It's All the Rage, You Know....

In my current readings of postmodern philosophers, I came across German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk in Zizek's Violence. It was one of those "whoa!" moments. Sloterdijk brings to the fore the counterpart to the Freudian eros, that of thymos Eros, which is the buzz coming from the possession of objects, their production and enjoyment. which finds its' counterpart in plain old thymos, the psychological manifestation of envy, competition and recognition. (See: Zizek, Violence. pg 185-189)

Looking into various 'holy books', there is a whole lot of revenge fantasy, and the projection onto God of human rage at being thwarted in their pursuit of 'things' and recognition by the natural occurrences of life, as well as the tyrannies spawned by religion, which often led to seemingly endless wars and grinding poverty for about 95% of the people in Europe for 1600 years. God was seen as the great accountant in the sky who would, at some "Final Judgement", settle accounts and send everyone who didn't say the right prayers (read: like ours) believe the right things (read: like we do) and were just generally annoying, into HELL...a sadists' wet dream if there ever was one. Thomas Aquinas said the one of the pleasures of "Heaven" would be the ability to watch the suffering of all those "others" in hell. I have this picture of small booths in Heaven, with the little peep show windows, where you could go in and watch people (like that cute blonde who would not give you the time of day in the 11th grade) suffering in hell. I have listened to enough fundamentalists going on about what will happen in hell, and the obvious relish with which they related it, to know that these little 'peep shows' will need an endless supply of tissues.

Well, now these right wingers have taken this 'job' away from God, and are whipping up their listeners with such egregious bullshit, that some of the "Joe Six-Packs" use words like "bring down the government" (which is technically treason, but I digress) and "Getting rid of Obama", then when they show up carrying guns at Presidential rallies, it begins to get a bit dicey. The "base" has become a 'Rage Bank', and the right wing talkers are whipping them up with promises of revenge against the 'socialists, death panels, and other assorted intestinal effluvia which pours out of their mouths and the radios daily. The uninformed are paying great 'rage interest' to the talkers, and their masters. These cretins will say "we're not politicians, we are entertainers." So, if someone listens to your 'entertainment,' and for whatever reason, snaps and commits some outrage like Oklahoma City, the Limbaugh's, Hannity's, Becks, Malkin's, Coulter's, and their ilk can say "We are not responsible. (There is that awe-full word, 'responsibility' again.) They just didn't understand...yadda yadda."

Fucking moral cowards these so-called entertainers are. Period.

I wish, somehow, the scared, riled up mass of people who listen to that claptrap could understand that these people are well paid shills for the moneyed corporations that are REALLY causing the things that are squeezing the mass of Americans so hard. That would take thought however, and the media companies are keeping everyone distracted with all the mindless shit on television, and so on into the night.

America, you are being duped into holding the flashlight for the burglars robbing your homes and raping your future!! But, hey, Dancing With The Stars is coming on.

We may well be the first civilization to ever entertain itself to death.

More tomorrow.

Tim