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Social Darwinism is epitomized by the art world. No one even pretends that culture is tantamount to enlightenment. Goring a lover of art presided over the attempted plunder of masterpieces which the Italian curatorial establishment united against--like the French resistance against Nazism and the prospect of a Fuhrermuseum in Linz which would have been the repository of stolen masterpieces. Sadly fascism is the only way to describe an art market dominated by big auction houses—where esthetic judgements are undercut by the demands of investors collecting tangible assets. Neophytes who make the pilgrimage to Chelsea are likely to find the absence of humanism disconcerting. New art is regarded as venture capital while old masters like Basquiat break records at the box office.
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| IQ84 by Huruki Murakami |
Anyone who has ever entered a parallel or alternate universe will tell you it can be treacherous going. You generally arrive somewhere that looks like home, though by definition that train has already left the station.To begin with, if you’re the kind of person who looks for parallel universes, you’re undoubtedly an escapist who is going to want to be somewhere else before you even arrive. You impulsively enter another parallel universe, all the while getting further and further from the ideal universe you envisioned. That’s the problem with dreaming. It’s self proliferating activity that acts like a rip tide taking you further from where you want to go, the more you try to fight to get there.
The Colonel welcomes you to most cities, if not most blocks. Mattress Firm is trying to knock the fast food business out of business which is beneficial in two ways: in encouraging couples to have more sex and of course sleep (priapism is another matter). Popeye the sailor man lent his name to the Colonel's main competitor and hola they are luring Odysseus with not only a Pickle Glazed Chicken Sandwich but pickled flavored wings. "Where's the beef?" is the famed Wendy's meme, which most kids today know better than "Hamlet's famed question, but if you're a romantic you'll probably "dream the impossible dream" with an Impossible Whopper. BTW you can hold the mayo. Most human beings learn"Big Mac" before "mommy." McDonald's fries occupy a ring or two of human existence's three ring circle and earn their own circle in The Inferno. Everyone knows they are the best and better than any crinkle cut. Not to forget the Baconator! Look for the movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. There's the Colonel, but what about the General? What face will he portray to the world?
Bananas are purportedly one of the anodynes for suicide along with the movie of the same title which can still cheer you up. Is Banana Republic utopia rather than being a line of clothes? The secret ingredient is apparently potassium. United Fruit now known as Chiquita Banana should use it in their ads. The suicide hot line could use them out like condoms which bananas have been used for in emergencies. The only downside about bananas is that you can slip on them which is definitely a "downer." OK let’s say you have an aversion to raw bananas. There is banana bread and most importantly the banana split. Back in the 50s and 60z when no one even worried and normalcy prevailed you could get yr second banana split free at an ice cream parlor named Jan’s provided of course you finish your first. Or maybe the was just Sundays
There are the "new historicism" which calls for revisionism, particularly with regard to the notion of an inviolate past and absolute truth. Thomas Kuhn famously wrote The Structure of Scientific Revolutions which coined the notion "paradigm shift." Multiculturalism, the bane of those who attack woke culture, is a product of widening the epistemic net. A quote like Saul Bellow's who is "the Shakespeare of the Zulus" is the equivalent is a form of cultural rape. All this being said, it's astonishing how fast the Visigoths toppled the current Rome. Down with the emoluments clause! Trump hosts a bit coin dinner. His sons pitch hotel projects in the wake of Mideast meetings. All of a sudden there is literally no separation between the executive and the judiciary. Trump issues executive orders like flapjacks. Kristi Noem apparently thought habeas corpus was created by the president--a creative contravention of one of the most central principles of jurisprudence.Trump's brand of transactional politics gives isolationism a fresh and more lethal spin. Philip K Dick's The Man in a High Castle imagined an alternate universe with the Axis powers in charge. What once seemed like sci fi has the stark ring reality. You wake up from the nightmare only to find yourself in an alternate universe in which the past nightmare is the take-off point for your dreams.
Trump plainly looks at Ukraine as another real estate deal similar to Greenland, Panama and Gaza The US annexation of Canada (similar to the Louisiana Purchase) is something he will hand over to Sotheby's or Cushman & Wakefield, both of whom have big residential divisions—which handle the acquisitions of sovereign states. Marco Rubio had been handling Ukraine in-house, but he’s said that if the two countries can’t agree, the US will have to move--to where? It is rumored that Rubio may be getting into the brokerage business himself. Someone has to ask China about their "requirements" and how much space they will need on a square foot basis. Taiwan may turn out to be just what China is looking for and the State Department will make a good commission if they sell their old ally under the bus.
