Americans believe in facts,
but not in facticity.
They do not know that facts
are factitious*, as their name suggests.
It is this belief in facts,
in the total credibility of what is done or seen,
in this pragmatic evidence of things
and an accompanying contempt for what may be called appearances
or the play of appearances –
— a face does not deceive, behavior does not deceive,
a scientific process does not deceive, nothing deceives,
nothing is ambivalent,
(and at bottom this is true: nothing deceives, there are no lies,
there is only simulation, which is precisely the facticity of facts)
— that the Americans are a true utopian society,
in their religion of the fait accompli,
in the naivety of their deductions,
in their ignorance of the evil genius of things.
You have to be utopian to think that in a human order,
of whatever nature,
things can be as straightforward as that.

All other societies contain within them
some heresy or other, some dissidence,
some suspicion of reality,
the superstitious belief in the force of evil and the possible
control of that force by magic,
a belief in the power of appearances.
Here there is no dissidence, no suspicion.
The emperor has no clothes;
the facts are there before us.

As is well known, the Americans are fascinated by
the yellow-skinned peoples in whom they sense a superior form of cunning,
a higher form of that absence of truth which frightens them.

*artificially created, unnatural, synthetic

Excerpt America, by Jean Baudrillard, p. 85

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We utopians all!  I offer this segment of Baudrillard’s America as a fair description of our condition, of our state of mind, of soul as Americans.  We, the result of a successful effort to separate ourselves from the colonizing dominion of the major world power of the day, Great Britain; our will to expropriate lands from peoples settled here prior to our arrival, peoples less technologically advanced; and last but not least, due to the wealth derived from the slave trade — have built a material utopia.  America, until very recently was the envy of many nations around the world.

Utopia. The word has a magical ring to it – something like ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ or ‘Never, Never Land’ the old Michael Jackson ranch, which concealed a nightmare of molestation.  We are seduced by the connotations of the word Utopia, and overlook the etymological meaning of the word’s origin: Utopia means ‘no place.’

America is a material utopia, the first of other advanced western societies hallmarked by consumption.  Baudrillard’s words capture the typical American point of view: what you see is what you get.  All manner of things designed for maximum appeal — endless apps for my amusement, purposed for making my life easier, etc.  Stated in a more technical philosophical term, we Americans are naive realists, oblivious to what may be concealed, indeed inclined to deny what is imperfectly hidden by the glitz, the clever marketing ploys launched at our psyche:  that “must have” marvel of technology, or that pitch-man-demagogue politician promising to solve America’s social problems by throwing out the immigrants (non-whites).  We willingly overlook the deceit, the explicit cruelty, the ersatz prosperity offered by the bully in a three piece suite, just as we overlook the relentless data collection by the set of apps we are happy to use….  We who live in utopia. 

Make no mistake, when this ‘ginned-up simulation’ begins to fall apart, where do you think will be most convenient to place blame?  China, the Chinese people, of course must be made to pay!  After all, does not their cunning frighten us?

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In the attempt to conclude the post of today on a positive note, here are some photographs taken in the backyard within the last 48 hours.  The last photo features a marker for a snapping turtle nesting spot.  She laid her eggs in the raised bed below the sign.  Baby turtles expected within a few weeks!

 

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