What this is:

It is quite possible that no one will ever read this, and that is fine. If, however, someone does find themselves in the virtual presence of this text, I wish that they see it for what it is: merely my passing thoughts on the increasingly chaotic superstructure of US politics and culture. I’m not an “expert” in any of this stuff.

In the crumbling imperial core

I started keeping a journal in a physical notepad shortly after the COVID-19 thing started to be taken seriously in the US. This was mid-March of 2020. It seemed like a period of great historical significance so I thought, hey, I’ll write some of my thoughts on this shit down. Because of my general interest in China, I had been following the virus outbreak on Reddit since sometime in February, when the reaction from the Western media was largely one of denouncing the government of the PRC and the Chinese Communist Party for their “authoritarian” lockdowns (which doubtless saved thousands of lives and bought the rest of the world time to prepare). The more paranoid sectors of the right-wing internet and the professional conspiracy industry (i.e. grifters) had takes that were varied (natural virus vs. manmade/planned) but predictably eschatological (All They Know is Bill Gates, Bilderberg, Soros, New World Order, Microchip and Die).

It was an exciting time, if I’m being honest. I work in healthcare and, for my part, I had some hope that out of this crisis a positive change of at least some material substance might be gained for the US working class. Perhaps this finally would demonstrate to the nation–including those at the highest echelons–the necessity of some form of universal healthcare, for instance. While–despite the feverish death-panel night terrors of your racist uncle–this would not usher in socialism, it would be a material good for many poor and working class people here in The Core. The bourgeoisie of other large and brutal capitalist and imperialist nations have at least some healthy fear of their respective hoi polloi and have the common sense to throw a few crumbs out, after all. Well, that hope has not fully dissipated (the summer, full of unprecedented mass uprisings across the nation against racist policing, showed that the potential for a real mass movement of working class people still exists) but it’s unlikely that the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic will be a catalyst for progressive change. At any rate, this tragic pandemic is a hell of a lot less exciting than it was in the early months. But, History is happening again, despite what Fukuyama said. As cliche as it is to point that out, I will do so anyway. History never really stopped, of course; we, the great mass of working people, never stopped making it. In fact, it seems to be happening at an increased rate, as seemingly spectacular, “once in a lifetime,” “I never thought I’d see the day when…” events keep occurring.

A quote often, but probably incorrectly, attributed to Lenin goes something like this: “There are decades when nothing happens, and there are weeks when decades happen.” He supposedly said this about the rapid pace of how the Russian revolution transpired. Now, I’m not saying that’s what’s occurring presently, or that we are on the verge of a glorious proletarian revolution (fingers always crossed, though), but clearly shit is wildin’ out and the cable news networks don’t have any trouble finding legitimately remarkable content to blather on about lately. We all know (or should know by now) that the contradictions inherent to the capitalist system ain’t gonna disappear just because Trump vacates the White House as a disgraced turd to everyone but his most steadfast supporters. It should be obvious that the administration of noted nepotist and arch-neoliberal shill Joseph Robinette Biden will not be an agent of progress. Big Money Capital is fed up with Trump’s fascist posturing and rude shenanigans, especially since the fascist riot in the US Capitol building on January 6th 2021. Even before the events of 1/6/21, a more substantial coalition of the ruling class was betting on Biden being able to restore stability and respectability to the system that allows them to expropriate our surplus value. While the optics on the situation may improve slightly with a more competent middle-manager taking point on public relations, the underlying issues are going nowhere any time soon. So the pace is unlikely to decline (unlike the rate of profit) as History Keeps Marching.

What Lenin actually said, by the way, was this:

“In the space of a few days we destroyed one of the oldest, most powerful, barbarous and brutal of monarchies. In the space of a few months we passed through a number of stages of collaboration with the bourgeoisie and of shaking off petty-bourgeois illusions, for which other countries have required decades. In the course of a few weeks, having overthrown the bourgeoisie, we crushed its open resistance in civil war.”

V.I. Lenin, The Chief Task of Our Day

So, same sentiment.

Anyway, I found that writing stuff down was good for me. It prompted me to read, research, and pay more attention to current events. Rather than just reacting to the news with a bleak resignation, I was engaged critically in processing it. But writing in a paper journal at length made by hand cramp up like a crab claw, and the only thing sadder and more pathetic than making a blog is scrawling into a notebook under a bare lightbulb in your basement for no good reason. So now, rather than have crab hands and devolve into a creature even lower than the wretched blogger, I’ve decided to type into the void, and now here we are, my imagined reader.

I’m interested in cultural studies, sociology, Marxist theory, art, and so forth. As should be obvious from the title of the blog, one of my main interests is in the decline of the American Empire, the Imperial Core, and I hope to make it sort of a uniting theme of the blog. As I read and research various topics in this realm and others, entries will appear here at irregular and unpredictable intervals. I guess maybe like book reports. Some more personal anecdotes and entries may appear, but my hope is to avoid the juvenile, angst-filled complaints of a middle school diary. However, unfortunate reader, I’m not optimistic about those prospects. You see, like most working class Americans in the center of the Empire, I am prone to bouts of sophomoric narcissism, nihilistic depression, and the occasional rush of mild, cyclothymic hypomania. So, we do run the very real risk of this thing turning into my insufferable, philosophy-101-student collection of political hot-takes and me bitching about my horrible experience at the dry cleaners.

Please understand that I do not think of myself as a deep and original thinker on the matters I may write about. I’m far from an expert on the topics that I’m interested in and plan to discuss. This blog is largely a way for me to lay out my own thoughts and do research on topics which interest me. I’m not an academic or the stuck up dude at the couture-artisanal coffee shop pretending to be a Post-Deleuzian, Gramscian-Horkheimerist Scholar or whatever. Most of these thoughts are not original and are likely cribbed, consciously or not, from far better, more enlightening and entertaining thinkers and writers than myself. Maybe, if anyone reads my book reports, they can learn a few things as well. At the end of the Long Day in The Belly of The Beast, I am but a sad, old Marxist trying to make sense of this strange, historical epoch we find ourselves both passively imprisoned in and actively creating.