Thoughts, Midnight

1.

The "family" is defined as A relationship between two individuals For the purpose of rearing children because this is a) the smallest and b) most transitory grouping in which the reproduction of society can occur.

2.

"Individualism" in our society means one man or woman against the entire framework of state power. A man has a credit rating, a job, a tax burden to pay, a level of debt, an obligation to obey the "law" or become the victim of state violence. The social contract is between the individual and the whole. Today, that "whole" consists of 300,000,000 other people, a number impossible to comprehend; the Whole therefore does not consists of real living individual people, but rather a series of fictions: the government, the law, the tax code, the corporations, the churches; institutions with no flesh and blood reality but capable nevertheless of, ultimately, murdering an individual without protest.

3.

There is no law between one individual and another. Socialist "collectivism" is not different: It is one individual against a fiction; in this case the fiction is, in its ideal version at least, much more inclined to buy off the individual with guarantees of food, medicine, shelter.

4.

Over the millenia, power has become more sophisticated; fictions have become more sophisticated; fictions have been layered on fictions. God is fairly easy to see through. America (which has even less existence than God) is much more difficult to disbelieve: But maybe this has less to do with sophistication and more to do with the fact that America is currently much more empowered to murder than God.

5.

"I'm proud to be an American." Due to random chance, I was born in such a situation that I have greater access to material wealth and less restrictions over my individual choices than many other people in the world. I had absolutely nothing to do with bringing this situation about. Moreover, I would (opposing, as I do, unrestricted immigration; believing, as I do, in the fiction of "national borders") deny these benefits to others in the world. I am prepared to act with moral revulsion to someone who would say "I am proud to be White" and deny the privilege of Whites to non-Whites; who would say "I am proud to be Male" and deny the privilege of males to females. Nevertheless, I am proud to be American.

6.

The individual against an array of powerful forces so great it is impossible to even begin to comprehend them. As coping mechanisms we have superheroes and science fiction stories which show us power greater than that assembled by the governing fictions of our own lived reality, "society," "culture." They do not exist. An individual stands alone in this reality against powers unprecedented in the 4 billion year history of life on earth. This individual never questions this fact, never acknowledges it; it is beyond comprehension, too big to even be fathomable; In this situation everything any one person says or does is reduced to absurdity.

7.

It's not so bad, is it?

8.

A marriage is between a man and a woman -- the only situation in which two individuals can share the responsibility of life against power. They are only there for the ever-so-brief period it takes to raise a child to adulthood. Or, wait, maybe it can be between a man and a man or a woman and a woman, too. No, it can't. Thus a massive attack on individual liberty is met by a response which is also an attack upon liberty, neither side able to argue, able to function or even exist outside the totalitarian discourse.

9.

What if seven people shared a job? What if four people paid their taxes together? What if the law between twelve friends was, by mutual agreement, different than that that governs my relationship to the state? Why does every "American" get the same right to vote, even though every person is so completely different from one another? Why am I allowed to know a presidential candidate's age, sex, or race, but not an applicant for many far, far less important jobs? Why is there only one president, one government, one set of laws for three-hundred million people, even though they all have different experiences, desires, interests, and needs? Why can't Mexicans vote for Barrack Obama?

10.

A world ruled by fictions. A corporation is not alive, or an individual. Neither is a government. Neither is a law. Neither is a nonprofit. Neither is an ideology. Neither is a religion, or its God.

11.

It's really not so bad, is it?

12.

Maybe in the morning I will wake up and it will all make sense.