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Friday, June 29, 2007

Reasons To Not Invite The 20th Century To A Party 1

Some people have asked me what I am ranting about when I say that this society has a fixation on stories about disaster. They point out that all societies have disaster stories. They have stories of heroic progress, too. Well said. However, you are missing the point. Consider the 20th century in all its gory aspects. Consider Freud. Freud was absolutely lionized in the 20th century. You may look at a picture of his couch at the Freudmuseum. Imagine! His couch is preserved like the accoutrements of some mediaeval saint or the nail parings of a miracle worker!
His accomplishments are very sketchy, however, once you look at them outside of the narrative of Freud as a Genius. Freud as a real person has some very questionable events surrounding him. Freud, this great hero of the 20th century, created the concept of the Death Instinct. And we lapped it up. Are you getting the point yet? So Freud created the concept of the Death Instinct to explain why the denizens of the 20th century were so fond of killing each other, you say? Freud was trying to clarify what was going on? Well, duh. Of course he was. However, like so many of the rest of us, Freud chose Death and Disaster and Destruction to aid understanding. And he chose an Instinct, a concept which implies necessity and determinacy... like you should be condemned forever to a Death Instinct whereby you are bloody in tooth and nail...and your reading of choice is short stories of Hannibal Lector! The 20th century was - and is in the lives of us born therein - a HyperReal prison of Disaster. As you choose your Consciousness, so do you choose your life. And we have been led since birth into a Consciousness of diabolical cruelty.

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