Admittedly, the irony of community is missing here,
as is the playfulness of social life.
The charm to be found in social graces
and in the theatre of social relations is all transferred outwards
into the advertising of life and lifestyles.
This is a society that is endlessly concerned to vindicate itself,
perpetually seeking to justify its own existence.
Everything has to be made public:
what you are worth, what you earn, how you live –
there is no place here for interplay of subtler nature.
The societies ‘look’ is a self-publicizing one.

The American flag bears witness to this by its omnipresence,
in fields and built-up areas, at service stations,
and on graves in cemeteries,
not as a heroic sign,
but as a trademark of a good brand.
It simply is the label of the finest international enterprise,
the US.

This is explains why the hyperrealists were able to paint it naively,
without either irony or protest (Jim Dine in the sixties),
in much the same way as Pop Art gleefully transposed
the banality of amazing consumer goods on to its canvasses.
There is nothing here of the fierce parodying of the American anthem
by Jimi Hendrix, merely the light irony and neutral humor
of things that have become banal,
the humor of the mobile home and the giant hamburger
on a sixteen-foot long billboard,
the pop and hyper-humor so characteristic of the atmosphere of America,
where things seem indulged with a certain indulgence
towards their own banality.

But they are indulgent toward their own craziness too.
Looked at more generally,
they do not lay claim to being extraordinary;
they simply are extraordinary.

Excerpt America, by Jean Baudrillard, p. 86  Published 1986

Indulgence — passivity toward ideas, institutions, movements that better judgment indicates are anomalous, sometimes injurious to public welfare.

That is my definition.  Yesterday a friend inquired of my evidence that our society is unstable.  I offered five factors that are indicative of dysfunction in my estimation.

• Systemic discrimination against black people, resulting in a general uprising (BLM)
• Dismantling of the social safety net to the further impoverishment of the poor
• A form of capitalism that results in penury (the middle class is going away)
• A President who is a compulsive liar, sociopath…..  (two ways of making the same point)
• Paralysis of congress, a result of piles of money being more determinative than good sense and the common good.

I left out Fox News,  The network has been tolerated since its inception in 1996.  Regarded as an “entertainment” option for those citizens who imagine a society organized for the benefit of corporations, administered by white people, — those with a liberal view of society simply chose not to view/listen.  Indulgence toward our own craziness….  Clearly Fox News has become more sinister.

Rock N Roll, — can be a raw wrestling match with truth.  (Socrates would have approved.)  In 2009 VH1 named this song the greatest hard-rock song of all time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXSCr_BR38U

Welcome To The Jungle
by Axl Rose

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