Apocalyptic Blindness of Contemporary Music Education: Four Theses on the Future

Abstract: In this essay, by engaging with Günther Anders' treatise on "Apocalyptic Blindness" while drawing on Srécko Horvat's apocalypse as revelation, I offer four theses on the future of music education. I situate the future against the peace-building backdrop of contemporary music education through routinization and super-specialization practices and suggest that the future of the field is not temporal but material and directly relates to a shifting lens from national projects toward international solidarity. Challenging the blurred boundaries between music education's duties versus responsibilities, where duties look inward toward nation-state and its dealings with its citizens and guests , responsibility shifts the lens outward toward finding a footing within the global arena, the rest of humanity, the land, and the planet. I conclude with offering a way to think differently about realities in our field that are not couched in optimism but have entangled imagination and apocalyptic thinking at their center.