Inheritance of Crowns for Ghosts

From ostensibly meaningful annual summaries packaged and delivered by apps and services to ostensibly hallowed ceremonies that eulogize the demonstrably alive by celebrating... celebrity,

we memorialize the trivial and mercenary as though after everything is said and everything is done... what will matter is how we wrought our lives

for colossally meaningless

victories.

Inheritance of Crowns for Ghosts

If the 'prize' of 'good work' is a crown bestowed in the eternal beyond, how likely is such 'prize' motivating good-doing: today?

*

If the 'reward' of 'a life lived righteously' is immortal bliss in a life after death, how likely is such 'reward' influencing everybody's conduct: right now?

*

If the 'honor' of 'believing doctrines' is salvation from damnation hereafter, how likely is such 'honor' animating a categorical disavowal of lies and liars: really?

*

Please.

Dissemblers who wear testified beliefs with self-righteous pride, from head coverings to jewelry to body paint, are plainly: performers.

*

Or am I wrong? 

Perhaps this is unfair at best and callous at worst?

Because

*

all the benefit of all the doubt, unconditional trust, and every pound of good faith ever exacted,

must be bled as white as marble before a single believer is denied the selfsame generosity and grace, dissemblers and performers deny

anybody - anytime - for any glib or brittle reason whatsoever?

*

Speaking of moral panic,

or simply: bogeymen,

invoked to justify disproportionate hostility.

*

As if the imperiling of a solitary follower is tantamount to an imminent massacre of every nation everywhere. As if the challenging of a sole belief is analogous to an incipient apocalypse. As if the truth itself is terrifyingly besieged at this very moment.

*

Or am I wrong?

Perhaps this is hyperbolic at best and vicious at worst?

Because

*

addressing vaporous battles as overwrought pearl-clutching, smears the piety of dissemblers and performers?

Seriously?

*

This is: imposture working as intended,

no?

*

Where anything and everything is a costume, be it professed good-doing or witnessed faith or triumphs claimed in the name of merit.

*

Surely what motivates and influences and animates the kind of performative conceit that would perfume a mercenary and venal interest as a kind of unimpeachable honesty,

must be neither feebly nor gleefully pooh-poohed as a harmlessly ungovernable feature of, gee how lazily exculpatory: being human.

After all,

*

our inheritance is what we leave behind, when being demonstrably alive or not neither justifies nor excuses why we are what we are, here and after life.

More

It's laughably outrageous, isn't it? The multitude of indulgent inducements to be good. The extravagant incentivizing, if you will. Notwithstanding, the smug nonsense that anyone believes any of it.

Good-doers know better. (Of course.) Wrong-doers know better. (Duh.) 

So what is it all for?

If not 'acts' that equivalize vanity with merit?

Which is to say, imposture, celebrated

with prizes and rewards and honors, here and after life,

no?

M

A Camel, The Sequel

It's ridiculous, isn't it, to twitter and preen like a sequel isn't a sequel? Is anyone, anyone at all, fooled by a re-packaged same old dog or a re-branded same old trick, flittering about like a second act of warmed-over muck and over-cooked twaddle, is a redux to crow about?

Come on.

A Camel, The Sequel

There's an ease in the familiar, a comfortable, that feels rooted in something real, a tangible truth, impervious to

ghosts.

~!@#$%?&~

At least, that's what they say, the people who know so little about

real things. 

Who carve up experiences like butchers, who people say, should be asked for their

knowledge, skill, expertise.

*

At least, that's what they say, the people who know all the pocket change in the world, pales in wealth

to their own calloused hands.

Who valorize hard labor, even as they squawk and scrabble for what's

cheap, replaceable, disposable.

*

At least, that's what they say, the people who know there's nothing

but what's in front of them.

Who look neither forwards nor backwards for answers, that people say,

is found

in a deity. Or two. Or three.

*

At least, that's what they say, the people who know believers are literal armies and beliefs are literal

swords and shields.

Who winnow people into nations, that people say, should stand

alone.

*

At least, that's what they say, the people who know so little about

real things.

~!@#$%?&~

There's a sameness to old dogs and old tricks, a slick fix, that feels plucked from the fabric of something known, a telling and re-telling of a

plot.

~!@#$%?&~

Like all things worn smooth by attention, narratives are tumbled through rock grinders until they gleam and shine like found pocket change, priceless and pure.

Though tale telling is hardly... precious.

*

Even little children, like bakers who work flour into dough, punch and bend their creations to their

wills.

Neither overpowering a molecular matrix nor breaking a literary structure is... miraculous.

*

Plots that feature supernatural foes and mystical vigor are no more extraordinary than ordinary yarn spinning by born liars.

*

Reality, in the hands of mortal wordsmiths, is, in the end, as pliable as

magic,

as true as ghosts with no reason to lie, none at all, because revenants are answerable to nothing real and no one alive.

*

At least, that's what born chumps say, the people who know the plot that's everything is

the one where it starts with us

and 

it ends with us.

~!@#$%?&~

There's a smooth course, a path worn by being taken and re-taken, a road that defies every effort to break from what is tried and done, because a crooked way made level

is enough.

Because a fairy tale that tells little children: being crooked is the vibe of the one where the villain is never answerable to the people who shrivel under the thumb of inhuman power

is an object lesson in magical reality narratives that serve what people are hungry for, including acts pretending to be as honest as a camel threading through the eye of a needle...

again.

Notes

(i) "warmed-over muck and over-cooked twaddle" is a phrase from Skulkers and Slinkers (July 20, 2024)

(ii) while "redux" derives from reducere (Latin), which is also the unsurprising word origin for reduce (apropos for diminishing sequels, for example), "redux" retains dux (Latin) -- lending "redux" literary complexity

(iii) "There's an ease in the familiar, a comfortable, that feels rooted in something real, a tangible truth, impervious to ghosts" references Ghosts of Christmas (October 12, 2020)

(iv) "the one where" references the naming convention of episodes from a situational comedy (if you know, you know; otherwise and regardless, its use herein is 'cited' herewith)

(v) "There's a smooth course, a path worn by being taken and re-taken, a road that defies every effort to break from what is tried and done, because a crooked way made level is enough" references Isaiah 45:2 etc.

(vi) "being crooked is the vibe of the one where the villain is never answerable to the people who shrivel under the thumb of inhuman power" references, for example, villain-as-main-character magical reality narratives, though not exclusively

(vii) "an object lesson in magical reality narratives that serve what people are hungry for, including acts pretending to be as honest as a camel threading through the eye of a needle... again" references Matthew 19:24 etc. 

etc.

M

Imaginary Guardrails

A predictable and unsurprising reality of a people consumed by contests and challenges and competition is an expedient collective leaning into adversarial mindsets, incoherently circular justifications, normalized callousness, etc. Which is to say,

a people who cultivate fights should not be surprised by a people who fight dirty.

Imaginary Guardrails

Relying on guardrails to safeguard what's worth fighting for is like operating under the delusion that people who grip symbols of worship within iron fists -

are saints.

Hah.

I

Contests and challenges and competition do not mint 'fine' individuals.

Or 'resilient' people.

Or 'ingenious' societies.

Much less enshrine a 'good' world.

*

I mean, seriously? What drivel! Adversarial mindsets, incoherently circular justifications, normalized callousness, etc. -

are miles and miles and miles from

nobly inspired.

*

As though beneficiaries of immunity, for example, donning luxuriously phony 'good faith', earn their make as honestly as 'made families'.

Right.

II

Needless to say, fail-safes

are not what they promise -

'certainties against uncertainty'.

*

Promises of 'faithfulness', 'patriotic fervor', and 'solemn oaths affirmed' are not safeguards against fraud, treachery, and imposture.  

*

Still, we testify and witness

otherwise.

*

Our people, our representatives, our leaders are not only paragons of 'faithfulness', 'patriotic fervor', and 'solemn oaths affirmed' -

but these, let's be honest, purest of driven snow virtues, are why our rationalizations, our justifications, our legitimizations are without a shadow of doubt -

righteous.

*

As if what's right or what's wrong is whether we or they

so swear.

*

Their people, their representatives, their leaders not only flaunt a contemptible absence of reverence, unapologetic weakness, repellent venality -

but these, let's be honest, imperious character assassinations, are why their rationalizations, their justifications, their legitimizations are absolutely

diabolical.

III

Notwithstanding other

'certainties against uncertainty'.

*

Campaigns of 'control' to 'nullify variables', diligent 'indoctrination', ceaseless inducements to shrivel within meek 'fear-based' lives do not insulate tyrannies from right-doers who deliver

freedom and liberty for all.

*

Still, we persist;

we proclaim beasts must be reproduced and used up and thrown away,

because that is what individuals and people and societies

are for.

*

As if what's right or what's wrong is whether we or they

are victors

chosen to decide the fates of right-doers and wrong-doers like immortals and Gods answerable to no mortal marvel of

justice.

IV

I mean, seriously? With hollow patter whirled like candy floss at a county fair - we the people consent to omnipresent policing, glorifying groveling submission, intimidating condemnation of right-doing, etc.

*

As though this fever dream is

divinely inspired. As in

*

frothed winners' champagne is for soaking

pretty pennies and pocket lint. 

Sure. And

anybody can be a pretty thing shining with disposable currency, at the mercy of deep pockets that generously amass fluff,

destined to be baptized by fire.

 

Annotation

A thorough addressal of imaginary guardrails could be fascinating

and lengthy.

Hence

neither above nor below

are exhaustive.

Fullstop.

M

* 

(i) The corrosive consequences of "a people consumed by contests and challenges and competition" are plain and real.

From athletic matches to televised asks 'to vote' for 'winners' to fictions pretending to be 'real non-fiction' - we are frothed to care about what doesn't matter at the expense of bandwidth and wherewithal to care about what does.

Invariably "contests and challenges and competition" of measurable relevance to real life - from fighting for limits to health-care-industry-profiteering to gainsaying the 'fairness' of tip-wage-pay-offering to denouncing medical-care-denials on the basis of 'conscience' as unconscionable, etc. - become absurdly distorted by what's trifling and what's really consequential be damned.

(ii) Case in point: "a people who fight dirty".

Outright lies do not 'inform' people 'doing their own research'. Outright lies deceitfully alter the reality, the lived experiences, of people who demand to be addressed as 

people who 'can handle the truth'. It goes without saying, real world consequences of such imposture include wins by ruse, etc.

As in: 

every 'pitch' that confidently pretends that exempting 'wages earned by tips' from wages that are taxed will not result in a shortfall that will be paid for from the reduction of or elimination of services or benefits that people, tip-wage-paid and otherwise-paid, value and/or depend on, etc.

(iii) The belief that "contests and challenges and competition" are the foundation or the cornerstone of ambitious, innovative, growth-mindset, etc. "individuals", "people", "societies"

is a quasi-motivational-axiom cultivated by beneficiaries of (i) because beneficiaries of (i) measurably and materially benefit from (ii). Moreover,

beliefs that lie (iii) enrich beneficiaries of (ii) because duh.

(iv) Case in point: "immunity".

That "luxuriously phony 'good faith'" is a feature of a narrative that '"'made families'"' "earn their make" "honestly"

is an example of (ii). Furthermore, "immunity" is not about protecting "good faith" per se;

"immunity" is about protecting wrong-doing while arguing that such protection is constitutionally guaranteed for wrong-doers. Because of course it is.

(v) The "fail-safes" of II (above) would we, people, be pacified by "promises", which is to say, "certainties against uncertainty". As in:

testifying and witnessing "faithfulness" certainly ensures piety, reverence, authentic observance of religious dictates, etc.; "patriotic fervor" certainly ensures honor, valor, transpicuous courage in the face of genuine dangers and serious threats, etc.; "solemn oaths affirmed" certainly ensures demonstrably concrete vows to dutifully obey unwritten and written laws, rules, codes of conduct, part and parcel to an actual commitment to decency, etc. - 

absolutely compel public-servants-to-be to "restore", "save", "venerate", etc. "virtue", "dignity", "pride", etc. (see The Backbone Estate (November 24, 2024) for reference)

Notwithstanding innumerable unmentioned "fail-safes", as in:

testifying and witnessing "contrived" "popular" "momentum" certainly ensures public-servants-to-be are unquestionably for us, real people, rather than for "power, influence, wealth, status plainly improbable without promises, promises, promises", etc. (see The Keys to the Kingdom and Other Nonsense (September 27, 2024) and The Backbone Estate (November 24, 2024) for references)

Because everybody knows 

purity promises issued by public-servants-to-be are fail-safe fail-safes as verifiably trustworthy and rigorously scrupulous as nuclear fail-safes.

(vi) The "fail-safes" of III (above) would states and nations be appeased by "promises", that is, "certainties against uncertainty". As in:

a premise that "campaigns of 'control' to 'nullify variables'" are not only just but necessary to effect control, from broad 'state' sanctioned surveillance especially via personal technology to expansive 'secret' judicial policing to malevolent intolerance of 'independent' media and 'independent' private opinions, etc.;

that "diligent 'indoctrination'" is not only necessary but vital to effect control, from tactical smear campaigns against 'independent' media and 'independent' private opinions to directives that glorify submission to power through 'state' enforced themes couched as 'uplifting' and 'revelatory' to brittle strangleholds on the publication of information and 'content', etc.; 

that "ceaseless inducements to shrivel within meek 'fear-based' lives" are not only vital but inescapable to effect control, from threatening directives to vague sermonizing to soft encouraging haloing to chilling incentives to see or say or do nothing or else, etc.;

etc.

If "guardrails" are imaginary boundaries - that ignore paranoia-based, reign-of-tyranny-based, villainous-main-character-energy-narrative-based tyrants-in-waiting - as mere exercisers of duly and constitutionally secured privilege - then victory is answerable to nothing.

(vii) Though "beasts must be reproduced and used up and thrown away" is self-explanatory, see Beasts Fell and Lawless (October 6, 2024) for reference.

(viii) Beyond (i), the poisonous consequences of "contests and challenges and competition" include "adversarial mindsets, incoherently circular justifications, normalized callousness",

manifestly evident in apologetic and callous "fail-safes" (v, vi) that promise "pretty pennies and pocket lint":

"winning no matter what" or "a lie". (see The Keys to the Kingdom and Other Nonsense (September 27, 2024) for reference)  

etc.

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The fight "to safeguard what's worth fighting for" is rarely as effortless as

leaning on imaginary guardrails to steel the spine of the backbone estate. (see The Backbone Estate (November 24, 2024) for reference)

M

The Backbone Estate

It's funny-not-funny how people who demand backbone,

with their fists pumping rarified air,

expel it from their ranks like moral leprosy.

The Backbone Estate

Wanna know something about people who roar the loudest

for virtue,

for dignity,

for pride?

*

Who, at every opportunity, insist they aim

to restore it,

to save it,

to venerate it?

*

Because

no one personifies - nothing embodies - no place exemplifies -

backbone,

anymore?

*  

Never mind,

why people flex "piety" as absurdly as wannabe 'lebrities; how people heave low bars, plummeting beyond the pale; who people stand with for power, influence, wealth, status plainly improbable without promises, promises, promises.

*

Never mind,

"purity" of purposes or foundations draining bottomless seas of salt to swallow a single, solitary particle without tremendous skepticism exercised by people of common sense, everywhere.

*

Never mind,

the very real, very material, very cacophonous rage to which any whiff of "spine" is subject.  As if the nobility and heroism of "spine" is, of course,

it's manifest absence.

*

When disavowals of unflattering friction are couched as a feature, not a flaw, of faith, because "unified fronts" are a feature, not a flaw, of obedience and loyalty to power, commanded of followers and true believers -

when does it become apparent to people that "structures" like these, or "institutions", are not immune from misuse? Moreover,

when does it become apparent to people that one such misuse of "institutions", is to replicate these "structures" like they're

blueprints?

Until a feature, not a flaw, of society is baked into its fabric.

*

For example:

one, that patriotism embraces rebellions against tyrants - that because the root of rebellion is patriotism, rebels cannot be traitors - that acts of so-called "betrayal" or "treason" are therefore, acts of heroism;

or two, that patriotism demands inflexible fidelity - that defiance of rules, official or unwritten, is never justified nor tolerated - that unflinching enforcement against ostensibly "treacherous" rule breaking is therefore, dutiful and brave;

or three, that patriotism is how courageous citizens "live their values";

or four, that patriotism is the backbone of glorious societies;

etc.

Until the meaning of "virtuous character" ceases to mean what it purports to mean, because "a character virtue" means everything and nothing.

*

The fabric of our peoples, communities, nations are no more baked with virtue, dignity, pride - than with backbone. After all,

what's pride without backbone? sycophancy unfurled like flags flapping on poles;

or dignity without backbone? obsequious mellifluousness; 

or virtue without backbone? sanctimonious window dressing;

as for backbone without virtue? dignity? pride?

mercenary.

*

So about people who roar the loudest for virtue, for dignity, for pride - who, at every opportunity, insist they aim to restore it, to save it, to venerate it - because no one personifies, nothing embodies, no place exemplifies, backbone, anymore -

*

they are the very people

they proclaim

they oppose

with self-righteous venom;

* 

they are the very people

they proclaim

they are not

with smug condemnation;

*

they are the very people

who root out "spine" and lionize spinelessness -

who valorize tailors that invent "new clothes" for emperors and coteries that praise "new clothes" for emperors and audiences that behold "new clothes" for emperors with the practiced awe of choirs -

as if parading through rarified air, expelling from their ranks the truth like moral lepers, is how the triumphant obey a decisive mandate to be

wrongdoers.

Epilogue

Speaking of "piety" flexers, low bar lowerers, "do"-boys and "do"-girls -

*

Wanna know something about

true believers?

They're not "amazing because they see the truth".

*

Unless pretending "to see" what followers invent - including the axiom that "seen truths" are the cornerstone of what disciples "do" - is praiseworthy.

*

Not only do invented "seen truths" not "tell a real story" about anything - or

anyone -

but assumptions of the factual reality of fakes and acts

explain nothing.

*

This unrepentant bilge - this deceptive narrative pretending not to be dishonest - is how ruthless extremists "protect" their "plots" from unflattering friction, from

reasonable scrutiny.

*

Because rigorous examinations defy groveling obeisance - zealots attack informed publics as rotten and demented. Because any whiff of scrupulous transparency is abhorrent - radicals disavow oaths to observe reason as a feature, not a flaw, of ethical guidance and forswear moral conscience severed from inhuman determinism.

*

From media personalities who promote invented "seen truths" to public-servants-to-be who promote invented "seen truths" -

the "chosen" are not "chosen" because the rarified air of glorious societies sacralize their testimony and their witness to "seen truths".

Please.

*

The "chosen" are "chosen"

because people who are spineless are

for sale.

M

*

Note of Understanding

(i) Not unlike floridly grandiose statements like "the people have spoken", the backbone estate (from The Backbone Estate (tvfs)) references the electorate and obviously also, the total population of a state or nation (see (iv)).

(ii) Needless to say, neither 22.9% nor 22.2% of the total population of a state or nation speak for 77.1% or 77.8% or

the majority.

Which is to say, to be elected by 0.7 percentage points, is neither a decisive triumph nor

a win for the majority.

(iii) Calculations for (ii): votes in millions divided by population in millions; (percentage points are differences of percentages from percentages). Sources for (ii): Google search population (ex. the most recent: 2023, Government Census); Google search election (ex. the most recent: 2024, The Associated Press).

(iv) Votes divided by the electorate who are eligible to vote is a metric for "voter participation" that inexplicably also concludes that election results are unequivocally generalizable to the total population of a state or nation (see (i)).

But unlike votes divided by the total population (see (ii)), analysis of elections employing "voter participation" metrics statistically excludes people "subject to taxation without representation" or the people of a state or nation who are not eligible to vote but are subject to such state's or nation's rule nonetheless.

(v) It goes without saying of course, before a definitive mandate is declared because "the people have spoken", I offer pause herein.

etc.

M

Beasts Fell and Lawless

The pig is slaughtered. It is fat. Every wobble and wrinkle, ugly. 

So.

Who cares really?

The cow and the sheep and the horse and the dog watch and the cow knows. It will never be slaughtered. Because it is too valuable to be meat. It is confident and certain that a simple pig that snorts and slops is made for the chopping block. The cow, on the other hand, supplies priceless milk. Delicious white gold.

Alas, the cow is slaughtered. It is a shame. Why milk is practically wonderful.

But.

So?

The sheep and the horse and the dog watch and the sheep knows. It will never be slaughtered. Because it is too valuable to be meat. Surely a simple cow that gnaws and spits is made for the chopping block. The sheep, on the other hand, grows incredible wool. Abundant and warm and endlessly useful.

Ah, the sheep is slaughtered. Why? Warp and weft have such need for spools and spools.

Nobody cares.

The horse and the dog watch and the horse knows. It will never be slaughtered. Because it is too valuable to be meat. It goes without saying that a simple sheep that prances and bleats is made for the chopping block. The horse, on the other hand, bears every charge like precious burdens who nudge small sweet apples at its hairy muzzle with genuine affection.

Oh, the horse is slaughtered. Is no animal kind to be spared the abattoir?

So what, anyhow.

The dog watches and the dog knows. It will never be slaughtered. Because it is too valuable to be meat. Of course a simple horse that plods and clops is made for the chopping block. The dog, on the other hand, bids its master's heed and heel with obedience and joy. Richly rewarded with hearty pats of satisfaction, a putative member of the family.

Now, the dog is slaughtered. Because the meaning of dominion is man or meat.

*

Oh, that's ridiculous, you say. 

We are not pigs not cows not sheep not horses not dogs and we know. We will never be slaughtered. Because we are too valuable to be meat. While a simple animal bred and penned is fearfully made to be butchered, we human kind are more.

Though we snort and slop

and gnaw and spit

and prance and bleat

and plod and clop

and whine and howl like beasts fell and lawless.

*

Still, some people consume and consume and consume until their bodies are discarded to dwell where the fortunate who preside over pitiless harvests, laze and graze.

And some people are squeezed and squeezed and squeezed until their bodies are discarded to dwell where hustle wrings the living hollow.

And some people grow and produce and cultivate until their bodies are discarded to dwell where founders driven by yawning avarice, fleece the cutthroat.

And some people bear insufferable burdens until their bodies are discarded to dwell where reins lay cradled in unyielding iron fists.

And some people follow as they're lead and do as they're commanded until their bodies are discarded to dwell where totalities rule as divinities.

Because the meaning of man or meat is dominate or die.

*

No, that's not true, you say.

We are not people who exploit. Or people who are exploited. Because we are too sacred to be used and sacrificed. Of course meek kind of people are not us. Marvelously made for the yoke, they are bred and penned and then they are butchered.

We more kind watch and know better. Too powerful, too vicious, too miraculous to be simply animals, we are dominators, too savage to be sacred detritus.

*

Wind and water say nothing at all.

They whistle and whip and roll and drip until where once mountains pierced the sky like jagged swords poised for war, there scatter just grains of sand, feeble and small.

Sun and moon watch and know.

Where once flesh stretched over bones crackling with kinetic purpose, fruitless flecks of dust meek and mute, litter there.

Note

that "the meaning of dominion..." is a reference to 'dominionism'; (a) an apologetic doctrine of domination (b) that feigns pious obedience to a so-called 'sacred mandate' (c) sacralizing the nullification of the will of a plural people.

See also Sanctimony Masks (June 1, 2024)

M

The Keys to the Kingdom and Other Nonsense

From "there's nothing to see here" to "the keys to the kingdom are at stake" -

does it matter

who's right and who's wrong?

The Keys to the Kingdom and Other Nonsense

A number of people will say: "the keys to the kingdom are at stake". Likewise, a number of people will say: "there's nothing to see here". Not because these are factual statements, per se. For 

making statements is neither synonymous with honesty nor integrity, is it?

*

Indeed, many individuals 'issue statements' that are outright lies.

*

Case in point: consumer pushing.

Businesses in the business of business are explicitly not about morality nor about conscience after all. Whether such businesses are in the business of popular temporary and cosmetic remedies or fossil-fuel-powered tools.

Such that an abundance of 'trust' professedly 'earned' by corporations from loyal consumers through pushy pitches can hardly be said to be the result of contests of facts... so much as contests of popularity, no?

*

Needless to say, a nation of consumers subject to endless and dishonest strategic exploitation for increasing share of the domestic and global economy, is invariably likely to come to believe that 'businesses know something' that, say, governments do not. In other words,

what has softened the beaches, so to speak, of our collective senses, if you will, is corporate demand.

*

With our senses so 'softened', we accept the unacceptable.

We pay bloated tips that are earnings from labor that should be recovered from shares of employer profits. We pay inflated costs for goods and services that are offsets of regulatory compliance passed onto consumers that should be recovered from shares of profits distributed to executives and shareholders. 

Then we say we're adamantly for tip-earning work and tip-earning workers because paying for work burdens employers. Then we say we're unwaveringly for 'de-regulating industries' and banishing nanny-states because ballooning compensatory pricing burdens pocketbooks.

*

As for government measures that obligate wages and benefits be accessible to employees by businesses that reap rewards from labor and laborers? We say: "we'd rather champion 'contract work'." As for government measures that mandate adherence to safety standards by businesses that subject consumers to material risks and harms? We say: "we'd rather do without 'red-tape'."

As if these ideas are wholly ours and not in service to calculated strategies that invent the appearance of an uncontrived swelling of popular approval for the unacceptable.

*

Including a belief that business-minded hires for government roles makes unreserved sense.

*

For while corporate demand governs the business of business, the public good relies on groundswells and momentum and will for its governance.

Such that plucking outstanding talent from businesses that are unapologetically for crusades against the interests of people and planet and nations and governments to execute the interests of the public good is plainly less to do with effecting a 'sensible' government than with legitimizing the unacceptable as 'the will of the people'.

*

Deserting our common senses, a number of people will say: "such 'sensible' government is not only 'good', I defy anybody to tell me otherwise".

As if such steadfast conviction sealed through relentless and self-serving campaigns calculated to sow mistrust in efforts to serve 'the public good' that characterize public works as unconditionally bad and wrong... is 'earned'. 

After all, a corporation and its bottom line are neither synonymous with trust nor transparency so much as unrepentant apologetics.

Whether such business is in the business of real estate or politics or evangelism or slavered espousal of incoherent nonsense, no?

Then the Wheels Fall Off

I.

A capitalist fever dream is not a 'sensible' government.

Please.

*

Insisting that obligating employers, businesses, and corporations be decent is a wasteful exercise in nanny-state overreach is a pushy pitch less to do with governing corporate 'citizens' than with an unceasing crusade against being willfully decent towards people and planet and nations and governments.

As if what's standing in the way of businesses in the business of business realizing their extolled potential for increasing profitability at any cost being regulation is unconscionable.

*

Such that when the nuts and bolts of governing corporate 'citizens' is advanced by business-minded talent, to what degree is government 'standing in the way of corporations and their bottom lines' really... and to what degree is government codifying the unacceptable as 'the will of the people'?

*

As for oft decried 'out of control' incompetence,

surely a nation of consumers cannot believe that businesses in the business of unrepentant apologetics serve 'the common good' more responsibly than a government of, by, and for the people?

As if the outstanding hand of responsible corporate governance and 'the public good'... are one and the same.

*

II.

A populist fever dream isn't a 'sensible' government, either.

*

Absurd outrage and howls of 'the sky is falling' and alarmist pandering insult our ask to be seen and heard. Likewise promises of spun candy floss and windbags and blowhards pledging to be geese who lay golden eggs 'for the people'... meet this moment with hollow patter.

That a nation of consumers appears to subsequently shrug, speaks not to what people are asking for so much as to what has become 'business as usual'. 

A leaning into 'feelings are facts' and 'vibes are real', never mind nuts and bolts.

*

That is to say, infinite variations on the themes of 'rescue' and 'salvation': everybody's demanding rescue and everything's our salvation. 

Joyfully. Hopefully. Beautifully. For indulging in fever dreams make our worries and our troubles as ephemeral as frothed foam. Really. 

As if a recipe of equal parts faithless vows and aggressive positivity solve real challenges faced by real people. 

*

There are simply no easy fixes. Still populism attracts fans ecstatic to witness it proclaim: "there, in fact, are."

Because a lie is more palatable than the truth?

*

III.

To state the obvious:

if selling to a nation of consumers what it's not buying isn't winning and selling to a nation of consumers what it's buying is winning -

is "there's nothing to see here" and "the keys to the kingdom are at stake" about being honest no matter what? or is "there's nothing to see here" and "the keys to the kingdom are at stake" about winning no matter what?

*

So... our public forum, if you will, about 'sensible' government is about making a statement, isn't it? and this is about winning, am I right?

*

Namely, a number of people are touting our measurable 'consensus', our professed 'agreement' on advancing and endorsing such 'sensible' government. Never mind

that such 'consensus' is plainly flimsy. Because

our 'consensus' on 'the common good' crashes sideways when we define what matters to us in mundane raw tangible particulars. Likewise our 'agreement' on 'the public good' careens off the rails when we define the role of government and what it protects beyond hazy generalities and fuzzy abstractions. Because

*

when we succumb to the fatigue of being pushy pitched, we the people abandon the common sense that cautions against inventions of corporate demand, that favors broadly beneficial public works, because we'd rather

embrace our role as a nation of enthusiastic fans and loyalists, emphatically disinterested in facts and vigorously engaged in contests of popularity. Because

this is what we buy and champion as a nation of consumers. So we shrug when corporate governance eschews good citizenship for 'business as usual'. Then

*

windbags and blowhards urge we the masses to save ourselves and rescue each other by choosing a fever dream wrapped in slavered nonsense. Which is to say, then

the wheels fall off.

M

*

Epilogue

When so much content before us is a broken record of "there's nothing to see here" and "the keys to the kingdom are at stake" - maybe this is how we go nowhere.

Because buying everything we're sold - hopes, fears, dreams - isn't the key to everything. I mean, content calculated to strategically exploit we the masses, would us give the keys to the kingdom for the materialization of increasing profitability at any cost... while soothed and pacified by lullabies of nothing to see here.

So fever dreams that peddle - hopes, fears, dreams - are not about we the people retaining possession of our 'keys' so much as we the people exercising our choice... to give the keys to the kingdom for the materialization of winning no matter what.

Which is to say, if the rubber isn't hitting the road, maybe the wheels have fallen off and we're going nowhere and everybody's right and everything's wrong and what matters is

Ideological Totality! The March of Tickets! Power!

Because a fiction is a lie.

M

*

Note

(i) "Case in point: consumer pushing" references, for example but not exclusively, 'nudge theory' which is an application of 'behavioral science' to the 'psychology of consumer behavior in economics'. Note that applications of 'behavioral science', whether with respect to 'psychology' or 'education' or 'economics', too often ineptly address questions of morality and conscience. For example: "the business of popular temporary and cosmetic remedies or fossil-fuel-powered tools."

(ii) The Epilogue includes links to apropos posts: Ideological Totality (September 18, 2024), The March of Tickets (August 25, 2024), Power (August 18, 2024).

M

Ideological Totality

Maybe we're afraid of someone's music, too loud and too vulgar. Or that religion that evokes a sense of unease because it's so strange. Or time and

the uncontrollable,

the future and

the unknowable.

Ideological Totality

I

We think because we feel terror -- we think because hope will never fail to rise in triumph -- we think because the unimaginable is inconceivable -- we think because what's impossible cannot be what's real --

we believe the problem is someone's music. or religion. or the future. because we know the problem is everything and everybody except

we thinkers, we believers, we knowers.

*

We feel the problem, so manifestly present in our lives, is as inescapable as the sun and the moon. As real as waking and sleeping, we feel the truth like a tooth that aches

in the bones that cradle our skulls. Who dare say

this is misinformed? or disinformed? or uninformed?

*

Well -- facts will rescue us! 

From how we feel? Like playing rock, paper, scissors?

Because because -- reality checks us! 

From the problem? Like manifesting a wish by tapping our heels?

After all -- the truth has sheltered us!

From what?

*

We think because we believe -- we are saved. We think because we know -- we are saved. We think because we feel -- we are saved. From

fear. unease. doubt.

*

Not because a fact will suck all the oxygen from an immovable feeling. Or because a feeling will foundationally cut through an inflexible fact. For of course, some facts do suck all the oxygen from immovable feelings and some feelings do foundationally cut through inflexible facts. After all,

*

when a god proclaimed that it was the only truth -- when a color of people declared that it was the only people in chains -- when a party vowed that it was the only answer --

what eclipsed all the light in the world? Nothing but

a shadow. So unthinkable, the solution to the problem of illumination, who dared gainsay

such proclamation? or such declaration? or such vow?

*

II

What??

*

Totality isn't a thing blessed. It isn't a thing to claim. It isn't a thing for taking. Totality is an exercise of free will that rejects enlightenment for artificial 'light' that anoints false piety, righteousness, and authority in false glory.

Such that when a god proclaims, a color of people declares, a party vows -- both 'the solution' and 'the problem' are illuminated -- neither by reason nor by honesty nor by revelation.

*

Who dare deny we thinkers, we believers, we knowers who feel the problem cannot be what's real -- we thinkers, we believers, we knowers who feel the inconceivable is the only solution -- we thinkers, we believers, we knowers who are saved

when everything and everybody is eclipsed by a shadow that gate-keeps goodness, decency, and merit -- a shadow that says fake heroism, ease, and certainty are as good as the real thing -- a shadow and nothing more.

*

So what if that which is absolutely anointed by the 'light' of artificiality is definitively nothing but a shadow? Who would question this enlightened matter of principle but the misinformed! the disinformed! the uninformed!

Who would dare?

*

III

Maybe we're afraid of fear. unease. doubt. So we will ourselves

to pretend. to imagine. to make believe. both 'the solution' and the 'problem' have to do with what a god proclaimed. or what a color of people declared. or what a party vowed. never mind

reason or honesty or revelation.

*

Maybe we're saved. So we will ourselves unafraid of someone's music. or religion. or the future. Because being saved eclipses all the light in the world.

*

Maybe ideological totality is as brittle as a cracker and as inexplicably formless as a nameless specter -- it's facts! it's feelings! it's both! it's neither! and as real as waking and sleeping. Who dare not

know that gate-kept piety, righteousness, and authority

pale in the light of the real thing.

Author's Note

Ideological totality is the eclipsing of all but one religious, cultural, political, etc. idea as an 'enlightened matter of principle'.

Such that piety, righteousness, and authority are gate-kept in order to proclaim, declare, and vow that a totality of ideology is 'the purest expression' of goodness, decency, and merit.

Hence counterfeit heroism, ease, and certainty advanced as salvation from fear, unease, and doubt. After all, who would dare gainsay facts and reality? or deny rescue and shelter? or question fear-motivated will or salvation-motivated will?

As if a thing as brittle as a cracker and as inexplicably formless as a nameless specter cannot be gainsaid and denied and known as a shadow and nothing more.

M

The March of Tickets

In the dark, everybody's the same color:

not red -- not white -- not blue -- 

but asshole through and through; 

if asshole was a color -- 

that color would be you

 

The March of Tickets

Let us joyfully celebrate narrow interests and party machines! They have not only won the day -- but they've stacked the tickets so --- they'll be winners tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow!

As for you and me?

It was never about us;

it was always for power over we the people.

*

From where I am, it is maddening. To listen. To a realtor tell me 'to trust in' what cannot be trusted. To a lawyer tell me 'to have a little faith in' what cannot be believed. While

I hear you listen. And rapturously applaud. And weep with joy. As if

this is your moment;

this is your history;

this is your power.

*

Please.

Tell me. If the power was yours. This lawyer. This realtor. Would be in your literal corner? Not the cozy deep pockets of narrow interests and party machines?

Sure.

*

From where I am, it is disheartening. To listen. To you tell me: we see and we hear what we trust and what we believe. Because

this moment is too important --

this history, indescribably monumental --

this power, undeniable --

it's impossible

that narrow interests and party machines 

are who and what and why

we're 'trusting in' what cannot be trusted and we're 'having a little faith in' what cannot be believed. 

Pfft.

*

As if the electorate is a child still, refusing to believe that there exists a vast fearless industry entangled in elaborate endeavors that pretend -- a creative fiction is not only real --

a creative fiction is provably true.

*

I mean, this is where we are, aren't we?

Entangled in elaborate endeavors that pretend -- words are truths -- trusting in what cannot be trusted and having a little faith in what cannot be believed?

*

As if entrusting our voices to this realtor and entrusting our will to this lawyer, cannot possibly mean: we are literally entrusting our voices to narrow interests and we are literally entrusting our will to party machines. Because because because --

this lawyer and this realtor, check all the boxes:

'being one of us'? check; 

'attacking enemies and defending loyalists -- with unapologetic avidity'? check; 

'sentimentalizing nauseatingly halcyon bygones'? check;

'fighting like hell for a future that denies everybody power -- 

but our chosen'? check yeah.

*

Cue the band and commence the march! You own your ticket to a moment, a history, a power that will live forever!

Unless.

I'm not wrong.

More

Prove me wrong.

Show me that narrow interests and party machines haven't stacked the tickets -- to validate a dishonest contest.

Show me that a realtor that underbuys the assets of a seller and oversells the assets of a buyer because 'a free market system isn't about fairness' -- isn't an asshole through and through. Show me a lawyer that isn't a witness, testify for a conviction because 'an adversarial system isn't about the truth' -- isn't an asshole through and through. 

Because 'working for you' isn't what representation is about. Much less systems or interests or machines or tickets that parade as powdered emperors of 'representation'.

To wit -- 'representation' -- is part and parcel to winning elections for power over we the people. After all -- the true color of the plot winning this moment is

not red -- not white -- not blue -- 

but asshole through and through;

if asshole was a color -- 

that color would be you

M

*

Author's Note

When I was young, I didn't dream of being a soldier or a president. 

What I knew then -- what I know still -- is campaigns for power are corrosively harmful for so. many. reasons. but if there's one that especially poisonous, it's the following -- said and thought and believed -- as the absolute truth --

that people cannot change the world because people are powerless to save what cannot be saved without arms and seats of power.

Today, I hear this reason cited for why people cannot change the world, why people cannot save it. As if people are not. the. reason. why the world. is. as. you. made. it.

What can not be 'taken' -- what can not be 'claimed' -- is your power

to be who you dream of -- your power

to be the reason the world you believe in is real -- your power,

full stop.

M

Power

There are people who are declaring, our super heroic super power is our vote; who are insisting, a forced binary choice is unequivocally fair and democratic; who are absolutely certain, they are great and they are the future.

Power

Funny thing - Power - It doesn't work the way people who crave it - Say.

But you already knew that. Like:

the delusional say power can be - 'taken' - or - 'claimed'.

I

Can you imagine, if our super real super power was - to vote? I mean. that? a saving-the-world super-power? oh please. Because

when was the last time voting saved

us?

Yeah. That time was never. Because voting isn't about saving anybody. Much less - us - or - the world. Not when cravers of power

are the ones campaigning with 

self-superior conviction.

to possess it.

*

Can you imagine, if forced binary choices were - solely by definition - fair and democratic? I mean. If what's 'fair' and 'democratic' is nothing to do with being so and everything to do with saying so - so what - ? Because

when was the last time a forced binary choice

felt like an authentic expression of your voice? a legitimate representation of your will? 

such that you agreed to what was said. such that you consented to what was done. 

in your name.

Because 'your choice' - says it all -

and knows so, after all. for

you are 'known'.

neither as a faceless member of a soulless monolith. nor as nothing more than

your 'one vote'. for no less than somebody not you. 

no?

*

Hah.

Can you imagine? 

II

Funny thing - Power - The way it works is - The people who believe it should be - theirs -

'take' yours - performatively. Like:

the delusional believe power should be - 'taken' - and - 'claimed'.

*

Of course, you know better than to - trust - an act. Because

when was the last time - a song and dance -

was the bona fide - truth?

Yeah. That time was never. Because

only a fool sees a skulker 'being the future'. and hears a slinker 'being great'. and thinks -

my goodness! there is no classier act! no finer true color! than 

asshole.

 

Epilogue or III

There's a muscular rejection of the truth -

that's as endemic as a fool a minute.

*

Take the curious case of - 'progressive populism' and 'illiberal populism'. That is to say - 'positions taken' and 'platforms claimed' -

endorsed and advanced - by narrow interests and party machines. 

not to solve real problems. or improve real lives. but -

to win - elections.

It's easy to 'promise' the veritable kitchen sink - When the resources

(i) to ensure - 'promises' - never bear fruit 

(ii) through a multitude of avenues, including (iii) strategic political 'giving' that (iv) incentivizes 'preferred candidacies' (v) defined by acquiescence to narrow interests and party machines (vi) that skulk and slink in back rooms and dark corners;

(vii) and vigorous objection and refusal to (viii) materially realize any - 'promise' - (ix) sanctimoniously defended by mercenary attorneys tasked with impeding the fruition of (x) any nut or bolt of progressive populism or illiberal populism, (xi) because 'the legal option' is never not accessible to the resourceful; (xii) and so on and so forth ad infinitum;

(xiii) are at the ready - and at your beck and call - to serve neither the will of soulless monoliths nor 'the people' - but indulge overrated masters.

Because

when was the last time 

narrow interests and party machines didn't give a damn - for power 

over people? 

My goodness!

I can't recall.

M 

*

Author's Note

'Campaigns' that lean into cruelty and advocate brutality, masquerading as 'political revolutions', are not heroic or honorable or patriotic or pious. Full stop.

M

Skulkers and Slinkers

Look at nobodies skulking out of back rooms, slinking out of dark corners before they parade their powdered talking points at we the people.

As if we hoi polloi cannot do for ourselves because powdered emperors on parade giveth and taketh according to bullshit floated in back rooms, dark corners.

:eyeroll:

Skulkers and Slinkers

See here's the thing about bullshit: it doesn't give a damn whether you're a nobody or a somebody, anybody can fling it. 

But buying a whole steaming pile of it?

*

Skulkers, to hear them tell it, have it together. The dole of crap we're supposed to buy? They know best. So much so, they don't listen to us. Hence... back rooms, where they listen to each other.

As if skulkers cannot in good conscience, dish dogpiles to the full-of-it when the full-of-it are their own.

*

Slinkers, to hear them tell it, are brimming with heart and grace. The perfumed rot we're supposed to swallow? They have solutions. Not ours, of course, they don't believe us. Hence... dark corners, where they believe each other.

As if slinkers without their sanctimony masks are angels among their own.

*

I mean... is it just me or are we hoi polloi getting sold a hill of beans like a whole lot of nothing is really, really something?

Not because anybody in their right mind is asking for a hill of beans, but because back rooms and dark corners are stuffed to the gills with... somebodies.

*

Here's the thing about somebodies: they've got an opinion on just about everything. Whether their skin's in the game or not.

They're not sweating at a gas pump fill-up or biting their nails in a grocery store checkout lane. They're not dreading the rent coming due or delaying out-of-pocket out-of-reach health care. Because

that's baloney

for we the hoi polloi

to trust.

*

Which is to say: they indulge their main characters as if consequences are for everybody but them. Because our price to pay for their plots is whatever they please.

So a heaping helping of warmed-over muck and over-cooked twaddle, for us.

For them,

undoubtedly what they're buying in back rooms and what they're believing in dark corners is the God's honest truth.

Because obviously skulkers and slinkers, possessed of boundless respect and decency for themselves and each other, are allergic to dishonesty and deceit within their number. 

*

I mean... if not for their firehoses of sewage, what would we stuff between our ears? I shudder to imagine what fearsome burden the truth must ask of bullshit flinging...

somebodies.

More

Skulkers and slinkers are corrosive

for so. many. reasons.

I cannot do them justice in a two-minute read.

But if the only shot I've got is a figurative shot across the bow, what do I have to lose?

*

Back rooms and dark corners are 'back' and 'dark', by design. They do not exist for we the people; skulkers and slinkers create back rooms and dark corners for themselves and their own.

Not 'to improve' or 'to change' the real lives of real people, much less 'to fix' real problems or 'to resolve' real threats. Please.

*

Skulkers and slinkers wield levers of power and control, because that's what main characters do for the plot.

Insofar as plots define the particulars of who, what, when, where, why, and how... back rooms and dark corners exist for such utility.

Case in point: shadow so-called 'campaigns' to sensationalize skulkers with inconceivable influentiality; fantastical so-called 'bona fides' to dramatize slinkers with extravagantly feigned legitimacy; etc.

Not because anybody is acting on real concern or really being one of a number because out of all the reasons skulkers and slinkers parade as powdered emperors of points, not one is to be real.

*

If only nobody was buying swill to swallow. But somebodies are. Somebodies who believe skulkers and slinkers 'talk the talk' and 'walk the walk'. Because obviously knowing what's real and knowing what's not is not for anybody, not for we the hoi polloi. 

If we trust baloney soaked in toxic dump sludge.

M

Your Number

Have you heard the creeping crescendo of alarmism about... loneliness? Not that that's really here or there. Where such 'talk' leads, however... that is here.

Your Number

I'm aware that 'belonging' is a thing. A 'thing' that draws people into groups. That creates 'communities' through 'experiences'. That builds 'identities' around places and rituals and memberships.

*

I, nevertheless, do not feel so... inclined. It's not as if a demonstrably 'national' celebration incites in me, a 'belonging' to political borders, for example. I have participated in a share of 'shared experiences', sure. But I can't say that a moment stamps upon me, a genuine connection to every participant who lived and breathed then and there, too. Likewise, so-called 'histories of residence' do not 'root' me indelibly to patches of lithosphere.

Please. I am not one of a number. 

*

On the other hand, I see you drawn to being one of a number.

Which is to say, I see you fall in. To craft narratives about who should possess power and what power should control. To harness avarice and ambition. To collectively achieve all that's inconceivable. Even if the price of victory is appeasing a wannabe-tyrant by fulfilling a wannabe-tyrant's anti-democracy 'project'.

Which is to say, I see you reach. Beyond death and taxes. For a promise of immaterial glory, never mind a materially plural nation. For a 'plan', never mind a democracy of, for, and by a self-governed people. For a yoke of obedience that disdains self-government and declares an absolute lord dictates justly.

Which is to say, I see you throw yourselves. Into 'fandoms'. Devoted to 'parasocial relationships' with 'public personalities'. Because being a 'follower' means never not loving, never not praising, never not defending your idols, your celebrities, your own.

*

Which is to say, this 'belonging' is a 'thing'. A 'thing' that aggregates the eager for 'association'. Fueled by perceived exclusion. To depart reality for

The Land of Feelings are Facts.

*

I, to put it simply, don't feel tempted by The Land of Feelings are Facts. Because I'm partial to the truth. 

As I see it, the truth doesn't 'make reality' out of fables. It's not a 'main character' and it doesn't exist 'for the plot'. It's not 'making converts' out of audiences yearning to be told what's 'really' happening is what's in fact not happening.

Because the truth isn't about how feelings feel. Or what beliefs are believable. 

*

On the other hand, I see you defining

what's false as what's true and what's pretend as what's real. To 'belong'. To an imagined 'number'. 

This imagined 'number' is vast, consequential, and triumphant. Of course it's invention is to make believers out of audiences that strive to be seen, that crave inclusion.

Without believers, it's invention is nothing but a ridiculous yarn, a tall tale. Of trifling that whinges itself righteous and patriotic. Of greed wearing its self-importance like a crown. Of faith vacated for vague fearsome 'terrors'.

Of 'worlds' upon 'worlds' where humbugs and flimflams are creators, founders, nay, gods. Because what's faked is what's authentic in The Land of Feelings are Facts.

*

I mean, sure, 'belonging' is a 'thing'. But what kind of thing does 'belonging' make you a member of? What kind of thing is your number? In other words, what thing are you faithful to and loyal to, when the 'thing' you 'belong' to...

lies?

Epilogue

From your 'purpose' to your 'motives', you are lead not to The Land of the Truth.

After all, the truth is stark.

It knows that lying isn't evidence of greatness and lies aren't wins. That dumpster fires of both 'restore' neither 'images of stature' nor 'economies'. That feeling otherwise and believing otherwise, 'make' neither true.

Yet your number insist that the truth is owned by you and yours. That the truth is within your power and within your control. Because it is inconceivable that

reality happens

without being crafted or designed or plotted.

Which is bananas. What a crafted 'project' or designed 'plan' or plotted 'narrative' is evidence of, is invention. And invented 'reality' by any name is called fiction, still.

*

I ask:

if lying isn't evidence of magnificence... and if lies aren't victories... and if dumpster fires of both 'restore' neither 'perceptions' nor 'pocket currencies'...

why testify that feeling otherwise and believing otherwise 'make' both unimpeachable? why traffic in plainly dishonest 'realities'? if not to test

the witness and obedience of audiences owned by main characters, 'public personalities', founders?

* 

Whatever draws you in, creates 'communities' through 'experiences', builds 'identities' around places and rituals and memberships... whatever sees audiences and includes you... I wonder

if 'belonging' isn't worth what you forswear

to be your number.

M

*

Nota Bene

It surprises nobody

that some of you know for sure that defending dumpster fires of lying and lies, is the most courageous act of courage ever; that some of you know for sure that attacking standing in rebuttal and refutation of dumpster fires of lying and lies, is the most courageous act of courage ever. 

Because The Land of Feelings are Facts is abundantly populated with believers in imagined 'numbers', faked and owned by main characters, 'public personalities', founders, nay, absolute masters who dictate like overrated inhuman gods.

M