The System of the World

For months now, I have been dwelling on the notion that the current System of the World has changed in some fundamental way. This system is the collection of memes that hold our culture together and provide a way for society at large to view, intemperate and interact with the rest of the world. It is not a static notion given that it is the summation of social thought.

What is my point? We, as a society, are missing something basic in our response to the inability of the executive branch of the government to play nice with others. It feels like there has been a fundamental shift in the rules of the game and we are still figuring it out.

Like the world has moved on. Like this is some sort of unfortunate new age. Like there is a ghost in the machine.

It won't come with jackboots and book burnings, with mass rallies and fevered harangues. It won't come with "black helicopters" or tanks on the street. It won't come like a storm – but like a break in the weather, that sudden change of season you might feel when the wind shifts on an October evening: everything is the same, but everything has changed. Something has gone, departed from the world, and a new reality has taken its place.

Weather Report: The Hard Chill Begins to Bite
Written by Chris Floyd

This is the same general thought that was expressed by Milton Mayer in They Thought They Were Free. The world creeps along in it's own direction, and we are unable to determine what is wrong - like the frog in the pot.

There is so much else going on here. Technological fedishism runs rampant as the sound bites that flood from it. The financial crush that so many people feel is something that can not be ignored either. So many people are under so much pressure just to make end meet in the current environment that trying to think about anything besides trivialities is overwhelming. As of late is has been quite popular to lamblast those fools who were so stupid as to overextend themselves and purchase a house. I am one of those people.

The media. What really to say? One time gunslingers turned fluffers.

But the ghost in the machine still haunts us like a dream that we vaguely remember, but can not place.

Our System of the World is broken and it needs to be fixed. We have forgotten who we are.