Soldier Boy
Song of the Day 07/06/2022
I spent a little bit of time this morning reading about Pierre-Andre Taguieff’s theory of bougisme, which refers to the way we are all now expected to keep on moving, to increasingly be active in the globalized world of constant consumption, communication, and exchange. This new dominant ideology of mindless movement, existing and inescapable, results from a progressivism that has prostituted itself, neoliberalism, the narcissistic cult of change and exchange merely for the sake of change and exchange—no hidden purpose beneath it, no foundation of thought. I used to think that food and sex, simple pleasures, were the only things worth doing that have no real purpose. (Aside from the perspective of a small, radical niche of individuals, contemporary sex no longer has any reproductive purpose.) Anyway, those who do not participate in the arbitrary and ubiquitous cult of movement and exchange merely do not exist. Society is harsh and fascistic in that way.
Aside from the inevitability of the crippling social component, not existing doesn’t seem so bad. I suppose one could specifically seek out those who also don’t exist. Ah, but then again, in that perverse pursuit of those who are ‘likeminded’ you’d still be participating in that forced, perpetual movement so expected of everyone nowadays, i.e., it would take quite a lot of effort. Perhaps things can happen naturally? Doubtful. Leaving the house has become so exhausting. Even reading the Taguieff theory on a Google translation on my iPhone was a form of active participation in the never-ending exchange of information. Life is a black hole. I decide to put down the rectangular torture device to get up and make coffee. I go out onto the balcony and listen to some French-Canadian hip-hop blasting from a construction site across the way. Terrible sound. I put down my coffee and sigh. I sneeze vigorously, hurting the whole right side of my neck. There’s now a shooting pain up my spine. I’m getting older.
Nothingness is beautiful. I forgot who, but an EU MP once said something along the lines of: there’s no political problem that can’t be resolved by inaction. More aptly, Goethe wrote that ‘injustice is better than disorder,’ which, as Houellebecq translates the aphorism, pays tribute to the ‘powerful ferment of injustice that is a consequence of all disorder.’ I’m not saying to remain passive, let’s say, if your grandmother is being attacked or something. I do think that it could be worth it for everyone, at the very least, to be a little less motivated.