The Big Lie and Ye

Popourri of devolution in our times: Starting with this nifty bit of reporting from the NY Times: "Venezuela was once among the most affluent countries in Latin America, its economy buoyed by oil. But mismanagement and corruption by leaders claiming socialist ideals plunged the economy into disarray, while Mr. Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, gutted its democratic institutions." This did not come from an opinion piece mind you. It is the quintessential piece of ideological propaganda from the "paper of record". Love the bit where Ye and his posse crashed dinner at Mar a Lago. You can't make this stuff up. Kanye asked Trump to be his vice=president. This is the culmination of a process Guy Debord described in 1967 as The Society of the Spectacle. Thesis 111 says it pretty well: The "crumbling of the worldwide alliance founded on beureaucratic mystification". The veil is dropped, the mask removed. Of course Feuerbach saw its outlne much much earlier: But certainly for the present age, which prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the original, fancy to reality, the appearance to the essence, this change, inasmuch as it does away with illusion, is an absolute annihilation, or at least a reckless profanation; for in these days illusion only is sacred, truth profane. Nay, sacredness is held to be enhanced in proportion as truth decreases and illusion increases, so that the highest degree of illusion comes to be the highest degree of sacredness. I also think it is fascinating that when Louisiana resists Covid restrictions liberals call them reactionary hicks. But when Chinese people resist, they become valiant freedom fighters. And now we have an entire conservative cultural movement based on being asleep. They mock awareness and celebrate obtuseness and indifference. "The worst are filled with passionate intensity" as we slouch toward the outer limits of banality.

Crypto Exchange?

I'm trying to understand this whole FTX meltdown, how it can be that people sunk billions into this thing that did what? They trusted some young guru because why? Crypto exists because it can do what? The NY Times warns that "contagion" can spread through the financial markets. Because some casually frumpy, millenial geek charmed people? This is the essence of our age of anxiety. Not only don't I know what a crypto echange does, I don't know what crypto does. I don't understand how a blockchain works or why anyone would sink their hard earned money into NFTs. I assume the exchange made profit by taking a cut on every transaction but why did people use it as a bank? Did it pay high interest? How did the geek earn multiple billions of dollars? If average people can't understand these huge forces operating in our society, affecting our economy and culture, there is going to be anxiety and it will manifest in different ways. Some of the anxiety will be subconscious, a vague disquiet that dark forces are at work manipulating you in unknowable ways. Which they are. But the real force is operating in plain sight. It's not a "new world order". It's the old world order using new technology. The tech industry is booming one minute and laying people off the next. But what do they do? What do they make? What did all those people do that is now suddenly unneeded? How can these people get so insanely rich so fast? What the fuck is happening? Long, long ago I knew two guys, sons of wealthy people, who gambled on everything. Not just cards and sports, but the most obscure events or arguments, these guys would put money on the outcome. They loved and were addicted to gambling. Maybe that's whats happening.

What Climate?

In all the reporting on election results and the issues that influenced voters I have not seen climate change mentioned even once. Perhaps a Democrat candidate mentioned it in a speech or a Republican used it as an example of "wokeness" but it was not a big factor in deciding races. Most voters had little knowledge of the Inflation Reduction Act or know that COP 27 is taking place at this moment. It would seem that the Supreme Court helped the Democrats prevent a Red wave. Inflation, which you might have thought would drag down Dems, wasn't a thing either. It seems to me there is a kind of exhaustion with all the freaks and clowns, a weariness. It turns out entertainment has its limits. You can only hang out at the circus or amusement park so long, right, and then you want to go home and rest. John Kerry and Biden went to Egypt to sell market solutions to African nations drowning in debt. Turn the investors loose with a profit motive and they will innovate solutions to the crisis. Just ask Bill Gates or Bill McKibben. He was on Ezra Klein's podcast for an hour and never said the word capitalism. For him the bogeyman is fossil fuel corporations who are run by unethical, devious, mean people. Bad eggs are dooming the planet. Not that very many people give a shit.

What To Believe?

There is significant disagreement within the left as to where blame for the invasion of Ukraine should lie. A faction insists Putin's prime motive was NATO expansion, another sees the imperative of energy markets and Capital accumulation as central. Could both be correct? Could it have been a convergence of intersecting power plays? Then there is the liberal explanation whereby Putin is driven by mystical imperial designs and historical ethnic grievances. Certainly the NATO explanation is the simplest, perhaps explaining its poularity. To unravel the relations between Gazprom and the Russian state and Europe - not to mention US LNG and Chinese interests- takes an expertise in international relations few possess. I guess I could also throw the US "defense"/ arms industry into the mix because there is plenty of profit to be made there. Does it really even matter in the final analysis? Its all capitalism in crisis, whether it's the breakdown of the regulatory order and alliances or the breakdown of the trading system and financial flows. It is reminicent of the debates following the attacks of 9/ 11. The instinct is to find solidarity with victims and seek perpetrators to blame. Seek the simple answer that supports a logic you already understand. Which can lead to all kinds of bizarre, uncorroborated speculation. The bottom line, as we will witness with the upcoming COP negotiations, is that Capital has no answers to the climate crisis and capitalism can't deliver on its promises of peace or prosperity.

Non Event

Remember when the COP meeting was a big deal? Even prior to the last one in Glasgow there was a big hype about "saving the planet", the true believers all marching and carrying signs demanding this or that from the "negotiators". But judging by the mainstream media, nobody really cares that they are meeting again next week in Egypt. I'm sure Amy Goodman will be covering it. All the emphasis has shifted from negotiators to The Market. It is market forces which will save us, not agreements. Here is some Democrat from Hawaii: “Nobody’s waiting to see whether the announcements at COP come out exactly as the diplomats hope,” Mr. Schatz said. “Everybody is starting to understand that there is an extraordinary amount of money to be made saving the planet, and it’s not a smart bet for the future to bet against what the markets are saying and what the United States has committed to.” The Market has always known that poor people will suffer and the already rich will grow wealthier because capitalism. "Everybody knows" as the song goes. I just heard some NGO climate expert type guy say he at times feels like a "serial masochist" for continually showing up for COPs. Greta Thunberg is doubling down on "blah blah blah" by calling COP "an opportunity for big polluters to greenwash" and blaming the profit system for inaction. The dominant narrative is that we need to rely on gas because of the "intermittancy" of renewables. They want to turn gas into hydrogen using tons of energy, storing the CO2 underground and selling us the electricity for lots of money. Meanwhile Ukraine is demonstrating how one deals with intermittancy. Lots of people around the globe are happy to get any electricity, intermittant or not.