Aesthetic Materialism

  Start at the Beginning Previous Chapter: Day 1 Part 8 Dismas and Gestas emerge out onto the plain.  Dismas climbs up out of the valley that surrounds the stream first.  He is solemn of countenance, alert yet unwavering.  Gestas pops up behind him.  His eyes are darting this way and that.  A loud noise suddenly startles him.  "What was that!?!" "It was nothing.  Come on, let's go." "No, I definitely heard something, over there, by those bushes.  Say, Dismas, would you mind if I could have that knife back?" Dismas walks on, silently. "What are we doing, anyway?  Finding that woman's kids?  How is that any of our business?  That is so you, Dismas - always going off on adventures, without the least bit of- There it is again!" Now it's unmistakable: something is rustling in the bushes.  Something... big. Dismas circles around and confronts the beast.  It's a dugong.  It's huge: at least 10 feet long, and ferocious....

  As an anti-fascist, at the level of economics and politics, I believe in a workers' movement for economic democracy: worker ownership and control of the means of production.  Culturally, I am not just pluralist and "libertarian": in my opinion, deviation from conformity should not only be tolerated, it should be actively promoted.  At the level of ideas, lifestyles, etc., we should have as much difference and variation as possible.  I consider the multiplicity of worldviews and forms of life an intrinsic good and a goal in and of itself.  I also think it has positive consequences, because, as Frank Zappa said, "Without deviation from the norm, progress is impossible" - in science, in literature, in art, in popular culture, and at just about every level.  If promotion of such cultural pluralism implies conflict, then conflict should be encouraged. I do not consider postmodernism a reliable ally in either my economic/political aims, nor in my cultural aims....

The purpose of government today is inflation.  That is why it exists.  Capitalism is inherently deflationary.  It tends toward a crisis of values.  In a (hypothetical) perfect capitalist economy, prices would deflate all the way to zero.  The result would be a tremendous crisis - the word "recession" does not cover it - a cataclysmic depression, the likes of which the world has never seen.  Realistically, prices would be unstable, with some prices spiraling into negative territory, and others skyrocketing - to say nothing of the prices of purely financial instruments, including money itself, which is one of the things that would eventually become worthless, but which might fluctuate wildly beforehand.  We almost had a little taste of something like such a moment at the advent of the Great Depression, but it was heavily muffled and mediated. Government's purpose in the 21st century is to prevent that, by artificially propping up prices - that is, artifi...

  Start at the Beginning Previous Chapter: Day 1 Part 7 In the evening sun, the silhouette of a man briskly, deliberately climbs a stool beneath a tree and places a noose around his own neck.  Then he kicks the stool away and hangs, swinging, his body jerking involuntarily.  The spasms become more exaggerated and the swings become wilder, and suddenly the rope snaps and man falls headlong into a potter's field, where his chest and stomach suddenly burst open and all of his organs and blood spill down into the ground. The camera follows the blood as it quickly seeps through the ground, falling, faster and faster through layers of sedimented earth, until it drips into an open expanse deep under the earth's crust.  There the blood and organs come together and quickly reform into the man's body, alive and well.  There's a pile of clothes neatly folded beside him.  He puts them on, dusts himself off and speaks.   We can only see his face, and nothing t...

    Start at the Beginning Previous Chapter: Day 1 Part 6 "What do we do with him?" says Gestas, looking down.  Jesus lies in a crumpled heap.  Flies buzz around; if you look very closely, you can see that one of them is very slightly glowing. Dismas sighs and grabs Jesus's legs. Slowly he starts pulling him up. "Well, let's go!  Help me carry him!  Let him have some dignity!  Let's wrap him up," he says. Gestas clearly finds touching dead bodies a little distasteful and uncomfortable.  He daintily picks up one of Jesus's wrists and lays it across his chest with a grimace of disgust.  Dismas remains serious and stoic.  Then Gestas seems to have a moment of emotion and tenderly closes Jesus's eyes with his palm.  Together, they carry him over to the shroud which is lying outstretched nearby and wrap Jesus up tightly, waving away the bugs.  Then they pick him up, along with the sacks of goods from Balas, and solemnly carry J...

  Start at the Beginning Previous Chapter: Day 1 Part 5 The tip of the knife presses into Gestas's throat.  Your eyes meet Gestas's.  The knife trembles, and then your grasp falls a bit away.  Gestas takes the opportunity to twist his way out of your chokehold.  "Would you relax?" he cajoles.  "I didn't frame you for murder.  Or anything like that!" You scowl, even as your rage is beginning to subside. "Buddy!  Buddy!" he goes on.  "You know I would never do anything to harm you.  You're my top earner!" "Hey!" comes a voice.  "What are you two doing behind my house?" A man is leaning out the back door of the house the two of you just ran through. "Oh, I'm very sorry, sir.  We were just leaving," oozes Gestas in the most innocent voice he can muster.  It's not all that convincing. As the two of you walk on, Gestas throws his right arm around your shoulder.  "I will admit, though, that last...