Headed For A Fall

I know this is not the first existential crisis and that the end of capitalism is forever being predicted, but c'mon, how long can this corpse stay on its feet? The Spectacle of grifters and con men posing as Leaders is reaching such a level of absurdity that only the most deluded can maintain the pretense of "politics". Every pundit trying to square the circle runs into the Chomsky contradiction: either there is a "democracy deficit" ( leaders and policy don't represent the will of the people) or there is Manufactured Consent (The will of the people is manipulated by outside forces) You can't have it both ways. The pundits can't admit the fact that consent is neither required of nor missed by anybody. Daily impotent outrage is enough. Capitalist "democracy" is a system of anti-politics. People prefer the placebo and it is enough to be entertained, knowing full well "government of the people" is a charade, an intricate Kubuki theatre enacted for our perverse enjoyment. Technologists tell us if we just keep making smaller microchips, eveything will be solved in time. Trust us. How about millions of citizens in every major city living in tents, dying on the street, begging for change? Oh, that must be the "housing" problem. How about daily mass shootings by raging, dissaffected loners? Oh that's the "gun" problem. How about climate change, mass extinction, extreme weather events? That, of course, is the "environment" problem. Using unemployment to combat the rising price of everything? Oh yeah, that's the "economy" problem. The list is endless: pandemics, international conflict, pollution, rise of fascism, suicides, drug overdoses, failing schools, yada yada. All stuck in the appropriate, isolated "problem" box. Rich people get to worry about these problems, poor people live them But to convince yourself you are living in any kind of rational system you really have to be adept at avoiding reality, at clinging to old narratives, at believing the straw you are grasping at is a sturdy lifeboat. It aint. I just read about the epidemic of pain: "each successive generation among less-educated Americans has reported more pain at any given age." Pain makes you do bad things