Dystopian horror for the weekend (1)
Dystopia does not do a lot for us. It does not inspire people to change the world; only the right utopian dream will do that. But for some reason dystopia has become the "default narrative" for this global space and historical time. Only by examining dystopia will we be able to understand its prevalence as a trend. I suppose the resultant literary genre for the prolonged investigation into dystopia would be called "horror."
This weekend's dystopian nightmare will begin with Paul Street's analysis of Joe Biden. Biden is a collaborator, and Street minces no words in describing him as such:
A critical part of Joe “Anti-Populist” Biden’s media-crafted appeal is his “get things done” claim to be able to “reach out across the aisle” in the famous, hallowed, and CNN- and “P”BS-honored “spirit of bipartisanship.”
Since the Republicans are all unified in "don't support Democrats," "less taxes," and "more corporate breaks," Biden, as the only past vice President currently running for President, is basically the public face of his political party, which has chosen him to lose to Trump. Collaboration in the past: collaboration in the future. Street predicts:
The establishment Democrats, who prefer barbarism to even the mildest hint of socialism, are working to give the monster a second term.
Now, the main reason we were awarded Trump is because the Democrats selected Clinton. Clinton had twice the treasure chest Trump had, and spent 40% more than Trump in the final election. She lost the election through razor-sharp margins in five Midwest states. I'm sure Biden knows Clinton's recipe for losing.
In this dystopia, your vote for President does not count, and neither does your voice or your money. You can vote for the collaborator or the vanguard party. But you believe it does, and so you pour lots of energy into the question of who is President. And then all the energy evaporates come August. Maybe the political charade will change its character when Miami goes under water. I dunno. Malibu burned last November; did anything change?
Let's move on. Is this your employment future?
McDonald's is partnering with AARP to hire older employees
Yep! Social Security doesn't pay the bills, so off to McDonald's we go! I suppose the referenced dystopia here is Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman. Big difference, though: in the play, Willy Loman only had to be in door-to-door sales -- these guys flip burgers and staff cash registers in their older days. It's still dystopia.
Next dystopia! In this one, reported at In These Times, Black Workers Say Walmart’s Background Checks Are Racially Discriminatory. A lot of the racial discrimination reported in this story can no doubt be traced to racist enforcement of Joe Biden's crime bill back in 1994. But yeah, if you can't get a job at Walmart and it's the largest employer by far in America...
Onward and downward! Our global rainforests are shrinking at a tremendous rate. Here's the most important passage:
Ghana and Ivory Coast recorded the biggest percentage rises in rainforest destruction, driven by gold mining and cocoa farming.
OK so that's the lungs of the planet at a time when industry burns 82 million barrels of oil per day, accounting for maybe 36% of climate forcing? Climate change dystopia has a genre of its own: it's called "cli-fi." Currently the studies show that we are headed at some point for "climate departure," which sounds very dystopian. Should the seasons matter? Yeah, they should.
Required reading: Margaret Atwood, Maddaddam trilogy
Dante Alighieri, Inferno
Comments
i'd always thought
of the amazonian rainforest as the main lungs of the planet, but 'UPDATE 1-Bolsonaro says Brazil rainforest reserve may be opened to mining, Fri, Apr 12 2019
there seems to be no maybe about it, and the indigenous are rebelling.
'This map shows millions of acres of lost Amazon rainforest; New data illustrates in painful detail the accelerated loss of Brazil’s forest cover', national geographic, April 26, 2019
a lot of it's been from the REDD-like carbon trading schemes, although the article doesn't mention that.
What or when were we last not in dystopia?
George Orwell painted the epic manual for this type of culture. William Golding's Lord of the Flies explained a genesis for such melancholy evil.
So what do we use for a comparator for utopia versus dystopia? It isn't Walden Pond anymore because the beavers have been replaced by chain saws (much more efficient). It's certainly not Disneyland.
My millennia old brain cannot process a utopian time for humans, but down here in the cypress swamp I call home, a good meal always passes the test.
Of course, those self-deluding humanoids constituting the elites have had their utopia for generations, which will persist as long as there is blood left in the stones.
We were last not in dystopia --
in the late Sixties and early Seventies. Thus my periodization of history:
1) early utopianism, originating in unwritten past time but codified in the Book of Ezekiel (dating probably to the 500s BCE) and Plato's Republic (probably written 380 BCE)
2) early modern utopianism, starting with the Conquistadores and with Thomas More's 1516 publication of Utopia. The Renaissance and Reformation utopias were regimented societies, and their utopian dreamers were members of the intelligentsia. Utopia was thus aligned with Europe's conquest of the world.
3) the Age of Utopian Dreaming, from the Enlightenment to the Seventies. A pivotal beginning year was 1789, with the initial passage of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen in France. The American Declaration of Independence set the stage in 1776 to be sure, but it was generally understood that the United States was an aristocratic entity and at any rate the Bill of Rights was only put into practice in 1791. In the Age of Utopian Dreaming the idea of utopia was opened up to the mass public. Perhaps a concluding year for the Age of Utopian Dreaming would be 1973, with the creation of the Trilateral Commission and the regime of dollar hegemony.
4) the neoliberal era. In this era the the utopian dreams of the masses were directed in top-down manner to make the utopia of money (i.e. capitalism) the only permitted utopia. Such a restriction has become increasingly dystopian over time.
"the Democratic Party is not 'left'." -- Sabrina Salvati
Your point 4 coincides with my evaluation
I grant your first point also. But the golden age of Greece was built upon the backs of slaves, while the hoi polloi made do without wealth or influence. The only utopia exists throughout recorded history by and for the elites.
The thirty-five or forty years after World War II
-- in the First World -- experienced a middle-class utopia that was as close to the real thing as this global civilization will ever get. Since then the economy has been running on that utopia's fumes, and the fact that we are not yet in Great Depression II (which will in fact be far worse than GD I) is a testament to the strength of those fumes.
My parents were part of that utopia. There was, and will be, no past and no future in which mid-range-talent artisans (which is what my parents were) had, or will have, the sort of prosperity my parents experienced in the Sixties as middle-class mid-range-talent artisans -- just to cite one example.
"the Democratic Party is not 'left'." -- Sabrina Salvati
Alas, sir, you are correct
My parents were middle class, both working in an era during which only one person had to be the bread winner. I grew up in the 40s and 50s and remember fondly a more glorious past than any of the subsequent generations will experience--assuming of course that we will continue existing after the 12 year death sentence pronounced by the envirironistas.
Pay your carbon tax so the elites can continue flying their private jets.
More power to the greens (broccoli, asparagus, kale, arugula).
And now shall we pray?
Heavenly Father, deliver us from Carbon and Methane
Keep our intentions honorable, not profane
Leadeth us not into pollution
The elites are our solution
Please, Lord of All, to Elysium
which is possible through Petroleum.
In thy name we pray
Amen, amen, thus we all say.
You have, I presume, read Margaret Atwood's Maddaddam
And if you haven't, then why not?
"the Democratic Party is not 'left'." -- Sabrina Salvati