Ad Astra per Aspera [Journal]

[Jason]

Capitalism and communism both claim moral superiority over the other. Consumerism is the existential expression of capitalism. It is to be expected that governments are going to avoid or downplay conditions that reveal deceptions or failings in their systems as not to give any credence to the other. It explains why there has been an assault on "facts" in the US as there is a realization that capitalism/consumerism has failed on many fronts and that's the basic fact about our basic fact. It's why we see the most Derridian post-moderns want to return to some type of enlightened empiricism in order that we can tether ourselves to something objective as people no longer blindly accept capitalism's a priori assumptions either out of experience or diminished expectations and now we have alternative facts and fake news which are really just euphemisms for alternative political associations and fake promises. It explains the focus on the environment which IMHO is not a true concern for the physical world but an attempt to appease our collective consumer conscience. It explains this board. The polarization in the country is ultimately about different responses to the failings of capitalism/consumerism, whether distributive or moral or both. You may be right that we don't talk about citizenship in other terms because it might sound borrowed from communism but I think one of the reasons for that is that the republican expression of it has been lost. Anyway, enough of this bullshit. I need to get to work. Bacon egg and cheese biscuits unfortunately do not grow on trees although that doesn't stop me from dreaming of a world in which they do and there are people outside my window dressed in clown suits picking them for me.