HERE IS A FOLLOW-UP to LAST WEEK'S POST regarding the notion of IDEOLOGIES AS A CONTAGIOUS MENTAL DISEASE.
I have some thoughts I'd like to share on this topic, but I'm letting them form a bit further before I compose an essay, or simply list my thoughts in a more ordered fashion than below.
Central to this constellation of ideas, though, is my realization that if we can construe society as an addict, then we can also construe society itself as the drug. Social approval, for instance, and in particular: the need to at least appear to SOCIALLY CONFORM (use the drug) in order to be compensated (for example, get the funds that enable us to keep using the drug). In other words, late-stage capitalism is akin to late-stage drug use.
So what's the solution? Well, for starters, I've noticed more of my friends have been bartering lately for goods and services. (Here in Hawaii, it's fairly easy, since many folks can grow or raise food on the land they inhabit.)
We all drop in and drop out of the mass culture in various ways at various times. Heck, sometimes you have to OPT OUT, just to avoid the mass marketers. But there are other ways than simply removing yourself from lists. For instance, forming unpredictable, one-time tribes, such as GUERRILLA QUEER BAR in San Francisco circa Y2K, keeps the landscape freer, more spontaneous, and less of a target. As you can see by clicking on the link, Guerrilla Queer Bar is a great example of a meme that has spread, virus-like, to many other cities.
Any other ideas? Feel free to chime in.
Wishing you a beautiful day,
Bill Brent
[this page last updated: 2008.09.09, 10:30 p.m. Hawaii time]
keywords: Society is an addict. Society is a drug. Conditional tribe, tribalism, pack behavior, spontaneous swarm.
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