A little story

Listening to an interesting conversation between Morgoth and Auron MacIntyre:

I actually never knew that much about Spengler and didn’t know that Heidegger had read him. After learning that, it brings new light to the book The Question Concerning Technology.

In discussing some of the fundamental ideas about Techne and man’s destining I think it’s important to always think primordially and pre-philosophically in the way that Heidegger laid out. A human being, Dasein, is that being which, in its being, comports towards its own being. And the primordial disposition or comportment of being towards being is destined by either the presence or absence/withdrawal of being. This may seem like gobbeldygook, but this is the foundation in which to primordially and pre-philosophically comprehend man and Being.

This is the nature of Being, of which humans are a part. All other consideration of things like Earth and nature and technology are like interpretations or derivations from primordial Being, not the other way around. As someone once wrote, the distance between you and the door of your room is the distance that comports you as a being towards what is outside the door. This is not a metaphor. This is actual being. The Euclidian, mathematical conception of distance is a mere pale derivative of fundamental being, a derivative through which the conveyance of "distance" being itself partially withdraws. Again, this isn’t a metaphor.

In the world that’s locked into materialism and efficiency this is perhaps impossible to understand, which means that from the that viewpoint of materialism and efficiency being itself is absent.

LOL I really didn’t want to get into this deep stuff in writing this post. I was talking with my Mom today about a change I noticed over the past years here.

There’s a food store not far from here and, years ago it had this little cafe/juice bar in it. There were a few benches and stools to sit at. It wasn’t much, kind of austere, but it still was a little place where you could take a little break sipping your tea, coffee, juice, soup or whatever. You could sit there and there would be the bustle of shoppers coming and going, passing by. There was the light from outside also which gave a certain energy to that place and connected it with the city outside.

But then Instacart started. At first the Instacart shoppers weren’t that different from regular shoppers and they more-or-less mingled in with other shoppers, although you could usually spot them. Their energy was different. They weren’t just there for themselves to get food. They were working for other people. They were doing a job and on paid time as it were. Whereas other people in the store shopping might be doing the opposite: taking a break from working. Going to a store to get some food was kind of a change of pace from the routine of a day.

So you had these different energies and at first, when Instacart was just catching on, you just sort of noticed it. But then over the course of the next few years Instacart began to grow and grow, to catch on as more and more people used it. To accommodate Instacart at first they put in some shelves near the cafe area to store Instacart items. At that point it started to impinge on the cafe. Suddenly there were Instacart workers mulling around and it changed the energy of the cafe. In addition to the decrease of space available for people to sit at the cafe, the energy itself was changing for the worse. Even though that location was always kind of bustling with shoppers coming and going, with the Instacart workers it changed differently.

Over time there were more Instacart shelves until, eventually, the cafe was totally removed and the entire area was dedicated to Instacart. The store was also acquired by Amazon. That alone is so loaded I don’t think I need to really expand on it more.

Anyhow, I was talking with my Mom today and remembering the time some years ago when there was that little cafe at the store. As I said, it wasn’t much to begin with, but it was something. But even more than this: Now Instacart shoppers basically dominate all the food stores. Another food store I also sometimes go to has completely changed.

One thing that was unique about shopping at "health food" stores has always been that it is one context in society where you’re surrounded by vegetarians, vegans, or generally health-conscious people. You don’t have to read more into that. Make of it what you will, as much or as little. But it was this unique space to be in and had its own, unique energy.

Now in the age of Instacart the stores are filled mostly with people who for the most part could care less about healthy foods. People who, were it not for Instacart, would never be in stores like this. Maybe they’d be at home drinking a six-pack, smoking cigarettes and watching TV. These people have no organic – excuse the pun – connection with the store nor what is inside it. They are automatons for a machine, acquiring products for distribution to buyers. And when you’re in the stores, that’s exatly what it feels like.

On the other side of this are the people who hire Instacart to get the their groceries. People who probably make five or ten times more than what Instacart workers get paid. The annointed tech worker class which is so synthetic, created by what should be considered criminal hiring practices of tech companies which force out US citizens and older people for the sake of obedient foreign imports. I’m not going to follow this whole thread although it’s a very interesting one.

I asked my Mom, rhetorically, if you stand back and just look at how it is now, how it feels and what the experience is like, compared with before, how is it? Is it better or is it worse?

Of course it’s worse. It’s clearly worse. You don’t need to think about it. It’s just worse. The ambiance or whatever is just gone. At that point then, you have to ask: What’s the point? And I mean this question in the biggest sense possible, not the smallest: What’s the point? What’s the point of having food, of eating, of having stores, and of shopping?

I’ve witnessed first-hand, over the past 20 years of my life, the destruction of the United States of America. What there is now is just a crappy, devoid, lifeless substitute in which all magic, all inspiration has been utterly drained.

Where is the progress in this? If all this propaganda and hype is correct, why is it all so shitty and devoid?

Reality doesn’t lie. The sad thing is, young people now in the world don’t even really know about what was before, not that long ago. They don’t know about the magic and the mystery and beauty and inspiration. It’s all been drained and all that’s left is a lifeless void.

People like me won’t be long in the world and then there will not even be humans alive who remember what it was like before. I think at that time humanity itself will have died. This isn’t just about global enslavement and ecological rape on a vast scale. It’s also about the death of humanity.