sure i can work with some of that, but i’d have to put another angle on it… one that might surprise you. suppose these people weren’t degenerate, or couldn’t be degenerate i should say, because their natural state in this perceived degeneracy is in fact a statement of the perfection of their design. or let me try to say it like this; they are unable to have depth, so there is no absence of substance where one can only be shallow. to call something ‘degenerating’ is to say there is a greater state away from which the thing is moving. but these people never had this greater state to move away from, see. they are literally modern capitalist/consumerist constructs incapable of being other than they are, and as such, they must be considered perfect at being what they are.
the thing to consider is that any one of these subjects wouldn’t ‘feel’ like the reasons and explanations you present in describing their condition are actually true. so this begs the question; how real is such a diagnosis to the first-person if they are neither able to understand it or describe their own behaviors as such? take one of the three musketeers here - you, ecmandu or jakob. in my mind, none of you are ‘ideal’ models that i wouldn’t consider to be degenerate in some way. and yet to call you degenerate would mean that i would first have to expect you to be cognizant of how to not be degenerate, or else this perceived degeneracy is, actually, your natural state. that is to say, you can’t be otherwise, and therefore you aren’t, in fact, degenerate, but perfect at what you are.
see but this stuff could be poked and prodded so much that it would fall apart (if the power of deconstruction compelled me). and these things are not unique only to modern people. it’s in our very nature to want to make our lives meaningful and rich with purpose by finding some cause to identify with that transcends ourselves. one guy identifies with the nazi cause and another with the zionists. both are doing the same thing.
its only the context of the various forms of indulgence that have changed. today we indulge in ‘products’ to satiate that emptiness… yesterday they indulged in ‘ideas’ to do so. actually i should say that today, people indulge in both. but this is worse, because those of yesterday didn’t know any better, while those today who still call themselves philosophers have merely adopted another fetish to fill the void. where they can’t fully occupy themselves with other activities to keep themselves distracted, they enter into these mental reveries and convince themselves that their on to something.
but none of this can be classified as degenerate unless we are able to say they could be otherwise. but they can’t; the western world literally mass produces such people and drops them off the assembly line as if they were toaster ovens.
'course you’d not understand where i’m coming from when i explain things in such shorthand. i’m talking about an all-pervading force that affects every aspect of human life and conditions people to be this way… without them being able to know it. and you know what i call this force in the west. it starts with a C, and it ain’t captain crunch.
