from Joel Anselm Dietz
Inertia is delightful, I have discovered, via “new experiences” including my first real attempt at dating, in which doing what one likes replaces duty, fidelity. All values are private. This was the major point of contention, as we attempted democratic means to “resolve” differences, that I somehow thought that my values (admittedly unactualized) might be “better” and thus require dissemination. Whereas, the value of honesty, which she also professes, can be held privately — while the public square is yielded to those of the lowest common denominator.
No surprise, as there is no challenge, and I woke up this morning to join a conversation on Sex and the City, the wonderful pleasures of guilt-free hookups and libations to the images of ourselves glorified, reflecting that in some part I have joined this dance via my lethargy forever increasing, or in the redirection of energies to “things I like.”
Relationships, like other objects in the neo-capitalist dispensation, are like collectibles, shiny objects to be accumulated and then dispensed with when no longer needed. There is attachment, but no love.
There is no fall for those who do not recognize heights, or who believe in the potential of heights but not the necessity of climbing, and yet I sense my twisted limbs at the bottom of some cliff, staring upwards at some peak from which I once chanced to see a great distance, and the many hands and moans which encourage me to stay forever at the bottom.
Freedom is slavery, intone the voices, and “free love” is the answer, just as capital should be freely distributed to all who cast the proper votes for this freedom, while those of us at the top continue forever, inert.
