Start liking it. As the middle class in the West is picked clean and tossed away, Moloch will need something else to eat.
If Marx teaches us nothing else, he teaches us that everything id downstream of technology and economics. The state of technology determines what choices are possible; economics determines what choices are feasible. If…
Start liking it. As the middle class in the West is picked clean and tossed away, Moloch will need something else to eat.
If Marx teaches us nothing else, he teaches us that everything id downstream of technology and economics. The state of technology determines what choices are possible; economics determines what choices are feasible. If technology makes a restaurant possible, a rich man can have anything on the menu. A poor man must budget. A housecat can plump out on "Tender Vittles". A feral cat must hunt or find a trash can.
Taken to its logical conclusion, this instrumentalist worldview is sociopathic. Thing is, Marx is wrong about a lot of things, but this time he is right, and on a larger scale even than Machiavelli. What both had in common is that sought to describe accurately *how* *the* *real* *world* *actually* *works*, how the princes really act, regardless of their fine-sounding justifications and the glib propaganda produced by their smirking courtiers.
This is the real reason that Marx, or at least his worldview, is opposed to the worldview of Christ. Not because the Frankfurt School tried to offer cultural (as opposed to economic) explanations as to why The Revolution hadn't happened yet, but because Christ saw people as something other than instrumental, as tools to be judged by their usefulness, as props in a play or greyhounds to be killed if they can't make the cut.
You get no earthly rewards for treating humans and cats as you would wish to be treated. Quite the contrary. In fact, the people of wealth, power and influence are but glorified sociopaths and behave accordingly (or they would soon lose their high places), but even so, many will die peacefully in their beds, loved and celebrated by many. They got their rewards. They got The Goodies up front.
Rathe, Christ teaches us to follow Him, even though our earthly goals are furthered by treating others as means for us to achieve our ends, even though the earthly consequences of following Christ (whether you use that specific term or not) are temptation, mockery and suffering.
If you think about it, if the Real World really is all there is, to follow Christ is insane. No wonder The Way is narrow, that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.....
I see no reason to believe that you get no earthly rewards for treating human beings or cats as you would wish to be treated. I think you do. But it depends on what kind of rewards you are looking for. For many years, I have gotten many earthly "rewards" for treating others the way I would like to be treated, even saying "thank you" to my three year olds when they did something for me, for example. Why not ?
I don't know what "the real world" is. Not knowing what the "real world" is has tremendous advantages : it gives YOU a tremendous amount of liberty in your daily actions, and it gives the people you enter into contact with the possibility of... doing what they like, assuming THEIR FREEDOM (which is the freedom that Christ was talking about...) in person to person contacts (not official, institutional ones...).
One thing that I have found over all these years is that my attitude makes many people respect and/or fear me. This has its advantages AND.. its disadvantages.
But since Jesus's ministry was so centered around freedom, it is important to remember that all freedom comes with a price, and with the ultimate question : are you willing to pay the price for that freedom ?
What "them" are we talking about here ? I'm not sure. I think that I was talking about "the elites" that are regularly held up for us to vent our rage at, not at the screens.
For sure, the screens are hard to escape. Freud said many years ago that consciousness itself took the form of a screen...
I don't think they are "regularly held up for us to vent our rage at". If anything, they control the rage suggestions coming in from the media, the state, and so on. When we do vent up our rage at them, it's more organic!
I'm not sure that I don't belong to those elites, Nick. For sure, I am not a multimillionaire, but our family sure is comfortable compared to others out there. My husband and I have university diplomas ; for years we traveled on jet planes, vacationed in far away places (though not really as tourists), enjoyed a varied cultural offering.
That makes me an elite, doesn't it ? Maybe not as elite as other, richer people, but still very comfortable, right ?
For sure, getting less comfortable all the time, and our children are much less comfortable than we are, too. Living standards are going down all over, and for many people who worry more and more about their children's future.
But we are still not eating rats, the way the Parisians did during the siege in the 1870's or so. I think.
Trust me, we don't belong to these elites. What you describe is middle class guilt, not even full upper middle class guilt.
All of those things have for a good while just been offered to almost everyone except the very poor. Even working class kids can get a budget jet airliner ticket and travel around, and university diplomas do not really cost in most of the western world, the "student debt" is an American "innovation". Even so, about 25% of the US population 22-40 has a bachelor degree or equivalent, so much for it being an elite signifier.
In any case, the thing that makes an elite is power (as in direct personal power, political, economic, etc, to steer society and dictate laws, developments, etc), not about being comfortable, even if that's "just" 20% or 10% of the population (that would an "elite" of 35 million people in the US, hardly an exclusive membership to write home about).
> But we are still not eating rats, the way the Parisians did during the siege in the 1870's or so. I think.
That's a pretty low bar for not being considered an elite.
I get what you are saying, but they, "the people of wealth, power and influence" are not loved and they don't all die in their beds (see Epstein, though I suppose he was, in their world, nothing more than a pool boy). It seems, from our vantage point, that they are living well, but my guess is they are, for the most part, miserable - comfortable, yes, rich, yes, but ultimately miserable.
And, the real world is the world of Christ. Just because so many people miss that fact doesn't mean it isn't true.
Start liking it. As the middle class in the West is picked clean and tossed away, Moloch will need something else to eat.
If Marx teaches us nothing else, he teaches us that everything id downstream of technology and economics. The state of technology determines what choices are possible; economics determines what choices are feasible. If technology makes a restaurant possible, a rich man can have anything on the menu. A poor man must budget. A housecat can plump out on "Tender Vittles". A feral cat must hunt or find a trash can.
Taken to its logical conclusion, this instrumentalist worldview is sociopathic. Thing is, Marx is wrong about a lot of things, but this time he is right, and on a larger scale even than Machiavelli. What both had in common is that sought to describe accurately *how* *the* *real* *world* *actually* *works*, how the princes really act, regardless of their fine-sounding justifications and the glib propaganda produced by their smirking courtiers.
This is the real reason that Marx, or at least his worldview, is opposed to the worldview of Christ. Not because the Frankfurt School tried to offer cultural (as opposed to economic) explanations as to why The Revolution hadn't happened yet, but because Christ saw people as something other than instrumental, as tools to be judged by their usefulness, as props in a play or greyhounds to be killed if they can't make the cut.
You get no earthly rewards for treating humans and cats as you would wish to be treated. Quite the contrary. In fact, the people of wealth, power and influence are but glorified sociopaths and behave accordingly (or they would soon lose their high places), but even so, many will die peacefully in their beds, loved and celebrated by many. They got their rewards. They got The Goodies up front.
Rathe, Christ teaches us to follow Him, even though our earthly goals are furthered by treating others as means for us to achieve our ends, even though the earthly consequences of following Christ (whether you use that specific term or not) are temptation, mockery and suffering.
If you think about it, if the Real World really is all there is, to follow Christ is insane. No wonder The Way is narrow, that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.....
I see no reason to believe that you get no earthly rewards for treating human beings or cats as you would wish to be treated. I think you do. But it depends on what kind of rewards you are looking for. For many years, I have gotten many earthly "rewards" for treating others the way I would like to be treated, even saying "thank you" to my three year olds when they did something for me, for example. Why not ?
I don't know what "the real world" is. Not knowing what the "real world" is has tremendous advantages : it gives YOU a tremendous amount of liberty in your daily actions, and it gives the people you enter into contact with the possibility of... doing what they like, assuming THEIR FREEDOM (which is the freedom that Christ was talking about...) in person to person contacts (not official, institutional ones...).
One thing that I have found over all these years is that my attitude makes many people respect and/or fear me. This has its advantages AND.. its disadvantages.
But since Jesus's ministry was so centered around freedom, it is important to remember that all freedom comes with a price, and with the ultimate question : are you willing to pay the price for that freedom ?
Have you looked at the rich, the successful, the powerful, the influential?
The Iron Law of Oligarchy is most instructive here.
I don't look at them very much. The price they pay for their riches, their success, their power and their influence is high indeed...
That is sort of my point.
I'm sorry for reading you wrong then. It's so easy on the Machine, right ?
No worries.
You might not look at them, but they look at your way. Your neighborhood, your neighbors, your schools, your country, everything is shaped by them.
How many things you cherished have they not killed?
Even the mere act of sitting down with friends and family and not looking at a screen.
And if they haven't killed them for you, they'd killed them for billions
What "them" are we talking about here ? I'm not sure. I think that I was talking about "the elites" that are regularly held up for us to vent our rage at, not at the screens.
For sure, the screens are hard to escape. Freud said many years ago that consciousness itself took the form of a screen...
Thanks for taking me back to this essay. It is a very important one.
I'm reffering to the elites as well.
I don't think they are "regularly held up for us to vent our rage at". If anything, they control the rage suggestions coming in from the media, the state, and so on. When we do vent up our rage at them, it's more organic!
Hmm... just who is "we", Nick ? I'm curious.
THEY, the elites, and WE, us, the non-elites, the public.
I mean, you used "they" for the elites yourself, I was responding to that, and used the same pronoun.
I'm not sure that I don't belong to those elites, Nick. For sure, I am not a multimillionaire, but our family sure is comfortable compared to others out there. My husband and I have university diplomas ; for years we traveled on jet planes, vacationed in far away places (though not really as tourists), enjoyed a varied cultural offering.
That makes me an elite, doesn't it ? Maybe not as elite as other, richer people, but still very comfortable, right ?
For sure, getting less comfortable all the time, and our children are much less comfortable than we are, too. Living standards are going down all over, and for many people who worry more and more about their children's future.
But we are still not eating rats, the way the Parisians did during the siege in the 1870's or so. I think.
Trust me, we don't belong to these elites. What you describe is middle class guilt, not even full upper middle class guilt.
All of those things have for a good while just been offered to almost everyone except the very poor. Even working class kids can get a budget jet airliner ticket and travel around, and university diplomas do not really cost in most of the western world, the "student debt" is an American "innovation". Even so, about 25% of the US population 22-40 has a bachelor degree or equivalent, so much for it being an elite signifier.
In any case, the thing that makes an elite is power (as in direct personal power, political, economic, etc, to steer society and dictate laws, developments, etc), not about being comfortable, even if that's "just" 20% or 10% of the population (that would an "elite" of 35 million people in the US, hardly an exclusive membership to write home about).
> But we are still not eating rats, the way the Parisians did during the siege in the 1870's or so. I think.
That's a pretty low bar for not being considered an elite.
I get what you are saying, but they, "the people of wealth, power and influence" are not loved and they don't all die in their beds (see Epstein, though I suppose he was, in their world, nothing more than a pool boy). It seems, from our vantage point, that they are living well, but my guess is they are, for the most part, miserable - comfortable, yes, rich, yes, but ultimately miserable.
And, the real world is the world of Christ. Just because so many people miss that fact doesn't mean it isn't true.
Feral cat no more that was profound.
Thank you for the kind words but I still live by my wits.
Feral, say no more