- Sep 22, 2013
- 4,956
- 250
- 85
Casino consciousness (a hallmark of entertainment-imagination in capitalist societies) makes for interesting terrorism storytelling, and this ode is a ghost-story nod to the Vegas shootings.
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"Americans loved casinos and gambling, and fortune-hunters could become very very prominent (e.g., Donald Trump). Atlantic City was the Vegas of the East Coast, and it was right on the beach. Trump built his ornate and gaudy Trump Taj Mahal casino there, and though it didn't last, it was milestone in his career which finally led to the White House. ISIS (the fundamentalist-terrorist group in the Middle East) declared Trump to be the Christian AntiChrist."
"American consumers were in love with relicts and tokens of dollar-store community values, supermarket ethos, and Wal-Mart humility. They were courting MTV as youngsters and QVC as modern adults. Vacations were popular in Miami, Vegas, and California, and mostly, American pedestrians were stirred by images of leisure and daydreams. Some religious pundits warned that the workaholic Wall Street Starbucks culture that fuelled this travel/hospitality industry might create forms of 'unnatural lust.' Family values became something worthwhile to market...in movies, calendars, TV series, magazines, ads, and political symposia."
"A dastardly American 'knight' named Alas was a card-shark and Internet-blogger with a flair for computer algorithm detection and fantasy-comics oriented fan-fic storytelling. Alas was an Ivy League graduate and versed in Logic and Linguistics, having an obtained an A.B. from Dartmouth College in 2000. Alas was convinced that the 'heart-and-soul' of American culture was the Jack face playing-card. The Jack represented daring, swordsmanship, wit, and gambling. That was the spirit of America. America had always been the 'hotshot' --- the James Dean, or Elvis Presley, or Steve Jobs, or Bill Clinton of the world. America was sensitive to risk and vulnerable to condemnation --- legal (e.g., U.S. vs. Microsoft) or illegal (e.g., 9/11)."
"Adversarial elements gathered to challenge these princes of the matrix. They were underworld sentinels and sirens of the allure of modern convenience-society pleasantries (e.g., fast food, pornography, crime-romance, horror-cinema). They disliked Alas's 'youthful idealism' and considered their 'art' to offer a contrasting and even refreshing message --- Casino America is a magnet for the cunning. Was America 'inviting' terrorism?"
"Apollyon, master of the bottomless-pit (described in the Book of Revelation) rose from the deep to stop these forces of limitless darkness created by basic instinct gambling intrigue --- a 'quality' of a well-developed capitalism. America had to be exorcised and Alas needed serious help, so Apollyon helped Alas. He complemented Alas's media-crusade with his own fairy-world crusade wielding the sword against Satan who was preparing the way for the AntiChrist. Apollyon worried mostly about the threat of ISIS."
"American vacationers loved going to water-parks and theme-parks such as Dorney and Disney every summer. This was the light-hearted family-values oriented side of modern consciousness and it provided a spiritual veil to the other side of the American psyche --- the one occupied by Wall Street, Las Vegas, and Wal-Mart. ISIS despised all of this and decided to bomb Disney World in the summer of 2018, but the NSA was able to prevent them from setting off the explosives. Disney was saved..."
"American film-maker Jeff Bridges decided to adapt all this pseudo-apocalyptic drama into a modernism 'opus' titled New Jerseys. Bridges' unusual film (starring Leo DiCaprio and Anne Hathaway) made millions and won much critical praise. ISIS saw the film and swore revenge on all this consumerism revelry. They wanted Alas dead, Apollyon gone, and Bridges assassinated. It was a terrible time. Fortunately, there was still art. Scorsese's film Casino captured all this new age social fortune-oriented etiquette folklore."
"Steve Jobs gave the world the Macintosh, the iMac, and the iPhone. However, alongside Jobs/Apple, there was the Commodore, Tandy, the Swatch watch, Keds, the Playstation, and Teddy Ruxpin. Everyone wanted consumerism products to resemble toys, and maybe that's because consumerism itself was a low-brow 'candy' system, catering to shoppers' gratification. Consumer goods needed to feel good, taste good, sound good, and even sell good."
"American artists were more amateur and pedestrian. They weren't celebrities, having been replaced by movie-stars mostly such as Leo DiCaprio. No, these artists were interested in socially-conscious matrix-conscious art representative of a new age fascination with mobility fantasy (e.g., robotic octopus, unicorns from parallel universes, ghosts in machines, etc.). The art was much more 'cadence-oriented' and spoke to an underground revived 'speakeasy-society' where artistic-celebrity was more of a 'friend-circle nudge' (something to wax more deeply about on the otherwise somewhat mindless Facebook)."
"American comic book artists penned characters in incredible stories involving great patriotism and heroism. These democracy-defenders and 'dark knights' symbolized American idealism and pulp-fiction peaceful dialogue about the mysterious 'black hand' of anti-progress that threatened the evolution of capitalism in civilization. These fictional characters such as Green Arrow tackled sociopathic nemeses such as Count Vertigo. Perhaps ISIS was right --- perhaps the AntiChrist was approaching."
GOD: Gambling has become popular...
SATAN: The Raiders are moving to Vegas!
GOD: Are you a fan of exploitation-films?
SATAN: I like intellectual exploitation 'analysis' films like Whore and Celebrity.
GOD: Both those nouveau-American films represent traffic paranoia.
SATAN: Yes, they're both about the moral excesses of a mindless urbanization.
GOD: When will America heal from the scars of 9/11?
SATAN: No sooner than it did from the scars of Pearl Harbor, I'd wager...
GOD: Capitalism is not a 'gamble.'
SATAN: However, it draws in many gamblers.
GOD: Crime-romance (e.g., Bonnie & Clyde) illuminates human rituals.
SATAN: Sin can never be analysed.
GOD: It can however be managed...
SATAN: I suppose the real-estate board-game Monopoly (Parker Brothers) offers smiles.
GOD: Optimism towards capitalism facilitates smoother teamwork!
SATAN: So what happened to the Teamsters?
GOD: They're still around...
SATAN: I'm subscribing to Netflix.
====
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"Americans loved casinos and gambling, and fortune-hunters could become very very prominent (e.g., Donald Trump). Atlantic City was the Vegas of the East Coast, and it was right on the beach. Trump built his ornate and gaudy Trump Taj Mahal casino there, and though it didn't last, it was milestone in his career which finally led to the White House. ISIS (the fundamentalist-terrorist group in the Middle East) declared Trump to be the Christian AntiChrist."
"American consumers were in love with relicts and tokens of dollar-store community values, supermarket ethos, and Wal-Mart humility. They were courting MTV as youngsters and QVC as modern adults. Vacations were popular in Miami, Vegas, and California, and mostly, American pedestrians were stirred by images of leisure and daydreams. Some religious pundits warned that the workaholic Wall Street Starbucks culture that fuelled this travel/hospitality industry might create forms of 'unnatural lust.' Family values became something worthwhile to market...in movies, calendars, TV series, magazines, ads, and political symposia."
"A dastardly American 'knight' named Alas was a card-shark and Internet-blogger with a flair for computer algorithm detection and fantasy-comics oriented fan-fic storytelling. Alas was an Ivy League graduate and versed in Logic and Linguistics, having an obtained an A.B. from Dartmouth College in 2000. Alas was convinced that the 'heart-and-soul' of American culture was the Jack face playing-card. The Jack represented daring, swordsmanship, wit, and gambling. That was the spirit of America. America had always been the 'hotshot' --- the James Dean, or Elvis Presley, or Steve Jobs, or Bill Clinton of the world. America was sensitive to risk and vulnerable to condemnation --- legal (e.g., U.S. vs. Microsoft) or illegal (e.g., 9/11)."
"Adversarial elements gathered to challenge these princes of the matrix. They were underworld sentinels and sirens of the allure of modern convenience-society pleasantries (e.g., fast food, pornography, crime-romance, horror-cinema). They disliked Alas's 'youthful idealism' and considered their 'art' to offer a contrasting and even refreshing message --- Casino America is a magnet for the cunning. Was America 'inviting' terrorism?"
"Apollyon, master of the bottomless-pit (described in the Book of Revelation) rose from the deep to stop these forces of limitless darkness created by basic instinct gambling intrigue --- a 'quality' of a well-developed capitalism. America had to be exorcised and Alas needed serious help, so Apollyon helped Alas. He complemented Alas's media-crusade with his own fairy-world crusade wielding the sword against Satan who was preparing the way for the AntiChrist. Apollyon worried mostly about the threat of ISIS."
"American vacationers loved going to water-parks and theme-parks such as Dorney and Disney every summer. This was the light-hearted family-values oriented side of modern consciousness and it provided a spiritual veil to the other side of the American psyche --- the one occupied by Wall Street, Las Vegas, and Wal-Mart. ISIS despised all of this and decided to bomb Disney World in the summer of 2018, but the NSA was able to prevent them from setting off the explosives. Disney was saved..."
"American film-maker Jeff Bridges decided to adapt all this pseudo-apocalyptic drama into a modernism 'opus' titled New Jerseys. Bridges' unusual film (starring Leo DiCaprio and Anne Hathaway) made millions and won much critical praise. ISIS saw the film and swore revenge on all this consumerism revelry. They wanted Alas dead, Apollyon gone, and Bridges assassinated. It was a terrible time. Fortunately, there was still art. Scorsese's film Casino captured all this new age social fortune-oriented etiquette folklore."
"Steve Jobs gave the world the Macintosh, the iMac, and the iPhone. However, alongside Jobs/Apple, there was the Commodore, Tandy, the Swatch watch, Keds, the Playstation, and Teddy Ruxpin. Everyone wanted consumerism products to resemble toys, and maybe that's because consumerism itself was a low-brow 'candy' system, catering to shoppers' gratification. Consumer goods needed to feel good, taste good, sound good, and even sell good."
"American artists were more amateur and pedestrian. They weren't celebrities, having been replaced by movie-stars mostly such as Leo DiCaprio. No, these artists were interested in socially-conscious matrix-conscious art representative of a new age fascination with mobility fantasy (e.g., robotic octopus, unicorns from parallel universes, ghosts in machines, etc.). The art was much more 'cadence-oriented' and spoke to an underground revived 'speakeasy-society' where artistic-celebrity was more of a 'friend-circle nudge' (something to wax more deeply about on the otherwise somewhat mindless Facebook)."
"American comic book artists penned characters in incredible stories involving great patriotism and heroism. These democracy-defenders and 'dark knights' symbolized American idealism and pulp-fiction peaceful dialogue about the mysterious 'black hand' of anti-progress that threatened the evolution of capitalism in civilization. These fictional characters such as Green Arrow tackled sociopathic nemeses such as Count Vertigo. Perhaps ISIS was right --- perhaps the AntiChrist was approaching."
GOD: Gambling has become popular...
SATAN: The Raiders are moving to Vegas!
GOD: Are you a fan of exploitation-films?
SATAN: I like intellectual exploitation 'analysis' films like Whore and Celebrity.
GOD: Both those nouveau-American films represent traffic paranoia.
SATAN: Yes, they're both about the moral excesses of a mindless urbanization.
GOD: When will America heal from the scars of 9/11?
SATAN: No sooner than it did from the scars of Pearl Harbor, I'd wager...
GOD: Capitalism is not a 'gamble.'
SATAN: However, it draws in many gamblers.
GOD: Crime-romance (e.g., Bonnie & Clyde) illuminates human rituals.
SATAN: Sin can never be analysed.
GOD: It can however be managed...
SATAN: I suppose the real-estate board-game Monopoly (Parker Brothers) offers smiles.
GOD: Optimism towards capitalism facilitates smoother teamwork!
SATAN: So what happened to the Teamsters?
GOD: They're still around...
SATAN: I'm subscribing to Netflix.
====
