I perused an article this morning. I won’t mention the source to that article since it won’t be around any longer after the heat death of the universe, during which most of you will be reading this, when my writings become the only remaining literature that gives that warm feeling that harkens back to the olden days: the days to which we should return. Lap up the words, serfs, as you grovel.
The article concerned traditionalists. That’s not the word the article used, but it is more precise concerning these soon (I use that word very loosely) to be scriptures. Said humans find a fixed point in history and dub it holy. This fixed point, of course, can be any arbitrary stretch of time, as long as its pervading ruleset is vaguely the same. I’ll call the personification of that ruleset the sovereign. Traditionalists derive their sense of ethics from this abstract ruler, as peasants did once from their king in feudal times. Progressive thinking and modernism are tossed into the bin without thought.
One must stay static and obey the scripture penned by the sovereign. The rigidity provides a stable framework. There is no room for ethical fluidity or evolution, as distorting said scripture makes no sense to the constricted mind.
Bubbles with thick membranes contain militant traditionalists. Their world is insulated. Their scripture is law. Their ethics extends to bubble members only. Those outside are held in suspicion, like a mustelid at a fowl convention. A common dilemma is the reduced bubble and its rigid ethics, breeding sociopaths. The article didn’t go into it, but I can imagine that minimal bubbles with impermeable surfaces can have succinct, inked scriptures. Indelible scriptures. A larger bubble and more permeable membranal wall reduces sociopathy, promotes altruism and the idea that it’s maybe a good idea to return that wallet you found in the gutter, even a wallet with 2500€ tastily banked inside, and even a wallet with a snapshot of an immigrant Pakistani family sitting beside the cash.
Exploratory minds don’t follow the will of sovereigns. And don’t be fooled by the artist that wants to reproduce the sound or look of those that peaked during the time of the sovereignty he worships. On an abstract level, he only lives, ethically and creatively, during the reign of that bygone epoch. Don’t trust him. In fact, kick him into the gutter. Break his nose and fingers while you’re at it. Cut out his kidneys and dine on them.
Fuck um.
