/lit/ - Literature

>>12452815
and i guess i have a kind of weird attunement to this because of the mildly perverse a desire to want a culture, or a civilization, to *go* anywhere. when you get tired of enjoying the fruits of capitalism, you look for stronger stuff - you know, like transcendental meaning.

but how do you do it? again, it's not like the lure of tribalism is lost on me. the fact is, i'm not sure if there is anything on earth more intoxicating than tribal warfare, of tearing down a Blue Flag and putting up a Red one in its place, or vice versa. the Far Cry games are often discourses on exactly these themes - that we all love the violence, of becoming exactly the monsters fighting with monsters makes one. because we are distrustful, alienated, angry, resentful, or sad, we are very happy indeed to fuck up somebody else, since clearly religion has failed. so why not? why not embrace the madness?

it's just that if the internet teaches us anything, it's that this actually really isn't a contrarian idea anymore. the internet makes it extraordinarily difficult for anyone to think they are really all that special, and believe it, and report on it with a straight face. it's exactly why the news cycle becomes an unending stream of Feel Good stories (which make you feel fucking depressed) or Feel Angry stories (which make you feel fucking stupid). and if you go, what else? the answer is, what do you mean, what else? this is it.

that's what drives people nuts. why the fuck do Westerners join ISIS? or become Social Justice activists? they're looking for meaning in their lives, but it's all just so much mimesis. even Peterson has recently been lobbed a difficult curveball - why *shouldn't* White Men collectivize? if everyone else is collectivizing against you, why double down on individualism? because that's as much of a spook as anything else.

pic rel is one of my all-time favorite films, for a number of reasons, but particularly for what Heydrich says at the end: when the hate is gone, there's just nothing left. just that terrible emptiness. but up until that point, there's nothing it can't do.

Conspiracy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPkF9nFgRcg

alienation predates Marx. but politics isn't the cure. alienation in politics like curing a hangover with heroin.