THE JUICE
[enhancement:reach]
[retrival:journalling]
[obsolescence: op-ed]
[reversal:narcissism]
Monday, June 12, 2006
stink finger
Maybe I'll talk about something... now.

How about that dang trrrrrrism everyone's talking about?
Yeah, that's a popular thing to talk about.


I think very reasonably that these are just some angry kids. We were/are all angry at something around that age in our lives. We targeted our hypothetical lashing out at things that were culturally familiar to us as evil or wrong or in our view, ethically negative. We got angry at presidents, pollution and popular music. It wasn't an influential or even common strain of thought in our socia environment to despise or carry anger towards America the Great Satan, World Bank credit slavery, or Western culture altogether. Not to say for certain that the feelings of these kids in this terrorism situation even extended to that level.

As the world leaves the print age of linearity and enters the electric paradigm of simultaneity, tribalism re-emerges in a big way as a prominent method of social orgainzation. It is primitive but it is infectious and effective, and it is most importantly extremely subtle and covert while nurturing devotion in its members. A great example of the new tribalism is profesisonal sports fans. They grow fiercely aligned and dedicated to their team and draw battle ligns before the fans of their enemies. Fashion and music and pretty much a whole lot of other things are expressions of tribalism.

In a tribal environment, ideologies are very efficiently cultivated; minimization of other influencing forces accellerates this process even more. This is what happened. A couple of guys at the local whatever were circulating some ideas and laying down informed arguments and so some malleable young people got swept up in the anger and romance of it. I can see how it could happen. They took them to play freaking paintball! Awesome! Kind of like when you started doing drugs, hating jocks, being religious/atheistic or stopped eating meat or shopping at the GAP.

I agree with what seems to be the consensus out there, at least from the discussion on Tristan's and Calvin's blogs. There's probably one or two older guys in there who are, if not active extremists, then at least pretty deep into this dangerous dialogue the world is having with America. Maybe it's a kind of intervention on some level.

At any rate it could have been you in their place so I guess be thankful you've been taught to hate corporations and cell-phone plans and way-the-fuck-too-much-packaging and NASCAR and the Yankees.

Hate the Yankees, love fear.
2 Comments:
Blogger The Unbelievable said...
McLuhan all the way! Thanks for the book lend by the way. I have been enjoying it thoroughly. I think I got some spaghetti sauce on it which, coincidentally, I am enjoying a plate of right now. Sorry. Great blog though. It makes me want to stop writing about blowjobs.
I do hate the Yankees, but I don't understand what you mean by "love fear" because I don't.

Blogger passthejuice said...
love fear because they want you to

love fear because it's the only thing that's for sure

you know it'll never betray you

it's always on your side

wrap yourself up in your blanket of fear

fear brings security





you shouldn't love fear... that's just what all the problematic and polarizing ideologies out there boil down to