- Sep 22, 2013
- 4,956
- 250
- 85
Is consumerism banal or eerily...dogmatic?
You decide!
====
"I am Apollyon, the keeper of the bottomless pit of despair, which is really the 'hole' even in Hell. I understand the contours of pain and anguish, though I am really simply a swordsman. Modern-day civilization is one of commerce and contracts (e.g., Wall Street, European Union, NATO, eBay, etc.). Any consumer can walk into a Home Depot hardware store in the USA and pick up power-tools and useful self-building items such as bulbs and sandpaper. It is sandpaper which is of particular interest to me."
"Americans build impressive cities and hubs of commerce and traffic, facilitating pluralism, trade, entertainment, and even immigration. American consumers care about convenient access to goods and services and handy products such as sandpaper. Sandpaper is simply textured rough-edge paper used for brushing down the surface of wood to make it very smooth. Sandpaper is therefore as helpful as it is rough. Imagine that an American serial-killer decides to murder policemen and then rub the skin off their hands with sandpaper as a gesture of anti-consumerism cynicism. Such a psycho would be a menace or 'terrorist' of civilization sensibilities."
"Since sandpaper is therefore something of a 'double-edged sword,' proving to be as useful as it is dangerous if used improperly, we might compare sandpaper to other items/tools that should be handled with great care --- e.g., HCL (acid), hand-saws, crossbows, sleeping-pills, kitchen-knives, etc. Since sandpaper is so symbolic to general consumerism and pedestrian activity but also quite rough/dangerous if used improperly, I like thinking of sandpaper as an 'article of doom' rather than simply as an 'article of confederation.' Sandpaper is the 'spiritual-cloth' lining the edges of the ominous bottomless pit in Hell, reminding us of the inherent frailty of pedestrian traffic."
"My message is therefore clear and simple. We can celebrate/enjoy the fruits of civilization labyrinths and helpful goods/tools and even toys. However, the more care we take in handling these 'items' the better off we are in creating 'safe societies.' The misuse of sandpaper is hypothetically more 'eerie' then than verbal heresy, sexual voyeurism, macabre temptations, or even brutish behaviours such as vandalism. Our hypothetical/fictional serial-killer who insists on murdering policemen and then rubbing the skin off their hands with rough sandpaper reveals the value/weight of my message --- never underestimate the 'darkness' of vanity. May consumerism shine...without roughness."
====
You decide!
====
"I am Apollyon, the keeper of the bottomless pit of despair, which is really the 'hole' even in Hell. I understand the contours of pain and anguish, though I am really simply a swordsman. Modern-day civilization is one of commerce and contracts (e.g., Wall Street, European Union, NATO, eBay, etc.). Any consumer can walk into a Home Depot hardware store in the USA and pick up power-tools and useful self-building items such as bulbs and sandpaper. It is sandpaper which is of particular interest to me."
"Americans build impressive cities and hubs of commerce and traffic, facilitating pluralism, trade, entertainment, and even immigration. American consumers care about convenient access to goods and services and handy products such as sandpaper. Sandpaper is simply textured rough-edge paper used for brushing down the surface of wood to make it very smooth. Sandpaper is therefore as helpful as it is rough. Imagine that an American serial-killer decides to murder policemen and then rub the skin off their hands with sandpaper as a gesture of anti-consumerism cynicism. Such a psycho would be a menace or 'terrorist' of civilization sensibilities."
"Since sandpaper is therefore something of a 'double-edged sword,' proving to be as useful as it is dangerous if used improperly, we might compare sandpaper to other items/tools that should be handled with great care --- e.g., HCL (acid), hand-saws, crossbows, sleeping-pills, kitchen-knives, etc. Since sandpaper is so symbolic to general consumerism and pedestrian activity but also quite rough/dangerous if used improperly, I like thinking of sandpaper as an 'article of doom' rather than simply as an 'article of confederation.' Sandpaper is the 'spiritual-cloth' lining the edges of the ominous bottomless pit in Hell, reminding us of the inherent frailty of pedestrian traffic."
"My message is therefore clear and simple. We can celebrate/enjoy the fruits of civilization labyrinths and helpful goods/tools and even toys. However, the more care we take in handling these 'items' the better off we are in creating 'safe societies.' The misuse of sandpaper is hypothetically more 'eerie' then than verbal heresy, sexual voyeurism, macabre temptations, or even brutish behaviours such as vandalism. Our hypothetical/fictional serial-killer who insists on murdering policemen and then rubbing the skin off their hands with rough sandpaper reveals the value/weight of my message --- never underestimate the 'darkness' of vanity. May consumerism shine...without roughness."
====
