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?

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Who, at every opportunity, insist they aim

to restore it,

to save it,

to venerate it?

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Because

no one personifies - nothing embodies - no place exemplifies -

backbone,

anymore?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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;

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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 -

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Wanna know something about

true believers?

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

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

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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.

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

reasonable scrutiny.

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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.

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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.

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The "chosen" are "chosen"

because people who are spineless are

for sale.

M

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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'.

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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'?

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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.

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II.

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

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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.

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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. 

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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?

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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?

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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

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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

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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

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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