Meika the dolebludger on belonging, alienation and “the system”:
To refuse to blame the system is to assume a certain power, the way a pretender assumes a royal title or titular duchy or two. Curiously you are more likely to gain employment in the system if you lie about this than to admit you do not believe, but prefer to blame the system. Even though both values are a product of the system. Honesty about the self is for fools. While a fool may not know they are, only a fool will admit they are a fool to others. I am such a fool.
To “blame the system” is to admit one is not part of the management team, that one is a failure of the system, one is outside of the system, that one is not with the program.
Its a bit like not wearing a suit. I mean, its just a fashion created by Charles II in October 1666, and the knee breeches are gone now, and that was revolutionary in its day, and its no longer triple breasted, its no big deal, why not wear a suit?? Well, if its no big deal, why not NOT wear one??
Permalinks bloggered, so scroll to “Blaming the system – it’s the tie stupid”. Meika himself is a paradoxical argument for the system: stupid as it is, it produces this tortured creativity. Meika Quixote?
Postscript – Maybe one day we’ll have a society involving genuine mutual obligation, where contributing original critical thought to the polity will be seen as having intrinsic value. Maybe that will happen when advances in robotics and nanotechnology bring about a world where nearly everything is made by machines and no-one objectively needs to work. Then again, maybe that world will be ruled by Microsoft and Monsanto, and they’ll terminate troublemakers like meika with extreme prejudice.
No doubt this is just me, but I keep getting lost in the second sentence.
Chris,
Meika deliberately cultivates an ambiguous, sometimes completely obscure, writing style. I think it’s his idea of being post-modern (or post-structuralist, assuming there’s really a difference). Often I like his stuff but sometimes I find it irritating. I thought there was enough content in this post to make it worth linking. Nevertheless, it would be nice if Meika decided that making the complex sound simple takes more talent than the opposite.
It’s NOT you cs. Meika was lost before he’d reached the second sentence. It’s part of the ‘democratisation’ of literacy route, which helps raise the self esteem of those unable to string a few coherent thoughts together.
Profound thoughts are sometimes presented in a form which isn’t easy to grasp; so if you have nothing worth saying, wrap it up in jargon, and people may be conned into thinking you’re actually saying something.
You may even con yourself.
Like you Ken, I like the piece, if only I could settle the second sentence … although if it settled the wrong way …
Chris,
If you’re trying to promote a semiotics thread, count me out.