circumstances. In this sense, the blues idiom is universally applicable, as it addresses fundamental human dilemmas regardless of background, offering a path toward wisdom that transcends what Stanley Crouch called the "decoy of race."
The blues idiom is a wisdom tradition because it offers a comprehensive, practical, and culturally rich framework for addressing the fundamental challenges of human existence and cultivating a resilient life of meaning and flourishing. The blues idiom teaches embodied improvisation, integrating joy and sorrow, and creates negentropy —meaningful form from chaos —providing profound insights for navigating the complexities of existence. Exactly how the blues idiom can help us face the challenge of AI will be the focus of my next post in two weeks.