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"A functionalist morality play"
By AndrewGradman
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| | I.1 Man's search for a paper topic |
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< | I.1.i Question: "Does nationalism conflict with globalism?" |
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> | I.1.i Question: "Does nationalism conflict with globalization?" |
| | What impressed me, when I asked this of a FedSoc classmate, was his quick reflexes: “Obviously!” Then again, a libertarian is an adult who still believes an invisible hand will catch him, no matter which way he leaps. |
| | An Ism is a vision that empowers an audience to lead itself somewhere. |
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< | Nationalism is a tautology ("an audience pursuing whatever vision it arrives at") until measured with respect to an outside stimulus. Rousseau called that stimulus the "lawgiver," but it's just a name. |
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> | Nationalism is a tautology ("an audience pursuing whatever vision it circled on the museum map") until measured with respect to an outside stimulus. Rousseau called that stimulus the "lawgiver," but it's just a name. |
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< | The converse feels equally true: we can define a nation as a group with a consistent social reaction to a known stimulus. Its identity is that reaction. The national axes against which anthropologists measure identities—attitudes towards God, poverty, death, leisure—were entrenched long before corporate cutters mounted their virgin shores. |
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> | Conversely, we can define a nation as a group with a consistent social reaction to a known stimulus. Its identity is that reaction. The national axes against which anthropologists measure identities—attitudes towards God, poverty, death, leisure—were entrenched long before corporate cutters mounted their virgin shores. |
| | I.2.iii A Functionalist Defines Capitalism |
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< | In other words, today the external stimulism is globalism. By which I mean Globalization, by which I mean Capitalism. |
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> | In other words, today the external stimulus is globalization. By which I mean Capitalism. |
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< | Marx defined capitalism as everything between the French and Communist Revolutions. |
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> | Capitalism is everything between the French and Communist Revolutions. |
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< | I prefer to let capitalism denote consumerism, profit's enslavement of thought, marketing's enslavement of man. Capitalism functions as a vector for fetishism, which is just one's expectation to find more delight in things than in people. |
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> | But it is more useful to let capitalism denote consumerism, profit's enslavement of thought, marketing's enslavement of man. It functions as a vector for fetishism, the expectation to find more delight in things than in people. |
| | I.3 His Question Answered |
| | I.3.ii Nationalism vs. Capitalism = socialism vs. solipsism = Us vs. Me |
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< | The tide of globalism has been rising since World War II. It drowns ancient cultures, has displaced the sea of faith, is a reverse land bridge for the global migration of Chinese-sourced tchotchkes. |
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> | The tide of globalism has been rising since World War II, drowning ancient cultures, displacing the sea of faith. It is a bloodstream for the metastasis of Chinese-sourced tchotchkes. |
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< | The Amish invite every member to enjoy the city before choosing local communalism or urban narcissism. But they postpone his informed decision until sixteen years of communal inculcation. Under globalism, the international agents of industrial stockholders invade the communes; glut the next generation's infant fetishes; indoctrinate by addiction. |
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> | The Amish invite every member to sample urban narcissism. But his informed decision awaits sixteen years of communal inculcation. Under globalism, the international agents of industrial stockholders invade the communes; glut the next generation's infant fetishes; indoctrinate by addiction. |
| | I.3.iii Nationalism vs. Capitalism→colonialism = socialism vs. solipsism→utilitarianism |
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< | But even if the answer to my question is "yes," it cannot be a "yes" of the form, "and the winner will be ..." Rather, the industrial world is reconciling these symbolic foes dialectically:
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> | But even if the answer to my question is "yes," it cannot be a "yes" of the form, "and the winner will be ..." Rather, the peace-loving industrial world reaches settlements through roadmap negotiations:
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| | * nationalism vs. capitalism→colonialism
* socialism vs. solipsism→utilitarianism
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| | If business is "That government which markets its brand through sales contracts"—and the marriage of business and government is a never-ending alimony battle—we may restate my question thus: whether corporations (transferable-contractual-solipsistic-private spirited) or constitutions (territorial-democratic-socialist-public spirited) can market (legitimize) themselves better to you, the judge. |
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< | Let me conjure the stakes for you. Capitalism already captured TV; if you're a zombie, come claim your plunder; forever may you cherish this dividend of childhood, memories of meals eaten in a frontfacing row with your parents alongside. |
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> | Capitalism already captured TV; if you're a zombie, come claim your plunder: forever may you cherish this dividend of childhood, memories of meals eaten in a frontfacing row with your parents alongside. |
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< | And so Bloch turns to the Internet to stir the "storm corner for the revolution". |
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> | Bloch flees to the Internet to stir the "storm corner for the revolution". |
| | I.4.ii ... Globalization gets halfway around the world ... |
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< | Alas, I suspect the storm in this corner will fizzle out like all the others. We've long drifted from Jeffersonian democracy into the totalitarian feudalism of corporate contracts. |
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> | Alas, the storm in this corner will fizzle out like all the others. We've long drifted from Jeffersonian democracy into the feudal schizophrenia of corporate contracts. |
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< | * It is old-fashioned to argue that the owner of a media channel controls its content, when some corporate "brand" owns the owner's mind. A neurologist can literally trace the scar where that brand was seared into his optical cortex.
* Every day you vote in several elections—or at least push-polls—in which corporate brainwashing machines compete to legitimize their mental property in you.
* Marketing is not sales. It is the rationing of identity. Marketing names us and the mall breathes life into us.
* Long after fallout kills even the cockroaches, our billboards will still scar the earth. |
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> | * It is old-fashioned to argue that the owner of a media channel controls its content, when some corporate "brand" owns the owner's mind. A neurologist can literally trace the scar where that brand was seared into his optical cortex.
* Every day you vote in several elections—or at least push-polls—in which corporate brainwashing machines compete to renew these property rights.
* Marketing is not sales. It is the rationing of identity. Marketing names us and the mall breathes life into us.
* Long after fallout kills even the cockroaches, our brands will still scar the earth. |
| | I.4.iii ... so face it, we're fucked. |
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< | I never dreaded the offspring of this dialectical marriage more than when I read Ernst Bloch, who argued that the rhetoric of fascism ("advanced capitalism") is more alluring than Communism's, therefore it would usher in the Revolution, therefore Communists should remove Democrats from Fascism's path to power. In our own time, I fear that our own strain of public-spirited narcissism (conspicuous consumption) will become incurable the day our rough utilitarian beast slouches toward the last tribe on earth. |
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> | I never dreaded the offspring of this dialectical marriage more than when I read Ernst Bloch, who argued that the rhetoric of fascism ("advanced capitalism") is more alluring than Communism's, therefore it would usher in the Revolution, therefore Communists should remove Democrats from Fascism's path to power.
I fear that our own strain of public-spirited narcissism (conspicuous consumption) will become incurable the day our rough utilitarian synthesis slouches toward the last tribe on earth. |
| | I.5 His catharsis
I.5.i But maybe he said "We're in luck"? I can't hear so well over the harping cherubs |
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< | And yet, I'm still an optimist. The mall is cheery. |
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> | And yet, I'm still an optimist. |
| | I.5.ii Legitimacy |
| | I.5.iv No ancestors! We're freeeeee! ! ! |
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< | While writing this paper, I imagine Eben looking out at our classroom, our generation, our future. I would not be able to restrain my temper so well. |
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> | I imagine Eben looking out at our classroom, his generation's legacy. I'm glad I'm not in his position. I would not be able to restrain my temper so well. |
| | Act II. Modern morality play : messiah :: Functionalist farce : overman |
| | "That's why I love America," said the other. "It invented pragmatism because it doesn't like the truth. Now we can invent the truth too." As if to demonstrate, he took another drag from his reefer.* |
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< | "Then tell your professor I said this," brayed the first: "Our generation may have degenerated into stubborn mules, but if we're supposed to have sterilized ourselves as well, then I deny being a mule at all!" |
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> | "Then tell your professor I said this," brayed the first: "Our generation may have degenerated into stubborn mules, but if that means we sterilized ourselves as well, then I deny being a mule at all!" |
| | [*Editorial note: the actual author just has a headcold.] |