Not Too Down

Post-political

We’re all brought up more-or-less the same. Thinking back when does it end--this “bringing up”? It can’t all be the family (I refer to family in a very broad sense here).  -Why are we polite? -Why do we care so much about just about everything besides people and other forms-of-life? -Just enough empathy to seem well-adjusted but not enough to actually feel. I guess if we were so outside ourselves all the time we wouldn't be able to manage, to fit-in like a puzzle-piece allowing for minimal ambiguity and functional transparency. -So much weight upon our backs yet we don’t ever take time to stare at the ground. How many of us search for that kind of stability? Enough gravity to keep from floating away, enough weight to feel worthwhile, substantial. Our sweat as grease to lubricate the machinery we pretend to hate but cannot live without. “Use enough to make it smooth enough.”

Some say all of our tastes, desires, intentions, etc., are products of the greater machinery. -Created in the image of a creator. A system must reproduce the conditions of production in order to survive. Is it that easy? I would like to believe things are a little more complex, a little more complicated, in hopes for some resistance without complete commitment--a way out without standing in line. If we all found our respective exits we could survey the space outside in its incomprehensible totality. -A new cartography. Collaborating, sharing--making maps to connect our independent paths rather than just as a means to find our way back home. Of course some would want to return home and we must not judge them. Sometimes you need to trace your roots even if just to appreciate the intricate patterns that emerge. When doing this though we must focus our energy on roots, the subterranean systems beneath our feet, as opposed to getting caught up in the pruning of our branches and collecting our dead leaves.

We must be very cautious we create no new apparatuses, nothing else to pin us down even further than we already are. Subjectified and de-subjectified, an endless cycle of involvement and alienation, control and the illusion of its absence. I think we’ve been caught up in this independence trip for too long. -What is there to do alone anyway? Let me clarify: we must find our exit, the one that allows for seamless passing, but we must not believe for a second we can do it without others.

 

All I’m trying to say here is that I’m not too down with all this weight, the gravity above ground but bound within the atmosphere. Too much stress. My back hurts. I get some relief though from wondering what the weather is like on the outside. You think the sun shines underground?

 

Author's Note

Be as critical as you wish. Do not hold back.

Reviews

[TLK]

Now, I'll find it hard to be a critical reviewer, because I have sympathies for the interdependence of human sympathies that lies at the heart of anarchism (not just small-state capitalism, nor even no-state capitalism. That is a pathetic cop-out. The true rule-lessness of people that negotiate for themselves with each other).

When I get to "I think we’ve been caught up in this independence trip for too long. -What is there to do alone anyway? Let me clarify: we must find our exit, the one that allows for seamless passing, but we must not believe for a second we can do it without others." I find myself nodding in agreement. 'What is there to do alone, anyway?' should be a slogan, somewhere. But, of course, capitalism can usurp anything -- most of all the voice of its detractors -- so how long would it be before this slogan is just another t-shirt and fabricated boy band anthem?

Hrm.

"We must be very cautious we create no new apparatuses" indeed. I wonder if you have read Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze, Guattari. Have I? Little enough to know of them and remember their names.
Obviously you've read (or at least heard of) Proudhon. Why are these guys all French?

[power_silence]

Wow. I am excited to receive such a review so soon after posting. I will post more material I have filed away, maybe you will enjoy it! I think you're completely on point about the power of capitalism to "usurp" anything, especially slogans. Capitalism absorbs everything in its purview and fills in all its cracks. It is like ideological cement, even though it may not be so explicit or obvious. It (capitalism) wasn't always so ideological, but it always had a particular consciousness or at least certain traits that supported it often subliminally. Now we are subjectified by countless apparatuses until our identity or self or whatever is completely fragmented. I am digressing here though... :)
In regards to your last paragraph, I haven't read much Foucault but plan to. Deleuze & Guattari and Derrida are all big influences yet I feel I need to read more! Funny though, I have heard of Proudhon but never read him! I am slightly embarrassed to say so... Why are they French, indeed! I've often though the same thing... Thanks again for your review. I look forward to engaging in dialogue with you. I will check out your profile after I finish this review! Check back soon, I plan to post more work.