Plague Journal, Freedom American Style

July 19, 2020 Jerry King Comments 0 Comment

SPECTACULAR ORGY (FREEDOM AMERICAN STYLE)

But this is precisely the point:
the high point of liberation, it’s logical outcome,
is to be found in the spectacular orgy, speed,
the instantaneity of change, generalized eccentricity.

Politics frees itself in the spectacle,
in the all-out advertising effect;
sexuality frees itself in all its anomalies,
and perversions;
mores, customs, the body,
and language free themselves in an ever quickening round of fashion.

The liberated man
is not one who is freed in his ideal reality, his inner truth, or his transparency;
he is the man who changes spaces, who circulates, who changes
sex, clothes, and habits according to fashion,
rather than morality,
and who changes opinions not as his conscience dictates,
but in response to opinion polls.

This is practical liberation whether
we like it or not,
whether or not we deplore its wastefulness
and its obscenity.

Excerpt, America, by Jean Baudrillard, p. 96 published 1986

Yesterday, Saturday, I changed my plans. Due to a second wave of coronavirus, I decided to forgo a visit to the dragstrip with my son. Drag racing, a spectacle of acceleration, gasoline, a binge of testosterone, is emblematic of the late 20th century, the heyday of the automobile. A custom built factory experimental race car will launch from the hot asphalt starting line, wheels-up, flashing across the quarter mile finish line eight seconds later. Yes, drag racing is seductive, addictive. It is quintessentially American.

This and countless other things will be decisively put behind us by the pandemic. I chose not to attend an outdoor, but crowded event in order to reduce the risk of sickness to myself and family According to this mornings New York Times,

“The country, logging a seven-day average of 65,790 new cases a day, has more confirmed cases per capita than any other major industrial nation.”

Falling ill due to covid-19, hospitalization, would be a life-altering crisis. I’ll say it again: the pandemic is a turning point for our yet uncounted habits and institutions.

I spent the morning involved in satisfying maintenance work in the back yard: pruning low branches to allow better sight lines, replanting a shrub that unaccountably came back to life (I dug it up weeks ago) and watering flowers and vegetables. I’ll include some photos of summer flowers that I captured.

The afternoon was passed reading on a bench in front of the Kane County courthouse. I read the excerpt quoted above in America by Jean Baudrillard. In the course of several hours of reading by chance I happened to have conversation with a campaign manager for a candidate who is running for election to the Illinois Senate in Springfield. Our conversation was in some depth as he was waiting for his candidate to complete a photo shoot in front of the courthouse. I offered my opinion that the image of the Kane County Courthouse, a substantive, formidable piece of architecture, was representative of everything that our society is not. At the end of our exchange he called his candidate over and introduced her to me. She was pleasant enough. She said her reason for running for office was, “I want to make things better.” That struck me as a non sequitur. I wished her luck. I would never vote for a Republican.

I also had a conversation with two old guys of my generation. One was a farmer growing beans and corn from Bourbonnais, Illinois, and the other, his friend grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. They were admiring the big statue in front of the courthouse commemorating those who served in the Civil War. The farmer expressed his confusion that statues honoring Southern Rebel generals were being torn down. I attempted to explain why they have been pulled down, without any success. The gentleman from Oak Ridge agreed with me that when we were kids, educated in the South, the Civil War was never mentioned, and was of scarce interest. Certainly that has changed.