Resist the Inorganic Resistance!

Morning Thoughts #242

Perhaps more important than being able to discern what is true versus what is false (in an absolute sense) is understanding how to differentiate between the organic and the inorganic. Herein lies the importance of the arts—I should say, their absolute importance! To have good taste, to be able to tell a great work from a mediocre one, is perhaps the only way to develop this skill, this recognition. (I write this as someone who spent most of yesterday evening watching Harold Bloom interviews on YouTube.)

Lies can be told in such a way that their ingredient list still contains only truths. As the kids say today, the goal should be to have a system so in sync with the natural, with reality, that the inorganic—the staged, the falsified narratives (arranged falsely while made with all true parts)—gives you "the ick."

For example’s sake, let’s say you are an avid consumer of corporate media. Your understanding of organic reality is, by definition, always mediated. As such, you feel compelled to attend a protest against some corporation. Completely hypothetically, let’s say they make electric vehicles. Five years ago, people like you—who wanted to be seen as good people (environmentally conscious = good, of course)—were major supporters of this company. After all, what easier way to be good than just consuming correctly? Correctly, as in a matter of mediated consensus. But no longer, obviously. Just as small children lack object permanence at a certain age, those who venture far enough left on the political spectrum seem to lack narrative permanence—a base of clay, always molded as needed to fit the times. A very useful feature for those who wield them.

Now, with righteous indignation, you’ve signed up to attend a protest against this company. Coincidentally, there are similar protests in every major city in your country at the same approximate time on the same day. Stop and think for a second, I beg you. Does this in any way have the markings of something organic? This level of coordination—it’s not much of a leap to suggest that this event is almost certainly coordinated. And yes, one can coordinate organically, but this simply does not pass the smell test. Especially when we consider the superficiality of their shouted message—buzzwords, call-and-response chants never expanded upon in any meaningful discourse. Oligarchy, billionaires, Nazis—let us chant these bad words at people who must be bad because, checkmate, we’ve just referred to them with such negative words (and, even more powerfully, we’ve heard other people refer to them in such a manner!). How could it not emotionally resonate?

I speak more directly and personally than usual here because, this weekend, I witnessed a woman in my neighborhood being verbally harassed simply for getting into an electric vehicle made by a certain American corporation. The horror! In stepping in to defend her, I myself was labeled a “Nazi.” What a rhetorical wizard this foaming-at-the-mouth boomer man proved himself to be.

The organic versus the inorganic—just another framing of that eternal battle between the doers and the branders. The artists versus the poseurs. Fight on, friends. Fight on organically!