Plague Journal, Culture: Blocks Of Language Subjected To Pitiless Erosion
The body politic twists, wracked from the clarity of what must be done, distended in a contrary direction by a customary shape-shifting accommodation. Thus the odds are long that a decisive, kill-stroke will be delivered to the personification of anti-truth that looms over us… Trump and his acolytes, either costumed and embellished with facial “war” paint, or dressed in a Brooks Bros suit, seated in a board room — are no phantasmagoria.
I was taken to task by a good friend for advocating a direct, aggressive response to the failed overthrow attempt of Congress. He affirmed that we ought to resist at any cost the temptation to cultivate hatred. Bad Karma is not an abstraction. Cause and effect reinforces itself. Blood begets blood. We have enough history to reflect upon, to know with certainty this is true. However the necessity for a direct, effective, terminating act is not borne out of hatred. Self preservation is a logic of the knife. The insanity of indifference ends here. Or we end here.
Instinct moved me to reach for America, by Jean Baudrillard which I read once before. Baudrillard’s overview of American society and culture published in 1989 was prescient. The slim volume is Baudrillard’s philosophical reflection upon his road trip across America. The chapter headings give hint of the arc of his interpretation:
Vanishing point
New York
Astral America
Utopia achieved
The end of US power?
Desert for ever
I recommend the book. I purchased my copy from AMAZON.
There is no doubt where the power really lies now in digital America: Jack Dorsey of Twitter and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook. After years of profiting from the dystopian rage, from the existential suffering of misinformed, propagandized Americans, — Twitter and Facebook banished Trump from their platforms. Read the entire article by NY Times technology columnist Kevin Roose CLICK HERE.
