Author Topic: Resistance In Consumerist Society  (Read 6926 times)

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Nation of One

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Re: Resistance In Consumerist Society
« Reply #45 on: August 05, 2018, 10:47:31 am »
On the TV news here on Turtle Island, we now see coverage of two different camps of protesters: small bands of "pro-Trump" demonstrators," and huge groups of anti-Trump anti-demonstrators, with the police force between them to stem back the "civil" street wars.

I am reminded of Naturyl's (Q) post from the whywork.org forum years:

Quote from: Nat
Incidentally, I did the Occupy thing in Tampa, even slept out on the streets once. But I ultimately became disillusioned with it. I wrote a powerful document for them (no false modesty, ala Mike) and they ignored it because I wasn't part of the "in-clique." Yes, even "outsider" groups have "in-cliques." Always.

Plus, Occupy really isn't accomplishing much. So they got banks to cancel a $5 debit card fee or something. Whoopty-doo! Way to go in abolishing capitalism. What we really need is something like a 30 day worldwide general strike, just for starters. Wealthy college kids and hippies holding signs won't cut it.

What Occupy offered, briefly, was hope. And even though we all know where that leads, I think we were all spellbound, at least for a little while.

I'm sorry to say that I am indifferent to such protests.  I feel as though my day to day life is a spontaneous unorganized protest against the idea of participating in the "community."

After a farmer's club meeting, which was filled with petty complaints and back-biting, outside in the parking lot, as a man who I noticed in the past has one companion, a dog, who was asked to leave the farm area as "no dogs allowed," was getting into his vehicle, I said, "What a species, huh?"

He said, "You know, there's a part of me that is glad our species is on its way out [meaning, facing extinction via the collapse of civilization with massive die-off]."

I said, "Ah, a species traitor, huh?"

He drove off. 

It's strange when we become our own one man march, marching to the beat of our own drum, passing through life in quiet desperation, feeling totally disconnected from the Left as well as the Right.   

They used to say, the revolution won't be televised.

I've seen the so-called revolution.  They are selling beer and T-shirts. 

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us for not giving a SHiit about anything other than satisfying the primitive demands of biological necessity.

I will not pretend to be some kind of radical revolutionary.  I am just another alienated, neurotic, self-absorbed symbolic creature.  My obsession with mathematics is a distraction, yes.  I am attempting to "program" the brain of the Creature-in-itself to "understand" ... and while it is not always pleased with having its head crammed with mathematical ideas, on some level it is well aware that such an "addiction to studying" is far better for its mental health than other alternatives, such as, well, you know, booze, drugs, employment, incarceration. 

If too many people wanted to lay around studying mathematics every day, day after day, for years, for decades, well, I suppose it would have to be called a General Strike, and then it would be declared a disease of the mind - the math junkies would require rehabilitation and mass scale corrections; but as long as this desire to study in not too contagious, the zoo keepers may see someone who is devoted to this kind of constant "book learning" as harmless, and this is a good thing.   So I am a harmless autodidact who is no threat to the System, who is fed by the System as a recipient of government relief funds.  Surprisingly, it is very liberating to just accept my status as a kind of "ward of the State."

Quote from: Nat
"The 99%" are 99% motivated not by any real desire to tank the system and start fresh with something better, but rather by a resentment that not everyone can afford big Tee Vees and the glorious "middle class" lifestyle. And really, by publicly affirming the value and legitimacy of such a lifestyle, they are doing as much harm as good. Most of the 99% are upset because they aren't being given the chance to exploit with the big boys.

The media, as usual, is a barrel of laughs, trying to paint the protesters as "anarchists" and the like. Yeah, right. Most are as jawb-trained as anyone else and just want everyone to have a well-paying "yaab" and the ability to consume crapola more prodigiously, like good "middle class" people ought to.

While everyone in America is obsessed with "creating jobs" and "saving the middle class," I'd rather do away with both. I doubt anyone will turn out with signs in support of that. And it's also why I stopped turning out in support of the "Occupy" movement.

As Holden mentions somewhere else in that thread, there is a new freedom in the certainty of rejection.  One may have received too much education and thereby is determined to be "over-qualified" for the janitorial position which is the only job available.  Management types will be hesitant to hire someone who might infect the staff with anti-authoritarian ideas; or, worse still, you may be accepted by management but a magnet for psychological abuse from co-workers who sense your abnormal qualities and characteristics.

So, if the government has a program for those who not only experience social anxiety in the work place, but may actually prove to be difficult employees to "manage," then it makes sense to humbly accept one's role as unemployable, and interpret this arrangement with a sense of humor and even a little pride in being such a reject.  For the ultimate reasons behind our refusal to be assimilated into the corporate way of life may be a reflection of our virtuous characteristics, and not, as is commonly assumed, our defects.
« Last Edit: August 05, 2018, 11:16:44 am by the Creature-in-itself »
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

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