Potential "Dear Editors":

Dear Editor: As a fan of the Walking Dead series on my side of the pond (America), whenever I watch it (either manifestation), I can’t help but succumb to my Marxist intuitions and think of it in terms of the vulnerabilities of Capitalism, that is in terms of all its macho hubris and insistence on free will and the god-like invisible hand of the market as the solution to everything. I, being more of an agnostic as concerns the “invisible hand” (a cynic even), tend to watch the series, take note of the landscape it offers, and think:

“Well, there you go.”

And I say this because those who are true believers tend to make it seem as if Capitalism is some kind of natural force in our lives and protector of all things good. Yet, the landscape that both Walking Dead series offer suggests something less controllable.

And as I’m certain you know already, the main reason I brood upon this subject is the recent pandemic of the corona virus that has set off an onslaught on our retail outlets by people who seem to think we’re facing some kind of apocalyptic event. And witnessing this, I can’t help but think of the mentality of right-wing militias that, while seeing slippery slopes in the political and social systems, embrace the corporate value of individual will. It’s as if everyone is stocking their imaginary bunkers. Still, as is typical of the rightwing mentality, people seem to be digging trenches for a battle that’s not likely to come.

As experts are pointing out, most people won’t be affected beyond the policies implemented in order to protect our most vulnerable citizens with compromised immune systems. But, of course, the “experts” are always suspect because they act outside of the corporate value of individualism. Otherwise, we would have to submit to some nefarious government conspiracy.

It just seems to me, dear editor, that when this is all behind us, we will have faced a reckoning with Capitalist values (a worthy apocalypse), as well as this exaggerated individualism that supports it, by recognizing that cooperation is the only real solution to problems we might face as a society and that, rather than succumb to this apocalyptic mentality that will, inadvertently, undermine the market, we might want to think in terms of what established government officials and experts (not Trump( are trying to tell us.

Dear Editor: I apologize for yesterday’s letter. In hindsight (confession: I sensed it then), it felt convoluted, if not outright muddled. But, in my defense, I was experimenting with a novel genre (Letters To the Editor I Will Not Submit) and working with half formed thoughts. On top of that, I was a bit rattled by the sudden changes brought on by the corona virus. I moved too soon and even wonder if I should have birthed it as a dear diary moment. That said, after driving around work last night and thinking on it, I feel like I’m getting a better footing on what I was on about yesterday (the intuitions at work (and have managed to crystallize it into an almost Wittgensteinian/analytic manner and procession. I can only hope it redeems me.

First of all, when I watch such post-apocalyptic narratives as both Walking Dead series and other media approaches, I can’t help but sense (given my Marxist instincts (a kind of glaring absence of Capitalist hubris. No matter what post-apocalyptic narrative you’re looking at, it always involves a complete collapse of the market, of everything the market promised. It’s as if, even in moments when the narrative gets violent, there is always a kind of absence or silence waiting behind it. It feels like some large and noisy machine that use to be just grinded to a halt.

And it seems to me that a similar dynamic is at work with the new pandemic in that we are facing that grinding down of the machine through changes in social habits: that social distancing that is the foundation of our diving market. So it seems no wonder that people would take on that apocalyptic/ survivalist mentality that we see at work in panic shopping.

Still, we have to look at the silver lining. The term apocalypse is rooted in the Greek term apokalyptein which means a revealing or disclosure. And in that sense, we may well be facing an apocalypse in that our present situation is an unveiling of the very real vulnerability of Capitalism: the fact that it is not some natural force that was waiting for us to evolve into, but rather a human construct and agreement. It may well be that our present crisis reveals Capitalism for what it actually is as compared to the metaphysic/religion it’s true believers have turned it into.

Yes of course, and because a bird has wings, it rains on Sunday.

It is wonderful how Marxists are always bending all and everything to make it appear to them a critique of capitalism.

It is globalism which has caused the spread of the virus. No arguments there I expect. Todays right is against globalism and open borders.

Coronavirus erupted in Communist China, where individualism has officially been abolished.

Ah hell, I can go on for three bibles worth of text but … this should suffice.

Letter to the Editor I will never submit, 3/19/2020:

Dear Editor: the other day I offered a rather clumsy fusion of apocalyptic narratives, what is happening in America as concerns panic shopping, and how the “grinding down of the machine” (of Capitalism, that is (seems to set it off. I had also associated it with the right-wing survivalist mentality.

And I would note two things I I have observed as of late. For one, I talked to a girl that works at the store I frequent daily and, while talking to her about the craziness going on around her because of panic shopping, had relayed to me a theory (or rather a conspiracy theory (that she had heard that argued that all this was happening because it was an election year.

But even more telling here is what has been reported in mainstream news: a sudden run on gun shops for bullets. I mean what else could this be but right-wing conspiracy theorists reading more into this than what is actually happening: the apocalyptic fantasy (that similar to the basement overmen who think their selves ready for action in a Mad Maxian post apocalypse (that these red-pill morons seem to embrace.

At the same time, you can’t help worry that these buffoons will create a self fulfilling prophecy via political expressions such as Trump or Boris Johnson.

Don’t worry they are not THAT smart.

THIS IS A STICK-UP. ANYBODY MOVES AND THEY’RE DEAD MEAT

WOW. Quite strange video

Letter to the Editor I Would Never Submit 4/11/2020:

Dear Editor: I have recently been listening to the audio book for James Poniewozik’s Audience of One: Television, Donald Trump, and the Politics of Illusion. And it’s a book I would highly recommend in that it is an articulation on something that has been hinted at in mainstream news circles but never truly crystallized: the fact the Trump is mainly engaging in a kind of performance art. And Poniewozik offers a detailed history of media in order to support this.

The thing we all need to understand about Trump is that he is basically the Madonna of politics and business. A big fan of TV, he has, basically (since the 70’s), developed himself as a brand. He has always worked from a strategy of selling himself as a brand in order to sell his business while selling his business in order to sell himself as a brand. He is the perfect Baudrillardian simulacrum.

And I believe that the UK may be dealing with the same dynamic with Boris Johnson. What he reminds me of is an episode of the Netflix series Black Mirror (which started as a BBC series, BTW (in which an obnoxious cartoon character runs for Prime Minister and actually succeeds. And we see a similar dynamic at work in Italy in which a populist ex-comedian was voted into high office.

That said, the silver lining here is that our greatest fear, that people like Trump or Johnson may choose to not leave office even after being voted out, may be over-exaggerated. Yeah: they might put on a performance of rejecting the election results as a kind of encore on the way out. But it may well be that by then they’ll be more than ready to move on to the next performance, the next way of selling their brand.