037 B - When the moon lands on New Jersey, who will we blame

Here is the last track of the remastered “Crank it Up”. The complete EP is on Bandcamp (original and remastered all under my label site Effluviana.

—

At this moment it seems that nothing much will change at all, but if it does it will get slightly worse. Our heads in the sand, plus a side of austerity. We'll be more frivolous, we'll be more vinatage, glossy nihilist. Where did you get such a nice tan? From communing with the red-eye sky-god who kills us.

I assume that the earth will eat us all in some kind of order, such that it's possible to laugh at their deaths. At first glance it would seem that changing the individual character of the participants in the system would change it, and it would, but it would not be possible for those actors with the alternate characteristics to even be a participant in the system in the first place. Through self-selection, indoctrination, bribery and threats, the participants are always the same, and cannot be otherwise.

That they are seemingly so incompetent that they may actually let people organize themselves into bodies of power for a bit is reassuring. However, I fear that the state will antagonize these groups when they are newly created to A) vaccinate themselves and the public from empathy and B) get themselves enough justification and resources to not be incompetent anymore.

Money is not real, we can have as much as we want. Fear of harm to the state justifies printing it. Fear of harm to the capitalists justifies printing it. Fear of harm to property, writ large, justifies printing it. A pandemic killing the poor does not.

And that will largely continue, until something changes enough to provoke the state into action or to overwhelm it. I think people are wisely weighing the options. “Nothing” currently seems like the right plan at this exactly moment, but tomorrow is tomorrow.

Ultimately, I think the state is all too aware of its own limitations. It is the resurrected Christ, kept for eternity in a basement, not killable, not able to be set free. They are afraid it will speak publicly. They are afraid the people will know it exists. They are afraid the people will attempt to set it free. And they will respond with biblical fear to all threats, and deny all magic abilities to reduce harm that it is purported to have. “Maybe it did once”, they say, “but it is old and weak and covered in centuries of bedsores. Let it be. This is as good as it gets.”

—

Listen/Download on Bandcamp

Get full access to Edging the Aftertimes at www.austinmeyers.com/subscribe