Three years and three months ago I started Publicato with dreams of click-jacking, SEO optimization, and AdSense pennies rolling in. I was unemployed, on my own, pretty cognizant of a dim future; my friends were either safely employed, studying, or hustling. I had some crazy and vague ideas about becoming a true internet personality, maybe doing some cross-promotion via Twitter, and getting into the thousands (re: readership) pretty quickly. Guest blogging my way up to a guest feature with a big name, like Vice or Cracked (which was still pretty legit in those days), or something even better (like a magazine website or maybe even print)... incredibly naive stuff, but I had my ambitions and what better way to pursue them than with Google Blogger?
Well, quite obviously, I should've made a hi-concept WordPress or Tumblr setup and done some mind-bending po-mo conceptualist shit. I knew about WordPress, but being a vaporwave blogger versus real Google monies was just too much. I had to make rent, I needed some better shirts and pants, maybe a third tie, something quantifiably adult that only true income or a career can provide. The internet was a different place in 2010 - there was less anxiety about content farming (which peaked and declined), it was less introspective, the 'blogosphere' was less of a joke term. Twitter was still kind of uncertain and it was easy enough to get by calling it a lifestyle service for people with goldfish brains and smartphones.
Times certainly have changed, but enough of that good memory stuff. This article is about Publicato... now you know what I wanted it to be (a $10-100/mo income supplement with good as hell jokes, sharp satire, reviewish articles and a ladder to proper freelance writing) and what it became (pro-bono, introspective, distracted, weary, strident, kind of phoned-in at times [sorry]) but what never changed was the mission, which was detailed in the first ever blog post I made (Canned Soup) on September 20, 2010:
"... if you let me I will create spectacular vistas of invented and existing things ... maybe not, and I will just be a bitter, judgmental internet spectator..."
Very prescient and wise, I'd say. It was the unstable first step, when I didn't know what to do, really, but wanted a bit of everything. Lots of blogs specialize or self-promote (often both in some ratio) and I didn't really have anything worth specializing in. What followed were mostly unremarkable posts, as I sought a voice and some kind of sense of purpose beyond getting a good number of readers and then monetizing the hell out of the blog. Name was chosen, quite obviously, as a piss take of Politico... the brand motto (slogan?) was derived from a line of Juvenalian satire. Satire was and remains quite important to this blog, but the aggregation of the odd sincere article and natural disinclination (not going to compete with the Onion), corroded any sense of purity of purpose. For reference: canned soup is still incredibly bland to me and I haven't found any good brands or varieties, nor does seasoning really solve the problem.
In the first three months I got a grand total of 31 hits, putting my dreams of monetization in jeopardy and essentially sending me directly into a dark place from which I have never emerged, all the while unemployed and pissing money into rent and other things. Reflecting on times gone by, I have to say the original content is actually quite decent. I would encourage any interested reader (assuming I have an actual readership and not just spider/bot/crawler traffic) to check out the older stuff all the way to 2010. 'Midst the hack writing there are a few gems, and the germs of some later fixations. If you're lazy or disinterested, don't despair! I will, before the year 2014, go through myself and post a list and review format blog post about the cream of the crop.
My blogging fortune changed dramatically in December 2010, when my recap of a Conan O'Brien (newly on TBS then) episode drew an unprecedented 200+ visitors, and even the attention of the audience member at the core of that episode. I was extremely excited by how that turned out, and did a sequel post about my stupid excitation, and replied to the comments like an idiot, and possibly established a readership that may or may not still exist. After that post I could expect more hits in a month than the first three months combined, and December 2010's stats eclipsed the next four months combined. Anecdotally, it would take almost a full year before I would get another non-spam comment.
You bet the grand visions returned to me then, and promptly fell away as reality intervened. A number of hardscrabble months followed, in which I realized that 70-100 views a month were fantastic compared to my old numbers but hardly encouraging. I wondered what I was doing wrong (probably everything) and how I could fix it (hoping to have to do nothing). I think I redesigned some font colors, the background, and the spacing in the header title... then kept on plugging away. I hoped that hard work could be substituted for buzz, but if anything this blog stands for the fact that you can do amazing work (hahah – just go with it) and get a minimal amount of interest. That brings me roughly to the end of 2010... please note that I am planning a 'best of Publicato' review (I am told it WILL unearth some gems), as well as at least one more part of reminiscence/retrospective.
12/18/13
The Descent from Suspicion to Paranoia
I think it's something everyone suffers at least once, and the delusional cases will imagine otherwise and go on their way, so there is probably little to gain 'blogging' about this. The best things are of course suspicions one holds about one's own self, they are like gold nuggets in this context. I don't think enough people are paranoid about their goals and raison d'etre, and many of those that are should probably calm down a bit. That's right: the wrong people doubt their goals and dreams; the wrong people also embrace them. I find it all quite odd to be honest.
But also amusing. If you are mendacious enough you can of course turn people into paranoid wrecks with a bit of clever spitefulness and without 'too much effort'. Paranoid people cause all kinds of things to happen – outbursts and shit ranging from 'humorous', to 'disturbing', and all the way down into 'fatal and misguided'. Paranoia has contributed to or caused most of the greatest crimes in history, and at least as many wars and ideological conflicts as insecurity.
Fear is an important primal emotion. It has kept alive more animals than it has killed, but with the expansion of human culture, fear remained largely ubiquitous, creeping into each new facet of life and leading to all kinds of skullduggery and shenanigans. Add to that fear a good measure of anxiety, and you have the recipe for today's fearful, angsty environment... just waiting to see what or who betrays it, what or who is looking, what or who is next going to do a bad thing that justifies the fear and qualifies the anxiety as logical. The outcomes are everywhere but are epitomized in the rise of super surveillance culture. Yea, they did in the past worry about God's judgement, but now there are others who can count the hairs on one's head and the evil plans in one's heart, and judge one for it...
Most people cross the descent pretty quickly and find it incredibly uncomfortable, even in hindsight. Some people actually grow from it, though, and replace their saner selves with characters they actually admire. Thriving paranoids. I wouldn't pretend to know how or why this happens in some cases – probably related to some kind of dissociation or depersonalization – because I never pretend to be an expert. Have we descended to a point of cultural hallucinatory paranoia? Is it already schizophrenic? Do we care?
When the descent drags on it can really mess people up, but sometimes also provide them with moments of lucidity wherein change is possible. Generally there is a lot of suffering and anxiety, the ability to trust others is diminished, and in the final stages all kinds of the worst suspicions are confirmed without any resort to fact or reality. It is quite sad, and sometimes incurable.
So be safe: paranoia is the common cold of mental illnesses, and your contribution to it could upset the balance of the world you live in, to even your own detriment (until you disarm your perception of the world with willful ignorance, deceive yourself, etc). Ways of combating paranoia can include reassuring a paranoiac of the fallibility of all people, if they can handle it telling them about the basic uncertainty of life may also help. Society at large is kind of paranoid, and a lot of people get caught up in that, and mostly it's a waste of time that limits potential and enjoyment of life.
Hopefully this post helps someone who is piece-of-shitly considering messing with somebody. Decide against it. People are generally too dumb for hi-octane mind games without suffering a bunch. Your negativity spreads and has actual effects on the world. It's not worth it: you might win a few points, but you will compromise the game.
But also amusing. If you are mendacious enough you can of course turn people into paranoid wrecks with a bit of clever spitefulness and without 'too much effort'. Paranoid people cause all kinds of things to happen – outbursts and shit ranging from 'humorous', to 'disturbing', and all the way down into 'fatal and misguided'. Paranoia has contributed to or caused most of the greatest crimes in history, and at least as many wars and ideological conflicts as insecurity.
Fear is an important primal emotion. It has kept alive more animals than it has killed, but with the expansion of human culture, fear remained largely ubiquitous, creeping into each new facet of life and leading to all kinds of skullduggery and shenanigans. Add to that fear a good measure of anxiety, and you have the recipe for today's fearful, angsty environment... just waiting to see what or who betrays it, what or who is looking, what or who is next going to do a bad thing that justifies the fear and qualifies the anxiety as logical. The outcomes are everywhere but are epitomized in the rise of super surveillance culture. Yea, they did in the past worry about God's judgement, but now there are others who can count the hairs on one's head and the evil plans in one's heart, and judge one for it...
Most people cross the descent pretty quickly and find it incredibly uncomfortable, even in hindsight. Some people actually grow from it, though, and replace their saner selves with characters they actually admire. Thriving paranoids. I wouldn't pretend to know how or why this happens in some cases – probably related to some kind of dissociation or depersonalization – because I never pretend to be an expert. Have we descended to a point of cultural hallucinatory paranoia? Is it already schizophrenic? Do we care?
When the descent drags on it can really mess people up, but sometimes also provide them with moments of lucidity wherein change is possible. Generally there is a lot of suffering and anxiety, the ability to trust others is diminished, and in the final stages all kinds of the worst suspicions are confirmed without any resort to fact or reality. It is quite sad, and sometimes incurable.
So be safe: paranoia is the common cold of mental illnesses, and your contribution to it could upset the balance of the world you live in, to even your own detriment (until you disarm your perception of the world with willful ignorance, deceive yourself, etc). Ways of combating paranoia can include reassuring a paranoiac of the fallibility of all people, if they can handle it telling them about the basic uncertainty of life may also help. Society at large is kind of paranoid, and a lot of people get caught up in that, and mostly it's a waste of time that limits potential and enjoyment of life.
Hopefully this post helps someone who is piece-of-shitly considering messing with somebody. Decide against it. People are generally too dumb for hi-octane mind games without suffering a bunch. Your negativity spreads and has actual effects on the world. It's not worth it: you might win a few points, but you will compromise the game.
12/12/13
Uruguay Stays Strong: Prepares to get Stronger
Whether it kills brain cells or kills cancer cells; whether it's a gateway drug or an end-point drug; whether using it is moral or immoral – Uruguay did the only sane thing remaining after years of overblown rhetoric by anti-drug idiots versus pro-drug idiots, and we can only hope the rest of the world learns something.
For this I commend Uruguay, whatever else their problems and failings. Thanks for having actual human beings in your government and treating your populace like actual, rational, grown-adult human beings as well.
I honestly don't know why neither pro-nor-anti marijuana people in the rest of the world have become so humorless about the issue. What a bunch of stunted robot shits, maybe Bukowski was right when he said weed kills your soul – but he was a soulless drunk himself.
For this I commend Uruguay, whatever else their problems and failings. Thanks for having actual human beings in your government and treating your populace like actual, rational, grown-adult human beings as well.
I honestly don't know why neither pro-nor-anti marijuana people in the rest of the world have become so humorless about the issue. What a bunch of stunted robot shits, maybe Bukowski was right when he said weed kills your soul – but he was a soulless drunk himself.
12/11/13
Swiss Fail to Change Important Thing: Small Swiss Story
In Switzerland, often mentioned as one of the best places in the world to be born into (it's basically a super elite club even if you sweep the streets or are congenitally unemployable – but your German better be legible). It's the perfect blend of right wing nonsense (stolen Jewish wealth, mandatory conscription, high rates of gun ownership) with left wing nonsense (neutrality, direct democracy [non of the corrupt and apathetic representative shit], multilingualism, environmental awareness, and scientific aspiration) and stuff anyone can enjoy like a literate and well educated populace, wealth beyond measure, and low crime rates. It makes wealthy enclaves in otherwise first world countries look like rat holes for spiteful misers, and it makes one think it will take about a million years for the rest of the world to get anywhere near that point. Switzerland is roughly that good, so good it makes Germany look less perfect (but you're still pretty good, Germany, keep your head up, your most corrupt industries probably help Switzerland all the time) but because Switzerland is a human enterprise*, it's a damn ways away from perfect.
"But even we, the vaunted and legendary Swiss, will hold our well-to-do poor hostage for increased profit and an 'A+' grade by business fuckers like Forbes Weekly. "**
The most recent initiative, which was overturned by direct democracy, was to limit executive pay to only 12 times what the lowest earner in the company made. Seems pretty good, right? The man or woman sitting on his or her ass and occasionally sweating when tax season or investigators come around still gets to make waaaaay more than the person sweeping the floors and cleaning the toilets. And this is Switzerland, so the person cleaning the toilets is banking decent pay in a very stable currency. In many ways, had it passed, it would have set a precedent that agitators around the world could've used to influence their corporate/government complexes to perhaps setting a 1:50 or 1:100 cap. But capping max pay is not a free market thing, apparently, even though it frees up wealth to do other things than pay 30,000 dollar tabs and buy 25 million dollar yachts and drink 1000 dollar mineral waters and whatever the hell else good money is pissed away into these days.
Needless to say, the trickle-down crowd won a spiritual victory in Switzerland earlier this year.
Inequality is the cause celebre of anyone who gives a fuck about the poor right now. Incidentally, correcting this imbalance will probably also have good effects on other non-destitute levels of society around the world and only be moderately bad to luxury industries that are populated by assholes and cater mostly to exhibitionists, miser spendthrifts, borderline sociopaths, and their hopeless children. With opulence running out of hand while poor people openly starve (in the era when humanity can split the atom [and see beyond it] and use robots to land robots on the surface of Mars) it is pretty obvious that wealth inequality is a problem. It's too complex to solve via blog, I am certain of that much. In a repressive oligarchy like anything in the Americas one would not expect any rich person, from drug warlord to white collar criminal to CEO (most of these guys work together and sometimes all three are the same guy), to give up a cent of their millions/billions for the poor, but in Europe, that 'socialist' den, they actually don't go crazy for the idea either.
You're outta luck, poor people! Aha, but then you're used to that....
It was something like 65% to 34%. Turns out Switzerland could give a fuck what the USA thinks about being the most right and prosperous country, because Switzerland pretty much invented inhuman rightist corporatism and are too neutral to be proud even. Anyone else get a chill down their spine just now? The downtrodden of the world are still looking for a precedent while the rampant worship of fundamentalist extremist oligarchy continues unabated and without any checks on its progress. The small people can eat their hats, as usual, so don't get excited or anything.
(* - I'm beginning to doubt the Swiss even did anything about the poisoned dolphin situation)
(** - not an actual quote or intended to represent any actual Swiss oligarch)
"But even we, the vaunted and legendary Swiss, will hold our well-to-do poor hostage for increased profit and an 'A+' grade by business fuckers like Forbes Weekly. "**
The most recent initiative, which was overturned by direct democracy, was to limit executive pay to only 12 times what the lowest earner in the company made. Seems pretty good, right? The man or woman sitting on his or her ass and occasionally sweating when tax season or investigators come around still gets to make waaaaay more than the person sweeping the floors and cleaning the toilets. And this is Switzerland, so the person cleaning the toilets is banking decent pay in a very stable currency. In many ways, had it passed, it would have set a precedent that agitators around the world could've used to influence their corporate/government complexes to perhaps setting a 1:50 or 1:100 cap. But capping max pay is not a free market thing, apparently, even though it frees up wealth to do other things than pay 30,000 dollar tabs and buy 25 million dollar yachts and drink 1000 dollar mineral waters and whatever the hell else good money is pissed away into these days.
Needless to say, the trickle-down crowd won a spiritual victory in Switzerland earlier this year.
Inequality is the cause celebre of anyone who gives a fuck about the poor right now. Incidentally, correcting this imbalance will probably also have good effects on other non-destitute levels of society around the world and only be moderately bad to luxury industries that are populated by assholes and cater mostly to exhibitionists, miser spendthrifts, borderline sociopaths, and their hopeless children. With opulence running out of hand while poor people openly starve (in the era when humanity can split the atom [and see beyond it] and use robots to land robots on the surface of Mars) it is pretty obvious that wealth inequality is a problem. It's too complex to solve via blog, I am certain of that much. In a repressive oligarchy like anything in the Americas one would not expect any rich person, from drug warlord to white collar criminal to CEO (most of these guys work together and sometimes all three are the same guy), to give up a cent of their millions/billions for the poor, but in Europe, that 'socialist' den, they actually don't go crazy for the idea either.
You're outta luck, poor people! Aha, but then you're used to that....
It was something like 65% to 34%. Turns out Switzerland could give a fuck what the USA thinks about being the most right and prosperous country, because Switzerland pretty much invented inhuman rightist corporatism and are too neutral to be proud even. Anyone else get a chill down their spine just now? The downtrodden of the world are still looking for a precedent while the rampant worship of fundamentalist extremist oligarchy continues unabated and without any checks on its progress. The small people can eat their hats, as usual, so don't get excited or anything.
(* - I'm beginning to doubt the Swiss even did anything about the poisoned dolphin situation)
(** - not an actual quote or intended to represent any actual Swiss oligarch)
12/5/13
Attack of the Unkillable Time Killer
Flash games are a pretty mixed bag. All the benefits of casual gaming paired with the feel-good impetus of wasting time. It's pretty great until you hit one of those bullshit games (and there are many) that are not just tough but potentially unbalanced... then your time killing comes to an end, because you're either not good enough or the game is just plain turd flavor bullshit. I've played plenty of games whose presentation was awful, whose gameplay was too simple and easy to be worthwhile, and whose English was execrable, but one game that manages to get all that right still manages to
I just got finished with what I consider an unbeatable level in a TD that otherwise seemed pretty cool. I tried all kinds of things to beat the level. I abused the powers, tried using different arrangements of towers, and in the final rounds wasn't even getting as far as on my first try. 'Bullshit' I thought, "Fuck this game, whoever made it are either savants at TD games, sadistic, had a very specific strategy in mind, or plain didn't test the fucking thing. Fucking little dinosaur shits." because I was quite angry that I couldn't kill time in as casual a manner as I am comfortable with. I don't want to just breeze through, but the difficulty curve can't spike all at once.
I've played games I'm fairly sure are broken before. Sometimes there's a good split of things that are broken in your favor and you can continue. Sometimes I blame the game for being broken when I can't beat it like when I'm getting hadoukened to death or other ridiculous things are happening like getting swarmed by bastards in a TD that was until that point fairly challenging but not ridiculous. Anyone who has played too many TDs knows automatically when they've lost long before it happens. I borderline hate that game right down to the cutesy graphics and absolutely wrong paleontological context. I actually hate nothing about it, but it has bested me and that makes me angry.
Listen, here's the challenge I want to lay down. If anyone can beat Dino Assault TD with a perfect rating (which I don't think is easy since it's got multiple pain in the ass levels) you win. I doubt anyone would willingly do so, since there is so much bullshit you need to overcome just to beat the second chapter (full disclosure: I never reached the third chapter). The towers all cost more than they're worth, the powers are outrageously useless and weak, and the enemies are plentiful and resilient. To the developers: you win. Probably you didn't balance the game enough, though, because it's hard as week-old shit. I generally stop trying when it's apparent you are scornful of your audience and actively want them to lose.
Dino Assault isn't even slightly close to the gold standards of flash TD games (Cursed Treasure series by IriySoft). It could be... it's got a difficulty curve that is appealing at first and then casually leaves you behind as if you're a dummy who should know the exact combinations of overpriced towers and split-second skill spamming required to win.
Whoever manages to achieve a perfect victory with evidence will be king of the loser online-TD time killer crowd, and I will crown them with a title so splendorous that it will almost not be shameful. Then again, I doubt many people exist who can do it and I seriously doubt those who can read this blog. The offer stands until 9 December 2013, 12:00 GMT. I gave up: I can't waste more than a half hour on level or I know I'm no longer killing, but instead wasting, time.
Update: I get drawn back in, anyway of course. The war against productivity is never truly won, and frequently makes me look (and feel) like a foolish idiot.
Second Update: While I was playing this I was ignoring Kingdom Rush 2, which is actually a great comparison point for non-bullshit difficulty curves and better game design. Note that I think Dino Assault is 'good' but far out of the league of officially recognized excellency.
I just got finished with what I consider an unbeatable level in a TD that otherwise seemed pretty cool. I tried all kinds of things to beat the level. I abused the powers, tried using different arrangements of towers, and in the final rounds wasn't even getting as far as on my first try. 'Bullshit' I thought, "Fuck this game, whoever made it are either savants at TD games, sadistic, had a very specific strategy in mind, or plain didn't test the fucking thing. Fucking little dinosaur shits." because I was quite angry that I couldn't kill time in as casual a manner as I am comfortable with. I don't want to just breeze through, but the difficulty curve can't spike all at once.
I've played games I'm fairly sure are broken before. Sometimes there's a good split of things that are broken in your favor and you can continue. Sometimes I blame the game for being broken when I can't beat it like when I'm getting hadoukened to death or other ridiculous things are happening like getting swarmed by bastards in a TD that was until that point fairly challenging but not ridiculous. Anyone who has played too many TDs knows automatically when they've lost long before it happens. I borderline hate that game right down to the cutesy graphics and absolutely wrong paleontological context. I actually hate nothing about it, but it has bested me and that makes me angry.
Listen, here's the challenge I want to lay down. If anyone can beat Dino Assault TD with a perfect rating (which I don't think is easy since it's got multiple pain in the ass levels) you win. I doubt anyone would willingly do so, since there is so much bullshit you need to overcome just to beat the second chapter (full disclosure: I never reached the third chapter). The towers all cost more than they're worth, the powers are outrageously useless and weak, and the enemies are plentiful and resilient. To the developers: you win. Probably you didn't balance the game enough, though, because it's hard as week-old shit. I generally stop trying when it's apparent you are scornful of your audience and actively want them to lose.
Dino Assault isn't even slightly close to the gold standards of flash TD games (Cursed Treasure series by IriySoft). It could be... it's got a difficulty curve that is appealing at first and then casually leaves you behind as if you're a dummy who should know the exact combinations of overpriced towers and split-second skill spamming required to win.
Whoever manages to achieve a perfect victory with evidence will be king of the loser online-TD time killer crowd, and I will crown them with a title so splendorous that it will almost not be shameful. Then again, I doubt many people exist who can do it and I seriously doubt those who can read this blog. The offer stands until 9 December 2013, 12:00 GMT. I gave up: I can't waste more than a half hour on level or I know I'm no longer killing, but instead wasting, time.
Update: I get drawn back in, anyway of course. The war against productivity is never truly won, and frequently makes me look (and feel) like a foolish idiot.
Second Update: While I was playing this I was ignoring Kingdom Rush 2, which is actually a great comparison point for non-bullshit difficulty curves and better game design. Note that I think Dino Assault is 'good' but far out of the league of officially recognized excellency.
12/3/13
Is Death Grips this Era's Rage Against the Machine?
[citation needed] Apart from the heightened requirements for being considered legit anti-corporate and the fact that Death Grips isn't that political, it almost seems possible. Time moves in cycles, and it has been a while since there was a Rage Against The Machine-esque group in or near the mainstream, that I know of, but Death Grips seem to be the perfect candidate. Behind the facade, they don't even have coherent words to get an agenda from... actually this whole thing is falling apart: the new Rage would obviously be a New Sincerity band.
However, I get this sense from Death Grips that they're projecting an even bigger identity than what they actually possess. It's like how Rage was part of the 'Che Guevara T-Shirt era' of counterculture, a largely corporate construction referencing or alluding to deep things like a Tibetan monk on fire or how bad racism was. Death Grips is the new counterculture, which may be more legit, but has even less coherence.
As far as I know only Death Grip's tendency to release their albums for free is solidly anti-corporate or at all activist, and they don't really project any leftism or rightism in their lyrics at all. They more exist in a great, drugged out realm where politics can't claim them for its own insidious purpose. The idea that they are not just dudes making music, and instead dudes getting paid a lot to make music for some kind of viral marketing project, is very tempting mostly because I'm a hugely cynical skeptic.
The machine has won. Rage was one of its products and the crowd that used to listen to them sincerely have all moved on, mostly towards being yuppies. Death Grips exists in the absence of hope or progress, an aesthetic the group wallows in, as if to prove there is nothing left – a statement powerful enough to put it on equal footing with the largest, least counterculture countercultural movement of the 1990s.
It all relies on the idea that maybe Death Grips is saying something by screaming incoherently about drugs and paranoia and lust, but I know for a fact the group's listeners do not wear Che Guevara shirts. I have my ideas about their fans, in particular I think a lot of them are anything but as hardcore and mentally unsound as the music suggests, and the music writes a bigger cheque than Rage ever did because it seems to mostly be balls-out insanity.
Note that both groups were signed to Epic Records Co. Death Grips is no longer with them due to self-releasing albums and other rebellious things that Rage never did at all. Rage did manage to get a very comprehensive listing as 'questionable music' in the wake of 9/11, when any actual radical had not listened to them for nearly a decade. Ultimately very idea of counterculture 1990s is either very scary or incredibly laughable so I would put the two groups in different categories at least temporarily. I don't think the distinction would help either band and to be honest I don't think they have anything in common at all.
However: this does not mean that Death Grips is not this era's Rage Against the Machine. Epic Records execs must have seen the same underground/indie/counterculture buzz in both bands in order to want to sign them. Nobody cares that much about either band right now, but Death Grips is alive at least. Death Grips did not get the over-mainstream cool people and instead nabbed the indie nerds who are too cool and self-aware for horrorcore but into something similar, to the eternal chagrin of the Execs, who then dumped DG after finding or making a suitable excuse. I know they were part of the corporate overlords' plans somehow. Just like Rage. More the fools us.[citation needed]
However, I get this sense from Death Grips that they're projecting an even bigger identity than what they actually possess. It's like how Rage was part of the 'Che Guevara T-Shirt era' of counterculture, a largely corporate construction referencing or alluding to deep things like a Tibetan monk on fire or how bad racism was. Death Grips is the new counterculture, which may be more legit, but has even less coherence.
As far as I know only Death Grip's tendency to release their albums for free is solidly anti-corporate or at all activist, and they don't really project any leftism or rightism in their lyrics at all. They more exist in a great, drugged out realm where politics can't claim them for its own insidious purpose. The idea that they are not just dudes making music, and instead dudes getting paid a lot to make music for some kind of viral marketing project, is very tempting mostly because I'm a hugely cynical skeptic.
The machine has won. Rage was one of its products and the crowd that used to listen to them sincerely have all moved on, mostly towards being yuppies. Death Grips exists in the absence of hope or progress, an aesthetic the group wallows in, as if to prove there is nothing left – a statement powerful enough to put it on equal footing with the largest, least counterculture countercultural movement of the 1990s.
It all relies on the idea that maybe Death Grips is saying something by screaming incoherently about drugs and paranoia and lust, but I know for a fact the group's listeners do not wear Che Guevara shirts. I have my ideas about their fans, in particular I think a lot of them are anything but as hardcore and mentally unsound as the music suggests, and the music writes a bigger cheque than Rage ever did because it seems to mostly be balls-out insanity.
Note that both groups were signed to Epic Records Co. Death Grips is no longer with them due to self-releasing albums and other rebellious things that Rage never did at all. Rage did manage to get a very comprehensive listing as 'questionable music' in the wake of 9/11, when any actual radical had not listened to them for nearly a decade. Ultimately very idea of counterculture 1990s is either very scary or incredibly laughable so I would put the two groups in different categories at least temporarily. I don't think the distinction would help either band and to be honest I don't think they have anything in common at all.
However: this does not mean that Death Grips is not this era's Rage Against the Machine. Epic Records execs must have seen the same underground/indie/counterculture buzz in both bands in order to want to sign them. Nobody cares that much about either band right now, but Death Grips is alive at least. Death Grips did not get the over-mainstream cool people and instead nabbed the indie nerds who are too cool and self-aware for horrorcore but into something similar, to the eternal chagrin of the Execs, who then dumped DG after finding or making a suitable excuse. I know they were part of the corporate overlords' plans somehow. Just like Rage. More the fools us.[citation needed]
11/19/13
Rob Ford is Not a Damn Thing Like Chris Farley
Yes it's pretty tempting if you're trying to hack out a monologue or are a pretty half-assed funny-person, but Chris Farley wasn't a Canadian and also was much cooler than Rob Ford. Moreover it is suggested by his death that Farley partied a damn sight harder than Rob Ford. People who remember their history or know something about drug abuse will agree. Crack use seems pretty bad but it's more or less just a variety of cocaine use, mixing cocaine and heroin (the notorious speedball) is next-level shit by comparison, a gift from twisted space angels that wish nothing but death on celebrities (and probably thousands of 'normal people' that you never heard of). I heard a few of these supposedly humorous comparisons and I have to say, I'm about as unimpressed as a Toronto homeowner or businessman.
Rob Ford obviously parties harder than the majority of people ever do, but it is... come on... it's a bit of a smaller league than Chris Farley. Crack cocaine has a certain wow factor that just makes the entire story that much more crazy and appealing to most people.
Anecdotally, in 2009 a Canadian conservative MP, Rahim Jaffer, was caught with powder cocaine and I swear to you now that it was not mentioned on probably all international media. [Is there an international CPAC that isn't also moonlighting as a propaganda front for the U.N.? Maybe they would carry it.] Even in Canada it was a small potatoes story that was quickly hushed away and forgotten. Most Canadians, if you asked them about Rahim Jaffer, would give you a blank stare. Meanwhile, around the world you can bring up Rob Ford for a quick talking point or laugh. The point is that crack is just a much bigger story than cocaine, despite being the same drug. Yeah, there's other factors which influence the size and longevity of this story, but...
There are better stories at this point, and the usual suspects are having a field day with Rob Ford when they could be doing more original or funnier jokes. Back in May it was a hoot, and we can't forget the absolute hilarity of everything since the crack use was proven, but the joke's probably run its course. It will fade from late night TV and remain as a sordid specter in Toronto, maybe drunk, maybe not, but still haunting the city.
I know lots of people who are tired about this. It's the sorry state of Canadian politics: the only mentions they seem to get are when wacky mayors get called out by Gawker for doing drugs, prompting a police investigation and media firestorm. It is a well known fact that Rob Ford was not well liked prior to the conviction, which makes the whole thing very satisfying for a lot of people, and now the damn thing should play quietly with less free press for Ford. It should be resolved by the city council...
Of course, now that the story is getting interesting (Rob Ford is attempting to clean up his image, and will continue to battle with opponents) the outside interest will dissipate like the smell of a fart, or the type of low-yield scandal that somehow seems to be dealt with very lightly. Then again, maybe the people who wrote the charter for Toronto mayoralty weren't expecting a seasoned crack smoker and drunkard. Very funny, because the public official in the story is a rather prominent man who uses drugs liberally, despises the downtown types, and sweats a bunch.
Meanwhile in Canada there are corruption problems, the question of who will lead the country out of an era of pseudo-stupor (currently it looks like a job nobody can accomplish, and I personally doubt Stephen Harper ever bothered himself for a minute about it), the oft-ignored First Nations issues, and best of all a highly resource-and-construction-based economy that could shatter at the whim of the markets, and which in any case is a carefully controlled game of gouging and despoiling Canada to try and fit in with the world economy clique.
Rob Ford obviously parties harder than the majority of people ever do, but it is... come on... it's a bit of a smaller league than Chris Farley. Crack cocaine has a certain wow factor that just makes the entire story that much more crazy and appealing to most people.
Anecdotally, in 2009 a Canadian conservative MP, Rahim Jaffer, was caught with powder cocaine and I swear to you now that it was not mentioned on probably all international media. [Is there an international CPAC that isn't also moonlighting as a propaganda front for the U.N.? Maybe they would carry it.] Even in Canada it was a small potatoes story that was quickly hushed away and forgotten. Most Canadians, if you asked them about Rahim Jaffer, would give you a blank stare. Meanwhile, around the world you can bring up Rob Ford for a quick talking point or laugh. The point is that crack is just a much bigger story than cocaine, despite being the same drug. Yeah, there's other factors which influence the size and longevity of this story, but...
There are better stories at this point, and the usual suspects are having a field day with Rob Ford when they could be doing more original or funnier jokes. Back in May it was a hoot, and we can't forget the absolute hilarity of everything since the crack use was proven, but the joke's probably run its course. It will fade from late night TV and remain as a sordid specter in Toronto, maybe drunk, maybe not, but still haunting the city.
I know lots of people who are tired about this. It's the sorry state of Canadian politics: the only mentions they seem to get are when wacky mayors get called out by Gawker for doing drugs, prompting a police investigation and media firestorm. It is a well known fact that Rob Ford was not well liked prior to the conviction, which makes the whole thing very satisfying for a lot of people, and now the damn thing should play quietly with less free press for Ford. It should be resolved by the city council...
Of course, now that the story is getting interesting (Rob Ford is attempting to clean up his image, and will continue to battle with opponents) the outside interest will dissipate like the smell of a fart, or the type of low-yield scandal that somehow seems to be dealt with very lightly. Then again, maybe the people who wrote the charter for Toronto mayoralty weren't expecting a seasoned crack smoker and drunkard. Very funny, because the public official in the story is a rather prominent man who uses drugs liberally, despises the downtown types, and sweats a bunch.
Meanwhile in Canada there are corruption problems, the question of who will lead the country out of an era of pseudo-stupor (currently it looks like a job nobody can accomplish, and I personally doubt Stephen Harper ever bothered himself for a minute about it), the oft-ignored First Nations issues, and best of all a highly resource-and-construction-based economy that could shatter at the whim of the markets, and which in any case is a carefully controlled game of gouging and despoiling Canada to try and fit in with the world economy clique.
11/15/13
Modern Tips for Investing your Identity
These days its not good enough to just exist and passively consume media. I mean, it is, if you exist in the lower tiers of society and not at all online. Even then you'll have to be around people who are either careless or completely uncool... what I am saying is its impossible if you care at all about your image. People will treat you differently based on your projected identity, and perhaps most importantly of all, in the absence of an identity you will be assigned one. People aren't often too kind when assigning you an identity, unless... many factors can intercede in your favor or your detriment.
Escape is unlikely. People who run from identity find themselves cornered and unmarketable to other human beings. No mass movement exists of people who spurn identity as an outdated, noxious concept. Individualism is still in vogue, denying it, even to the least aware person, will mark you as abnormal and potentially dangerous. On the other hand, lots of people get very invested in their identities, to the point where even the dumbest person can see they've taken it too far and judge them for it. With identity comes conflict, and identity fetishism, and a lack of real personal constitution – look at everybody who identifies as anything, too much. They're as odd and bland as the people who want no identity affixed to their name.
What is important is to have something outside of yourself to identify with. Not all identity can come from within, even if the best and most trustworthy kind cannot be bought. Hobbies, interests, activities, talents, peculiarities all are good starting points. Anything but the basic job/field of study/consumption habits can augment the identity you might have (or have not) developed since you were born. As soon as you start falling into the void of identity via consumption, or the chasm of applying various identities to see which you prefer... it becomes quite apparent to others that you are not comfortable enough with yourself.
It's tempting to say that experimenting with identity is something for teenagers. This is not true. Adults reinvent themselves all the time: sometimes they succeed and sometimes they fail quite miserably and get mocked and look like total jackasses. The trick is what it has always been: to have a kernel of self, to hold true to it, and not sell it out for temporary gain.
In these largely soulless times it is easier than ever to find an extreme niche identity and invest heavily into it. Life is hard and lonely, and most of us are not exceptionally popular or easy to like. It's easy to become distracted from the struggle of 'being oneself' and buy into one of many processed, mass-appeal identities that will quell your feelings of alienation and disgust. Being a human isn't easy. It isn't a question of blending in. Most authentic people are pretty subdued and blend in easily. Often it's the identity fetishists who stand out the most... the ones who live by their t-shirt, hairstyle, loudly proclaimed philosophies... and even the least presumptuous and annoying among us can be inauthentic, quietly fetishizing their unremarkableness and stifling what or who they really are.
Therefore it's a question too big to answer in a blog post, sequence of blog posts, or even an entire blog. I won't pretend to even be knowledgeable about it, but I think I can draw up a list of helpful tips and insights for modern identity:
1. Never try too hard. People can sense this and almost none of them are impressed by it.
2. It's harder to be something than to look like something. There is living, and there is lifestyle.
3. It's not always worth it to have an identity. Others can be generous with their identification of you.
4. If you're trying to be on top of things, it can paint you into a corner. Be broad, be general, and profit.
5. This issue will never not be an issue. It will often be bothersome, so learn to keep your cool.
6. The harder you are to identify, the more offended you might get at how people see you.
7. The golden years differ for everyone: for most, it's easiest to have a fluid identity in their 20s.
8. Learn to roll with it: you may know what you really are, but you can't always make others see it.
8.1. Sometimes you will get spit on: sometimes you have to hold your pride, and sometimes you have to stand up for yourself.
9. There is an inverse rule about caring somewhere in there, but it has exceptions. Not getting started on it.
10. Baudrillardian concepts about authenticity, simulacra, etc. apply.
I didn't arrive at quite the point I wanted to, which was to say that most everyone fronts a little bit here and there - check out the game Majora's Mask for some insights into this tragic topic. Or gain some actual critical literacy (just don't get too caught up in identifying as culturally literate). For example, a majority of people and things related to entertainment media (music, film, TV shows, video games, mass market books, increasing amounts of political and philosophic content, even health) is insubstantial or faked, which is why people whose identity hinges on them are often either children, mentally unhinged, or totally mentally deficient.
Personally, at times I wonder if it's worthwhile to be anything at all. I certainly can't say at this point. The only thing granted is humanity, and some abandon even that. The internet, cultural appropriation, along with basic human prejudice, have helped make the issue more central than it ever ought to be and very complex. Don't invest too heavily because the market is a bit overheated and might collapse. Best of luck to you and your identity.
Escape is unlikely. People who run from identity find themselves cornered and unmarketable to other human beings. No mass movement exists of people who spurn identity as an outdated, noxious concept. Individualism is still in vogue, denying it, even to the least aware person, will mark you as abnormal and potentially dangerous. On the other hand, lots of people get very invested in their identities, to the point where even the dumbest person can see they've taken it too far and judge them for it. With identity comes conflict, and identity fetishism, and a lack of real personal constitution – look at everybody who identifies as anything, too much. They're as odd and bland as the people who want no identity affixed to their name.
What is important is to have something outside of yourself to identify with. Not all identity can come from within, even if the best and most trustworthy kind cannot be bought. Hobbies, interests, activities, talents, peculiarities all are good starting points. Anything but the basic job/field of study/consumption habits can augment the identity you might have (or have not) developed since you were born. As soon as you start falling into the void of identity via consumption, or the chasm of applying various identities to see which you prefer... it becomes quite apparent to others that you are not comfortable enough with yourself.
It's tempting to say that experimenting with identity is something for teenagers. This is not true. Adults reinvent themselves all the time: sometimes they succeed and sometimes they fail quite miserably and get mocked and look like total jackasses. The trick is what it has always been: to have a kernel of self, to hold true to it, and not sell it out for temporary gain.
In these largely soulless times it is easier than ever to find an extreme niche identity and invest heavily into it. Life is hard and lonely, and most of us are not exceptionally popular or easy to like. It's easy to become distracted from the struggle of 'being oneself' and buy into one of many processed, mass-appeal identities that will quell your feelings of alienation and disgust. Being a human isn't easy. It isn't a question of blending in. Most authentic people are pretty subdued and blend in easily. Often it's the identity fetishists who stand out the most... the ones who live by their t-shirt, hairstyle, loudly proclaimed philosophies... and even the least presumptuous and annoying among us can be inauthentic, quietly fetishizing their unremarkableness and stifling what or who they really are.
Therefore it's a question too big to answer in a blog post, sequence of blog posts, or even an entire blog. I won't pretend to even be knowledgeable about it, but I think I can draw up a list of helpful tips and insights for modern identity:
1. Never try too hard. People can sense this and almost none of them are impressed by it.
2. It's harder to be something than to look like something. There is living, and there is lifestyle.
3. It's not always worth it to have an identity. Others can be generous with their identification of you.
4. If you're trying to be on top of things, it can paint you into a corner. Be broad, be general, and profit.
5. This issue will never not be an issue. It will often be bothersome, so learn to keep your cool.
6. The harder you are to identify, the more offended you might get at how people see you.
7. The golden years differ for everyone: for most, it's easiest to have a fluid identity in their 20s.
8. Learn to roll with it: you may know what you really are, but you can't always make others see it.
8.1. Sometimes you will get spit on: sometimes you have to hold your pride, and sometimes you have to stand up for yourself.
9. There is an inverse rule about caring somewhere in there, but it has exceptions. Not getting started on it.
10. Baudrillardian concepts about authenticity, simulacra, etc. apply.
I didn't arrive at quite the point I wanted to, which was to say that most everyone fronts a little bit here and there - check out the game Majora's Mask for some insights into this tragic topic. Or gain some actual critical literacy (just don't get too caught up in identifying as culturally literate). For example, a majority of people and things related to entertainment media (music, film, TV shows, video games, mass market books, increasing amounts of political and philosophic content, even health) is insubstantial or faked, which is why people whose identity hinges on them are often either children, mentally unhinged, or totally mentally deficient.
Personally, at times I wonder if it's worthwhile to be anything at all. I certainly can't say at this point. The only thing granted is humanity, and some abandon even that. The internet, cultural appropriation, along with basic human prejudice, have helped make the issue more central than it ever ought to be and very complex. Don't invest too heavily because the market is a bit overheated and might collapse. Best of luck to you and your identity.
11/11/13
The Rob Ford Scandal Saga: Refiring the Spotlight
The mayor of notable world-class city Toronto, Ontario (home of the Toronto International Film Festival, the Leafs, the Raptors, and the Blue Jays) had admitted to using crack cocaine, which he had previously (and very prominently) been alleged to have done. The story was very hot, leading to some Canada stories on all kinds of media around the world. It was close to being a circus, and with Rob Ford... well... it actually had been kind of a circus all along, hadn't it?
A large number of Torontonians had it in for Rob Ford since the moment he took office, and many of those rejected him before that point. The thing was primed from the start to be disastrous for Ford, but, bless his heart, he did go on as acting mayor. He did what Clinton did and denied it. The police followed up, and on Halloween Bill Blair, chief of police, held a press conference to confirm the allegations first put forward in May. Rob Ford had smoked crack cocaine, and the police had video evidence of it, and that's where the thing stood. What's insane is that there is apparently no mechanism in place for dealing with a mayor who might be compromised by use of illegal substance. At this late point in the story, Ford is dealing with a potential mandatory leave of absence.
An historical day for the Ford mayoralty, and the continuation of this spring's Crack Mayor Narrative. There were a couple of reasons to consider the allegations unproven back then: firstly, a large group of people wanted a character assassination and would've jumped on the opportunity anyway; second, Gawker are a bunch of fuck shits who never came up with the goods for shadowy reasons; third, the Toronto Star has 'had it in' for Ford for a long time; finally, it was only alleged at the time. Anyone would have agreed that Rob Ford was a bit screwed up, possibly a drunk, and probably had contacts with 'the wrong people'. The police, competently enough, decided to keep an eye on the situation. Maybe they even followed through with Gawker.
It's last week's news and I know that. I waited so that the frenzy had ended by the time I said anything. I had nothing to add while it was happening. It seems to me as if Rob Ford will continue to act as embattled mayor for a few more days. He evaded the topic because it was his last move in the doomed chess game of crack use and publicity. The Drunken Stupor line is a beauty, a real font of humor, but also the only legitimate way Ford could counteract the damage of Using Illegal Drugs... because you see, when you're already Intoxicated on a Legal Drug, it's more permissible to use an Illegal Drug, because you're not thinking clearly. Mostly it's a nod to the drug war mentality. Say what you want about him: he tried.
The media attention is burdensome to Canada, frankly speaking. After the bets cleared and the dust settled, me and a bookie had a serious talk about how odd it is that big stories about Canada go completely untold by the rest of the world, while all it would take for a Canadian revival would be more dumb scandals and graceless public officials. It was the first big story about Canada since Lac Megantic, or Chris Hadfield's Bowie cover in space.. and before that the big story was Rob Ford on crack cocaine allegations. Listen: Rob Ford is obviously kind of a troubled guy, he's apparently surrounded by shady dudes and fake friends who will videotape him in a private moment, but I doubt he's taken the reigns of Toronto City while high on crack. At least he didn't use taxpayer monies for personal reasons – so is he morally superior to Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy and the rest of the high-life crew in the Canadian Senate? Some would argue he is. Meanwhile there's talk of pipeline chicanery, a big topic for the United States and Canada, that is so quiet one can barely hear it.
How will Rob Ford be remembered? Does Toronto deserve better, and what does it mean to be Torontonian in light of a mayor who smokes crack? Has this changed how the world views Toronto? Rob Ford has gotten more global media coverage in a short few months than David Miller and Mel Lastman combined, does that put Toronto 'on the map'? Have you ever smoked crack, and if so did you feel like you were a mayor? Do you feel sorry for Rob Ford, knowing that underneath all the political grandstanding and posturing, he's a just a fat guy from a relatively privileged family? Do you hate him? Will he step down on Wednesday? Will Canada ever again become prominent in the news for good reasons? Are there too many questions and too few concrete answers?
But, uh, in actual serious world news that isn't sensationalism: the Phillipines just got hammered by a giant storm and is actually in a disastrous state, so the Rob Ford media shitshow can be allowed to end in relative obscurity. Also the McRib is back, gross. The war in Syria is still ongoing, as well, that's pretty important but since there isn't an easy solution it seems to be brushed under the rug again now the chemical weapons issue is sorted out. And in America there is hushed talk of a Tea Party/Republican schism. What a difference one week can make, but in the case of Rob Ford, it won't solve his problems..
A large number of Torontonians had it in for Rob Ford since the moment he took office, and many of those rejected him before that point. The thing was primed from the start to be disastrous for Ford, but, bless his heart, he did go on as acting mayor. He did what Clinton did and denied it. The police followed up, and on Halloween Bill Blair, chief of police, held a press conference to confirm the allegations first put forward in May. Rob Ford had smoked crack cocaine, and the police had video evidence of it, and that's where the thing stood. What's insane is that there is apparently no mechanism in place for dealing with a mayor who might be compromised by use of illegal substance. At this late point in the story, Ford is dealing with a potential mandatory leave of absence.
An historical day for the Ford mayoralty, and the continuation of this spring's Crack Mayor Narrative. There were a couple of reasons to consider the allegations unproven back then: firstly, a large group of people wanted a character assassination and would've jumped on the opportunity anyway; second, Gawker are a bunch of fuck shits who never came up with the goods for shadowy reasons; third, the Toronto Star has 'had it in' for Ford for a long time; finally, it was only alleged at the time. Anyone would have agreed that Rob Ford was a bit screwed up, possibly a drunk, and probably had contacts with 'the wrong people'. The police, competently enough, decided to keep an eye on the situation. Maybe they even followed through with Gawker.
It's last week's news and I know that. I waited so that the frenzy had ended by the time I said anything. I had nothing to add while it was happening. It seems to me as if Rob Ford will continue to act as embattled mayor for a few more days. He evaded the topic because it was his last move in the doomed chess game of crack use and publicity. The Drunken Stupor line is a beauty, a real font of humor, but also the only legitimate way Ford could counteract the damage of Using Illegal Drugs... because you see, when you're already Intoxicated on a Legal Drug, it's more permissible to use an Illegal Drug, because you're not thinking clearly. Mostly it's a nod to the drug war mentality. Say what you want about him: he tried.
The media attention is burdensome to Canada, frankly speaking. After the bets cleared and the dust settled, me and a bookie had a serious talk about how odd it is that big stories about Canada go completely untold by the rest of the world, while all it would take for a Canadian revival would be more dumb scandals and graceless public officials. It was the first big story about Canada since Lac Megantic, or Chris Hadfield's Bowie cover in space.. and before that the big story was Rob Ford on crack cocaine allegations. Listen: Rob Ford is obviously kind of a troubled guy, he's apparently surrounded by shady dudes and fake friends who will videotape him in a private moment, but I doubt he's taken the reigns of Toronto City while high on crack. At least he didn't use taxpayer monies for personal reasons – so is he morally superior to Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy and the rest of the high-life crew in the Canadian Senate? Some would argue he is. Meanwhile there's talk of pipeline chicanery, a big topic for the United States and Canada, that is so quiet one can barely hear it.
How will Rob Ford be remembered? Does Toronto deserve better, and what does it mean to be Torontonian in light of a mayor who smokes crack? Has this changed how the world views Toronto? Rob Ford has gotten more global media coverage in a short few months than David Miller and Mel Lastman combined, does that put Toronto 'on the map'? Have you ever smoked crack, and if so did you feel like you were a mayor? Do you feel sorry for Rob Ford, knowing that underneath all the political grandstanding and posturing, he's a just a fat guy from a relatively privileged family? Do you hate him? Will he step down on Wednesday? Will Canada ever again become prominent in the news for good reasons? Are there too many questions and too few concrete answers?
But, uh, in actual serious world news that isn't sensationalism: the Phillipines just got hammered by a giant storm and is actually in a disastrous state, so the Rob Ford media shitshow can be allowed to end in relative obscurity. Also the McRib is back, gross. The war in Syria is still ongoing, as well, that's pretty important but since there isn't an easy solution it seems to be brushed under the rug again now the chemical weapons issue is sorted out. And in America there is hushed talk of a Tea Party/Republican schism. What a difference one week can make, but in the case of Rob Ford, it won't solve his problems..
11/5/13
Let us Get Huffy and Rejoice in our Doomedness: I, Rambler II
Amidst the rise of surveillance/police states that are no longer just pre-Arab Spring/Classified/Cold War throwbacks (thanks Chelsea Manning) one gets the sense that, as a species, we have gotten no closer to regaining our collective shit than at any point since the Agricultural Revolution. I've become very well acquainted with the sensation of a rapidly accelerating crisis. It's a bit like the Fukushima Daiichi reactor 1 shortly after the tsunami smashed the facilities, when it lay destroyed, creeping by steady degrees out of control... the edifice of control revealed as the folly of unreal maniacs, watched by clueless and frightened idiots, the situation only tempered by the courage and knowledge of those who were once considered alarmist, disposable, and ignorable.
Nobody wants to curb the debilitating spread of convenience consumerism. There is lots of talk. Everyone seems stupefied about the political landscape. We waste our breath to summarize it. Nothing distinguishes our era more than waste. Businesses, governments, and shills are all absolutely overjoyed to be part of a world economy that is premised on the insane principle of unlimited growth on a shrinking planet, of the useless squandering of resources. Profit is king, and governments are its thrall. Moderates are toothless, the countercultures are all dead or miniscule, the relentless march of progress goes on, shitting where we eat and belching poison fumes into the air we breathe. Human potential is squandered and used up at the same rate: who can blame the junkies now? The capitalists stand unchallenged, they who were as evil and soulless as the communist exploiters they reviled and nearly destroyed the world to curb. In the most powerful country in the world, host to the most powerful multinationals you can't even begin to imagine, a corporation is legally equivalent to a person.
The junkies, at least, are honest in their self-destructive pursuits, and probably contribute less to wastage than the respectable classes of citizen-consumers, whose per capita throughput of plastic garbage is enough to bury an entire small property each and every year. Let's not even get into energy or food waste. The wealthy are smug and spit on the middle class, who smugly spit on the working class, who wearily spit on the working poor, who accidentally spit on the destitute. Respect is rarely earned or given to or from any of 'the little people'. Respect is a commodity. Self-interest in the age of individualism has led only to the abandonment of societal and individual progress. Self-denial is less than a relic: it is the ghost of an unheard-of type of human... all else is myth but gratification. We will become lower apes yet, at this pace, while the descendants of humanity spit on us, completing the cycle. Likely they will be too cruel and abstracted to actively exterminate our relict populations.
And in this atmosphere of toxic and vile and inhuman activity, is it really any wonder that cruelty and hatred grow freely? Is it any wonder that laws cannot protect people from themselves, or children from each other? The people who are surprised by the modern world are obviously blind to what it really is. I can't blame anyone for being a junkie, a consumerist whore, or willfully ignorant and distracted (three increasingly similar things) and there are not many who can lay blame for it. What is important is that the entire situation of the world is becoming too alarming, is growing too quickly, and is passing far too quickly out of the hands of common people (you know, the abused slaves and serfs of yesteryear, who stood to gain the most from modernity and progress). With technology as a crutch it is very tempting to see the next generations of humanity as nothing but unnecessary, mentally-truncated cripples ruled by a new aristocracy.
"There is bad, yes, but there is also good in the world." I never declared that hope was dead, I was suggesting that hope itself is currently as endangered as any crumbling, over-harvested species in any pillaged environment. Things like OWS just alienate hope from reality. There are not enough skeptics and too many cynics, but both are outnumbered by shills and apologists. I'd take the world's bitterest cynic over any shill apologist - I prefer honesty to optimism where my entire species, its homeworld, and its livelihood are in question. Nobody has successfully taught the lesson of unity without coercion... true moral and philosophic problems go unanswered while we charge into the minutest details of quantum physics. Values are changing, but you ought to get top value for your dollar. We should take something back, even at this late point, to prove to our doomed descendants that we were not just fickle, feckless, fussy cowards with fine words and utopian ideals.
We are shocked and offended that nature would take anything back that we gleaned from it. Yet, we come from it, and owe our all to it. This is absurd. We consider ourselves entitled to pillage not 'the environment' alone but in fact all of life which we commonly see as nothing but a means to wealth, contentment, and satisfaction. We do not treasure or honor life for its own sake and therefore we will not solve the pathological behaviors behind the ecological and social problems we claim to want to solve. Mostly we have failed to understand nature... we force it into models and theories instead of learning from it. We hate the idea of nature reclaiming its 10% so much that we will stop at no lengths, not even poisoning ourselves, to prevent a weed from growing or an insect from feeding. Meanwhile we make such noise about unborn babies that our callousness in other regards seems schizophrenic.
Why wouldn't I hide in a narcotic haze, or try to buy my way to peace of mind (irony!), or even kill myself? More and more I have no answer, can barely see around myself, and realize that awareness is no substitution for action, for a coherent response to an increasingly incoherent world. It's a pity that radicals are marginalized to the point where they have no alternatives and tiny audiences. It's a pity that the only moderates who are allowed to speak are the ones telling us that we have done no wrong, that we have nothing to regret and a bright future. It's a pity no side in any of the day's big arguments has any respect, any foresight, any capacity to entertain alternative world-views. I guess I should give in, and just passively wait to be subsumed in the coming wave of tech-oligarch globalist worthlessness and wretchedness, into the hopeless and shit hell we deserve, into the ongoing death of the world we barely knew. Lambs for slaughter: I tell you I wouldn't mind being a child again...
Nobody wants to curb the debilitating spread of convenience consumerism. There is lots of talk. Everyone seems stupefied about the political landscape. We waste our breath to summarize it. Nothing distinguishes our era more than waste. Businesses, governments, and shills are all absolutely overjoyed to be part of a world economy that is premised on the insane principle of unlimited growth on a shrinking planet, of the useless squandering of resources. Profit is king, and governments are its thrall. Moderates are toothless, the countercultures are all dead or miniscule, the relentless march of progress goes on, shitting where we eat and belching poison fumes into the air we breathe. Human potential is squandered and used up at the same rate: who can blame the junkies now? The capitalists stand unchallenged, they who were as evil and soulless as the communist exploiters they reviled and nearly destroyed the world to curb. In the most powerful country in the world, host to the most powerful multinationals you can't even begin to imagine, a corporation is legally equivalent to a person.
The junkies, at least, are honest in their self-destructive pursuits, and probably contribute less to wastage than the respectable classes of citizen-consumers, whose per capita throughput of plastic garbage is enough to bury an entire small property each and every year. Let's not even get into energy or food waste. The wealthy are smug and spit on the middle class, who smugly spit on the working class, who wearily spit on the working poor, who accidentally spit on the destitute. Respect is rarely earned or given to or from any of 'the little people'. Respect is a commodity. Self-interest in the age of individualism has led only to the abandonment of societal and individual progress. Self-denial is less than a relic: it is the ghost of an unheard-of type of human... all else is myth but gratification. We will become lower apes yet, at this pace, while the descendants of humanity spit on us, completing the cycle. Likely they will be too cruel and abstracted to actively exterminate our relict populations.
And in this atmosphere of toxic and vile and inhuman activity, is it really any wonder that cruelty and hatred grow freely? Is it any wonder that laws cannot protect people from themselves, or children from each other? The people who are surprised by the modern world are obviously blind to what it really is. I can't blame anyone for being a junkie, a consumerist whore, or willfully ignorant and distracted (three increasingly similar things) and there are not many who can lay blame for it. What is important is that the entire situation of the world is becoming too alarming, is growing too quickly, and is passing far too quickly out of the hands of common people (you know, the abused slaves and serfs of yesteryear, who stood to gain the most from modernity and progress). With technology as a crutch it is very tempting to see the next generations of humanity as nothing but unnecessary, mentally-truncated cripples ruled by a new aristocracy.
"There is bad, yes, but there is also good in the world." I never declared that hope was dead, I was suggesting that hope itself is currently as endangered as any crumbling, over-harvested species in any pillaged environment. Things like OWS just alienate hope from reality. There are not enough skeptics and too many cynics, but both are outnumbered by shills and apologists. I'd take the world's bitterest cynic over any shill apologist - I prefer honesty to optimism where my entire species, its homeworld, and its livelihood are in question. Nobody has successfully taught the lesson of unity without coercion... true moral and philosophic problems go unanswered while we charge into the minutest details of quantum physics. Values are changing, but you ought to get top value for your dollar. We should take something back, even at this late point, to prove to our doomed descendants that we were not just fickle, feckless, fussy cowards with fine words and utopian ideals.
We are shocked and offended that nature would take anything back that we gleaned from it. Yet, we come from it, and owe our all to it. This is absurd. We consider ourselves entitled to pillage not 'the environment' alone but in fact all of life which we commonly see as nothing but a means to wealth, contentment, and satisfaction. We do not treasure or honor life for its own sake and therefore we will not solve the pathological behaviors behind the ecological and social problems we claim to want to solve. Mostly we have failed to understand nature... we force it into models and theories instead of learning from it. We hate the idea of nature reclaiming its 10% so much that we will stop at no lengths, not even poisoning ourselves, to prevent a weed from growing or an insect from feeding. Meanwhile we make such noise about unborn babies that our callousness in other regards seems schizophrenic.
Why wouldn't I hide in a narcotic haze, or try to buy my way to peace of mind (irony!), or even kill myself? More and more I have no answer, can barely see around myself, and realize that awareness is no substitution for action, for a coherent response to an increasingly incoherent world. It's a pity that radicals are marginalized to the point where they have no alternatives and tiny audiences. It's a pity that the only moderates who are allowed to speak are the ones telling us that we have done no wrong, that we have nothing to regret and a bright future. It's a pity no side in any of the day's big arguments has any respect, any foresight, any capacity to entertain alternative world-views. I guess I should give in, and just passively wait to be subsumed in the coming wave of tech-oligarch globalist worthlessness and wretchedness, into the hopeless and shit hell we deserve, into the ongoing death of the world we barely knew. Lambs for slaughter: I tell you I wouldn't mind being a child again...
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