Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Borborygmos


I used to wonder what Kierkegaard meant by a lot of things, like this: "People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use."


Now, of course, I understand this as another of his koƤns, in context of his distrust of publicity, of expression. But of course there is a very objective sense in which this is true too. Certainly the average American has no more need of freedom than (as they used to say) a fish does of a bicycle. He has nothing to express that isn't subservient and conventional and insofar as his appetites or business practices are criminalized, he feels entitled to ignore such prohibitions, because the law is so manifestly an ass. Give me libertinage, or give me death!


Rich, spoiled, soft, ignorant -- the American people are like stampeding sheep. If you panic all that stupid passivity in one direction, well, then your enemies have something to fear. As do your friends.


I see the Reactionaries are celebrating Reagan's "centennial." I am again aghast that the Gypper is so rosily remembered. He really was Evil in all its smug, Brylcreemed banality, happy to have power without a use for it, and without any principle limiting its exercise. Of course, most Americans will find this heretical. Ron, evil? Where are the bloody fangs?


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