“To thine own self be true” but what if thine own self is rotten? That indeed is the case, upon closer inspection not only the 1%, but even the 99% find little spark or joy within. The fact is not that all are rotten, but a wholly aristotlian/darwinian worldview is a more appropriate thread to follow back into history and pre-history to better identify the strain of thinking that has led the world here.
The misappropriation of material causes, first by parochial interests (tragedy), then by historical compulsions (farce) and the poor understanding of evolution can be considered the staple they have been brought up on without much questioning. Which makes sense since science and philosophy were never their strong suite.
The good news is that what we are living through is definitely a farce, the bad news is that what follows farce is necessarily the tragedy of recognition. If we are to avert this tragedy, we must first stop trying to reason with darkness and second, extinguish it with light, but the masses have a goldfish memory and their suffering continues to power the three-legged empire destined to live in dog’s years.
This idea is not originial by now, Putin understands this, as does Israel to an extent hence we get the latest tiffs and flashpoints such as Ukraine etc. However, the problem is so entrenched that mere symbolic war will not suffice, the tragedy to come will have to compensate for everything since 1945. Including these faux attempts at forgetting. Israel’s recent episodes of going full-psycho is the clearest depiction of jimmy’s psychopathy at display. Not that the previous wars were less crazy but back then, at least there were veneers however fake like Saddam, like wmds etc.
Tony Soprano called the coroner, I’m merely writing the post-mortem report. What remains is just a story that goes around the room and the people, including me, who profiteer from its telling and retelling, failing to fix things fully each time, until its time for the next hedgemon and the next troop that capitulates over itself - like an ouroboros.
On the embalmer’s table lies a giant fish with lipstick on that has been fucked in every orifice more times than people have bathed in the Ganges. The guy who brought the cadaver in told me the her last words were “judgement scales”. Inside the fish was a giant VHS tape full of west-coast pornography, Jason Bourne style. My job is to edit to make it seem like he “fixes the cable” because that will be remembered and not the fact that all three actors died of AIDS, in their own vomit in the bathtub.
To that extent, the sexual repression of puritanical europe that was directly responsible for populating the new world came full circle in the sleep and depravity that has come to define modern USA. This sleep and depravity are not some seasonal affective disorder that ends with september but the very constitutive fibre of the american being. Not that they were not having orgies in Rome 1.0, but those orgies were way more fun for obvious reasons. Modern American comes out of an orgy more dissastisfied than she was going in.
Just ask Jimmy, who is getting more perplexed as the twilight skinny-dips into the night. To thine own self be true, but what if thine own self is a fish with a porn VHS inside it? As far as metaphors go, there couldn’t be a more apt description of the dead american spirit, in the bathtub of the internet, soaking in its own LLM-induced vomit. Inference? more like interference into healthy brain functioning.
It isn’t that spiritual illiteracy and moral bankruptcy are minor bugs ailing the mindset of the average american, these are the very tenets upon which the nation stands! There will be no more heroes, no more parades, no more scientific paradigm shifts (unless you call Higgs Boson a paradigm shift), but if you see through the facade, these words you are reading are the very lowering of curtain in a total lack of any applause.
If the key to human happiness is managing expectations, one is happiest knowing one can expect nothing from trash, but the narrative Taylor Swift is trying to sell will have you believe otherwise.
How odd would it seem if you encountered a racist fish, yet that’s precisely where we are. Meanwhile, you keep popping out children to push into the meat grinder as if it were your only comuppance against a cruel world! How inane! Anyone reproducing in the twenty-first century is either deeply hurt, needs the children for their own survival, or lacks basic education. “But what if they cure cancer?” I hear you ask, but if optimism is your excuse, why stop there, what if they are the next messiah? Get a grip.
The twenty-first century is comparable to a period of post-nut clarity after ejaculating to some porn, except the jerk-off session wasn’t nearly satisfying enough as last time (The Third Reich) or the one before (Rome 1.0). For one, the insincerity was off putting, for another, the tits were all fake. Now the VHS has played through, you’re lying all spent inside the world’s asshole, wondering if a rewind is worth it.
This threesome with Sodom and Gomorrah has left a bad taste in your mouth, should have picked just one. But then, there is nobody to blame for america never advertised itself as anything other than pornography and the logic of capitalism is “if you fall for it, you deserve it”.
And post orgasm as the world’s rectum begins to tighten, the prostate gland cries out as the country grows even more insular, spraying tarriffs around at everyone, further sinking into its coccoon, further stumbling into its grave in one last cringey dance of the osctracised imp.
The dead catfish isn’t all white and the nigger isn’t blameless but here’s what the wikipedia article on catfish says:
Most catfish are bottom feeders. In general, they are negatively buoyant, which means that they usually sink rather than float due to a reduced gas bladder and a heavy, bony head.