Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Where Does This Go?

This one has been long in coming. It's not eloquent, or even all that clear. Troutsky, I'm going to need your help on this one.

All around, there are signs of despair. Welcome to the American capitalist culture. Don't ask what is wrong. Ask how on earth we could pretend there wasn't anything wrong all along. All around, corporations selling us things we don't need. Happiness comes wrapped in a comfortable package. It comes to us, without us asking. Compelling us to buy, reminding us of how unhappy we are, how unhappy we must be.

Were we always this unhappy? Or does the lie only seem like the truth if repeated often enough? We must buy, for we need it. It does not matter what it is. It doesn't matter that there is no way we need it. Humans can be bought, and so can, apparently, happiness. I want to scream. I don't need this trash. The system is broken... the system is broken... the system is broken. I create my own mantra to combat the one the world preaches at me. You're unhappy—no I'm not. You need this to be complete—shove off. Everyone has their breaking point. The world wins every time.

It's not just me, I swear. If it was only me, I'd grin. I'd bear it. I would shut up and man up. But I'm not alone. Go to the store, the retail store you know you hate. The one where we all buy our useless crap, the kind of things we need to go on living this silly existence which the world tells us we need to live. They make the rules, we play. The people who sell us our happiness are not happy. I see it. Do you?

Go into the store. Look around. Ask the old man where he keeps the toothpicks. We need those. Watch him sigh, he doesn't care where the toothpicks are. He doesn't care where anything is. He's just waiting to get home and pour a beer. See if he can figure out where it all went wrong. Turn on the tube, maybe, and just forget that we have to care. Try not caring about your life and staying alive. No, I mean really alive.

Next time you ask him for your damned toothpicks, why don't you ask him a different question. Ask him how his day is going. Remind him that you're in this together. You don't like buying toothpicks anymore than he likes selling them. Maybe then he'll smile. The soft kind of smile, the one that almost breaks your heart. It makes you smile, not in happiness, but in comradery. The kind of connection that we all have, that the world tries to make us forget. It's still there. Don't forget.

Tell him you want to help. Tell him you're trying to find the way out. Tell him if you do, you'll be sure to come back and tell him. But you're stuck, too. You've got to get to work. You've got to go to a job you hate. You have to go sell somebody something. It may as well be toothpicks. Just forget I told you this. It's not going to matter. So you'll make his day. Maybe. Until you can pull him out of this mess, don't fill his head with illusions of a way out.

The only way out is temporary. Call it a beer and the TV. It's all the same. Except when you drink that beer, you're helping to perpetuate the system. Except when you watch the TV, you're doing the same. Continue the broken cycle. Don't fight it. Nope, that would really be silly. Run away? Don't be absurd.

Running never changes anything. This problem is just a huge noose around our necks. If we run long enough, we can pretend it's not there. Like our shadow, it follows, haunting us. Running is not an option.

There are those who fight. They tell us not to pollute the earth. I say don't pollute the soul. Root out the materialsm, but not for the sake of the earth. We're the victims. Not the damned planet. She doesn't have feelings, she doesn't have a soul. At least in theory, we do.

I guess this ends my love affair with capitalism. Goodbye Adam Smith, we had some good memories. Some good times, too. I won't forget. As for now, I think I'll try to find something new. Oh, no, I won't become a socialist. That's not going to happen. Maybe I'll come up with something unique. The way things are looking, someone has to. Could be me I suppose. Atlas shrugs.

2 comments:

troutsky said...

Socialism is dead Eric so you don't have to worry that one.You are aware of the power of language and labels and such (i think youve written about it) so that socialism after Lenin,Stalin,Mao etc not to mention Gramsci, Marcuse and Sartre really has no meaning. Its relevence to our modern circumstance only exists to the degree you believe the worthwhile ideas, theories and practices of today and those of tommorro are built on the work of great thinkers of the past.

Look at what they are calling "socialism for the 21st century" or the new Bolivarian revolution in Latin America.Much of it's theoretical structure is divorced from classical Marxism but in terms of it's critique of capitalism and the values which inform it's goals (re-distribution of land and wealth, classless society, etc.)it builds on the work of Marx and Engles, Bolivar, Marti, Guevara and many other revolutionaries in the latin tradition.Dialectical thinking and the materialist view of historical development are crucial contributions to modern thinking about political economy.

I would urge you to think hard about the concept of intrinsic disorder as you describe "gayness".It is a slippery slope in my view.

A Wiser Man Than I said...

I will take your words to heart, although I have seldom found the Church to be wrong on these matters. She has been around for a very long time.

In the interest of fairness to my Church, I will allow her to quote herself:

"2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity [1], tradition has always declared that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered [2].” They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstance can they be approved.

2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. [They do not choose their homosexual condition; for most of them it is a trial.] This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.

2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.