A Game With No Goal Posts

We have stepped out in a Kafka novel now. Something like the Trial where everything is backward. The doors are windows and down is up. We use nostalgia to find art because we can produce nothing great today. If the artist wishes to display something accurate he must paint confusion, film insanity, write about madness. This is western civilization, a dead man walking without a soul, and his pulse is quickly fading.

The perfect image to exemplify western society today is Frankenstein.  More relevant than ever, we're propped up by machines and technology, our brains digitized to pulp so that 10% of americans can't find America on a map. They can still vote though. Gun crime has increased but the murder rate has declined. Hospitals have better emergency treatment and more victims are saved. 24% of boys are being treated for ADHD and stuck on drugs that turn them into dope fiends, pervert their fragile minds even further, and guarantee that this living dead beast known as the west will not die quietly. There is a storm coming when this beast lets off its death rattle and begins to convulse. And just as dogs and cats can sense an earthquake coming, people can feel this storm as well. We see it in the fascination with doomsday prophecy. It's not the prophecy which is important, it's how much the people relate to it. We can see this in the prepper movement because people know that something is looming.

Nietzsche theorized that each age had a spirit. Spengler believed civilization rose and fell as per the cycles of seasons. He considered the west now in its winter. But what is the spirit of this age? If we could break a decade down into a single word what would we call it? For the 00s that word should be terrorism or perhaps fear. For the 10s that word is confusion.

We don't face external conflict but internal malaise. The wars of today are of spirit. Confusion. Anything good is considered hateful. Beauty is phoney, created on an operating table. Happiness is induced through medication. Everyone is a lesbian now, attempting to achieve completion through object insertion into their psyche. And everything is on sale except a spirit. We are the lifeless form stumbling through existence. We are Frankenstein's monster.

To see clear through this dross is impossible. We have not perfect vision, for just as it is impossible to stand on the moon and see all dimensions of the earth, we are always left in perpetual obscurity. Seeing is no longer believing. We need to video record it as well with audio and stream it in 1080 hd for something to be real.

If you work you're called privileged. If you're homeless you'll be assaulted and ignored. If you commit a crime it will be an example of your racism and your hatred of others so long as that crime conforms to someone's political agenda.  If you speak out you're a racist. If you remain silent you'll be robbed. If you go to college you'll be in debt. If you go into the military you'll follow the order of a mexican lesbian transgender general. If you marry you're at the whim of your wife and whether she lets you keep your house, your money, and your freedom. If you save money you harm the economy somehow. If you spend you're a materialist. If you're a christian you're a nut and stupid. If you're an atheist you're an amoral baby killer. If you like women you're a homophobe. If you don't like women you're gay. If you're not crazy it's because you're not paying attention.

Existential angst is not a problem graduate students experience anymore. It's mainstream! Existential angst has gone viral. We exist in a time of confusion where there are thousands of rules but criminals go unpunished. Everyone is to blame for anything good. If you win you lose. If you lose you still lose and this is the era of the shambling, bumbling, soulless monster of Dr. Frankenstein's creation. This is the world we exist in today.