- one of those directionless rants {with direction}
As per a conversation with Lux Seville; the dialogue within "conservative" circles about homosexual sex is coded misogyny. many of the derogatives are penetrative and/or feminising "he takes it up the arse", "he sucks cock" etc, these are vestiges of passivity, of retreat, accommodation and vulnerability. never is the man who has his cock sucked or fucks another man the abhorred object. the penetrator is invisible, proximate enough to 'normal' so as to avoid criticism. he is still resolutely Male, in the eyes of the patriarchal notions which still govern our discourse, because he subjugates lesser males, who must clearly be female, because all of us fit within a binary don't we?
conservative doesn't mean anything anymore, conservative as applied to a viewpoint or a ideology has become dilute and dangerous. why has it become meaningless? not simply because the function it served was that of calm during revolution (in america, in france). conservatism as a bastion of civilisation in the face of anarchy held that throwing away all vestiges empire and civil human interaction would be deleterious to the ideals of a fledgling nation, as it probably would be. yet here we are, as far along the path of the capitalist-democracy experiment as we've ever been and those left farthest up the path of conservatism are bigots taking refuge in a once great principle.
our systems of media only allow for short and (supposedly) easy to digest sound bites from those voices that have the clout to access a podium. we don't receive the moderate voices of any ideology, only those of fervour and bile, those that seek to extrude into the lives of others where and when they see fit. these are the examples of conservatism that penetrate the media sphere and are thus the voices that govern the perception of conservatism from outside. i've yet to meet a moderate with the fervour and bile to threaten to kick in a door. but this still only contributes to the meaninglessness of conservatism. in it's current and most extreme iteration, conservatism as an ideology denies human nature.
in a world where we are as socially and technologically advanced as we are it does not hold that we should attempt to stop progress, is that not what we built the platform for? by requiring a society of individuals to constantly stay the same, to deny the progression of life through experience, is to demand a slow crawl into stagnation and death. into unlife.
conservatism as it has come to be espoused and percieved in the mainstream is based on a single, pernicious lie. that there was ever a golden age. that things were some how perfect once and that we have sinned and been cast into this current time of non-perfection. there have always been exclusively homosexual people, it is simply that they weren't in fashion in the social age bigots try to cling to, through the idea of conservatism. this time of perfection denies our nature and our physical reality, it requires continual external others to be enemies and provide narratives binary evil. it's living in a tunnel vision horror.
this world has always been shit, and it only gets better every single day, through the efforts of individuals who hold true to the progress of the human spirit. this happens mostly unknowingly, because the essence of the individuals involved is of locomotion and detailed work, with small amounts of time inbetween for introspection. i speak of social workers, of nurses, ambulance officers, police, educators, child care workers, the civil service. any and all with their shoulder to the wheel, allowing us to move forward by increments as a society, as a species. does all that energy get spent to simply maintain our stasis, because if so our economic model certainly does not reflect this; we aren't simply hummingbirds, fighting to remain still just long enough to gather what little sustenance we can. are we?
voices within every single generation of people have sought to espouse this bigoted hatred of the young and foist their self loathing on them. Yamamoto Tsunetomo, the Author of "The Book of the Samurai" reports his masters perception of the succeeding generation as weak, indulgent and unworthy of the mantle of the world. he was speaking this utter shit in the 15th Century. one can only imagine how perfect people must once have been [sic].
conservatism serves for a season, and is a principle of hindsightedness, not of vision and scope. it denies scale and passion in exchange for the maintenance of status quo, the perception of safety in a world which could simply shrug and loosen all of our coils.
when my parents visited in april i talked to them of the future, and how it arrives in pockets here and there, bleeding into the now. i told them that they should consider purchasing some touch screen computing device for my niece and nephew before they finish highschool because otherwise they would be left behind socially, and technologically. tablet PCs will be an ubiquitous feature of our social lives, very, very soon. i didn't expect them to race out and do it, obviously, i was simply introducing the future in as smaller bites as i could deliver, because i don't want them to die years before they do so physically.
i have seen the fear and misapprehension in the eyes of those who don't understand the new technology, and it is the same fear that governs those hearts locked into bigotry. the yearning for an eternal return, to climb back into the womb and forget how to live like a mountain.
ignore the young at your peril, it'll be their world for longer than it will be yours.
conservative doesn't mean anything anymore, conservative as applied to a viewpoint or a ideology has become dilute and dangerous. why has it become meaningless? not simply because the function it served was that of calm during revolution (in america, in france). conservatism as a bastion of civilisation in the face of anarchy held that throwing away all vestiges empire and civil human interaction would be deleterious to the ideals of a fledgling nation, as it probably would be. yet here we are, as far along the path of the capitalist-democracy experiment as we've ever been and those left farthest up the path of conservatism are bigots taking refuge in a once great principle.
our systems of media only allow for short and (supposedly) easy to digest sound bites from those voices that have the clout to access a podium. we don't receive the moderate voices of any ideology, only those of fervour and bile, those that seek to extrude into the lives of others where and when they see fit. these are the examples of conservatism that penetrate the media sphere and are thus the voices that govern the perception of conservatism from outside. i've yet to meet a moderate with the fervour and bile to threaten to kick in a door. but this still only contributes to the meaninglessness of conservatism. in it's current and most extreme iteration, conservatism as an ideology denies human nature.
in a world where we are as socially and technologically advanced as we are it does not hold that we should attempt to stop progress, is that not what we built the platform for? by requiring a society of individuals to constantly stay the same, to deny the progression of life through experience, is to demand a slow crawl into stagnation and death. into unlife.
conservatism as it has come to be espoused and percieved in the mainstream is based on a single, pernicious lie. that there was ever a golden age. that things were some how perfect once and that we have sinned and been cast into this current time of non-perfection. there have always been exclusively homosexual people, it is simply that they weren't in fashion in the social age bigots try to cling to, through the idea of conservatism. this time of perfection denies our nature and our physical reality, it requires continual external others to be enemies and provide narratives binary evil. it's living in a tunnel vision horror.
this world has always been shit, and it only gets better every single day, through the efforts of individuals who hold true to the progress of the human spirit. this happens mostly unknowingly, because the essence of the individuals involved is of locomotion and detailed work, with small amounts of time inbetween for introspection. i speak of social workers, of nurses, ambulance officers, police, educators, child care workers, the civil service. any and all with their shoulder to the wheel, allowing us to move forward by increments as a society, as a species. does all that energy get spent to simply maintain our stasis, because if so our economic model certainly does not reflect this; we aren't simply hummingbirds, fighting to remain still just long enough to gather what little sustenance we can. are we?
voices within every single generation of people have sought to espouse this bigoted hatred of the young and foist their self loathing on them. Yamamoto Tsunetomo, the Author of "The Book of the Samurai" reports his masters perception of the succeeding generation as weak, indulgent and unworthy of the mantle of the world. he was speaking this utter shit in the 15th Century. one can only imagine how perfect people must once have been [sic].
conservatism serves for a season, and is a principle of hindsightedness, not of vision and scope. it denies scale and passion in exchange for the maintenance of status quo, the perception of safety in a world which could simply shrug and loosen all of our coils.
when my parents visited in april i talked to them of the future, and how it arrives in pockets here and there, bleeding into the now. i told them that they should consider purchasing some touch screen computing device for my niece and nephew before they finish highschool because otherwise they would be left behind socially, and technologically. tablet PCs will be an ubiquitous feature of our social lives, very, very soon. i didn't expect them to race out and do it, obviously, i was simply introducing the future in as smaller bites as i could deliver, because i don't want them to die years before they do so physically.
i have seen the fear and misapprehension in the eyes of those who don't understand the new technology, and it is the same fear that governs those hearts locked into bigotry. the yearning for an eternal return, to climb back into the womb and forget how to live like a mountain.
ignore the young at your peril, it'll be their world for longer than it will be yours.
Labels: conservatism, eternal return, golden age, moderate, peril, rant, youth
posted by Run for the Dawn | 5:26 PM
2 Comments:
I like this. And, magnificently, you've left me with not much to say at all. Fear, uncertainty, or at least comfort in what currently are all interesting and frustrating things.
This yearning for the conservative ideals (and I use that term loosely) that many people have make me wonder what it must be like to grow up with this resolute sense of what the world is and should be like. I say this not because I feel that people of "conservative" viewpoint are backwards, but because I feel as if the appeal in it calls to a deeper sense of stability that can be achieved.
Or, perhaps I view the traditional conservative as somewhat juvenile and afraid of being uncomfortable within themselves and as such make self centred decisions to maintain that.
Or, I haven't had enough caffeine and I'm having trouble saying anything of worth.
Hmm... so much to ponder here. If a golden age is coming, I am not sure whether a Tablet PC will take us there. But I agree - it would disadvantage a child to deny them access to the latest technology. In many ways, the world is not like an incremental march toward a kinder future, but rather an arms race.
It is amazing how inequalities seem to reproduce themselves, with or without the support of conservative rhetoric. A lot of what we call "conservative" actually agitates for radical change - the privatisation of public assets, the de-regulation of the market, and massive cuts to social spending. This is not a kind of politics that seeks to keep things as they were. It is a competitive discourse - an arms race. I think, perhaps, it is just like the hummingbird, or like the Red Queen's race.
Failure to adapt to technological innovations may result in falling behind - into disadvantage. I wonder to myself: just how much is disadvantage a part of the Tablet PC - a part of its circuitry, I mean, a part of its intended design. Is this a tool designed to end inequality? No, it protests its own moral neutrality, but markets itself as a happiness-inducing luxury.
Thank you for so beautifully articulating the misogyny inherent in homophobic rhetoric - you've put it beautifully. This is binary thinking! I wish I'd put it like that. I wonder what this means for heterosexual relationships - the extent to which men are expected (within this value system) to be initiators, penetrators, dominators. There are, after all, so many other things a girl can do to a guy in bed. A feminist praxis of heterosexual sex can do every bit as much to confound the false binary as gay sex, I think. As long as it doesn't remain a dirty little secret. Homosexuality isn't the only love that dares not speak its name.
You've lit some sort of fire in me with this post. I'm furious and delighted with ideas - they spark one another off - Oh, damn it, beautifully written again!
xx mm
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