On the Present Ugliness

Hi all –

Everything is so ugly nowadays, even as the ugliest scenes are somewhat concealed. Only somewhat: you don't have to do too much digging to know that measles outbreaks are considered "acts of God" instead of problems we had solved, or that people are dying imprisoned for the crime of existing. But the fact you have to do any digging, that we still have to remember that the Marines are on the ground in Los Angeles, is a form of concealment. What's missing–here I'll borrow a phrase from Ben Collins–is a "baseline of humanity." Some facts have to be outrageous and unacceptable, and that there are so many psychos willing to debate them away Stephen A. style, speaks to what earlier thinkers called "decadence." We're blind to evils which must be fixed in order for us to call ourselves human.

That's a more generic use of the term "decadence." Nietzsche, who lamented what he considered decadence, would disagree with me. He railed against socialism, democracy, people having rights: what he thought was happening was the unleashing of envy. Scores of people wanting to tear down anyone different, anyone genuinely better. Society packed with "last men" violently complacent with mediocrity. When I state it like this, a strange correspondence emerges between Nietzsche's thinking and my own. An envy which wants to tear down anything different does exist in the U.S., but consider the source. Why did Elon Musk want to buy Twitter? Sheer anger that other people could command an audience by being normal and sharing worthwhile things. You could say that people who consider themselves rich–they may not necessarily be rich!–believe they are entitled to a certain respect, and are furious when they see others treated with any respect. Envy is contagious; shared resentment makes bullying others easy and provides a warped source of community. Nietzsche got the dynamic correct even as his particular diagnosis fails.

For Nietzsche, concerns about decadence went hand-in-hand with concerns about aesthetics. What are the signs of a decadent culture? I find myself wondering about "ugliness" most of all. Not only the grim scenes from Gaza, where arms dealers are empowered at the expense of children having limbs (if they are so lucky). Not only bodies being stored in all kinds of weird places, on account of the mass death from the initial round of COVID. I'm also looking at the ugliness that comes from forced beauty. Some of the ugliest places are abusive churches with brochures featuring their most attractive members. No one with disabilities, no one who has struggled, no one who understands the value of unconditional love. Forced beauty–there's a standard you must meet, or else, and nothing else matters–is ubiquitous. Don't meet those standards? You can expect neglect or worse.

We see a lot of forced beauty presently. There are many words spilled about the aesthetic of MAGA, how plastic surgery has been embraced by those in Trump's orbit. I highly advise reading what I just linked to, "In Your Face: The Brutal Aesthetics of MAGA," as it contains this choice passage about beauty, power, and what the American people are being sold:

“I want you in the ads, and I want your face in the ads,” Noem recently recalled Trump saying, referring to a set of new taxpayer-funded ads celebrating the immigration crackdown. “I want you to thank me. I want you to thank me for closing the border.”

Forced beauty does not seem ugly at all to some. I mean, to be fair, some people are stuck in 7th grade. Stuck with ideas that everyone should look like the models on television or believing that Instagram is real life. There's no openness to other forms of beauty. Wouldn't you call the time you celebrated someone and made them feel incredible beautiful? If that matters to you, then how does that reconcile with the aspiration of dating a movie star? These are two radically different ideas about what beauty is. One has power, but the other is necessary for a life well-lived. I guess, if I'm doing this philosophy thing, I should commit to what I've outlined. We are decadent because we can throw away a perfectly sensible notion of beauty for a fragment of someone's advertising budget.

I'll talk more about this in detail later, but two things stand out from the news recently. You may have heard of "Alligator Alcatraz," the taxpayer funded concentration camp set to open in the Florida Everglades. The idea is to put immigrants there because if they try to escape, they may be eaten by the local wildlife. Florida Republicans are thrilled about this project, so much so they have created swag for purchase. POTUS, of course, visited and blessed this. I can speak of the ugliness at least two ways. First, a lot of the people who they plan to put there the administration is making illegal. You heard me correctly–documentation is being stripped of people who were documented, and that sudden change from "legal" to "illegal" makes imprisoning people a game. Don't just take my word for it; there's a PBS segment with an immigration attorney to watch.

Second, look at the cages they plan to throw people in:

How does forced beauty become outright ugliness? Forced beauty is a quest for acceptance. We can't be children forever, and maybe the worst thing children do is trade everything for attention of their peers. Angry people watching cable news, whose families want nothing to do with them, have decided they want attention. Both political parties give it to them, but one specifically indulges every lunatic thing they say. So it goes.

Just as ugly is this "One Big, Beautiful Bill" you may have heard of. It plans to cut what little we spend on healthcare and social services severely, while expanding policing and detention. I have to write my congressman (again) to voice opposition. Nearly 50% of all births in Texas are paid for by Medicaid; two-thirds of nursing home residents depend on that funding. About $170 billion dollars is slated for the expansion of immigration detention, with $45 billion alone going to new detention facilities. One person said that with the level of funding it will get, ICE will be effectively the 7th largest army on earth. I'm not sure how to tell you this, but we have schools with holes in the roof. I actually think Democrats talking about the cuts paying for rich people's tax breaks is a bit weak. You need to make it clear that rich people see the very existence of government as a handout to the poor. The budget is extreme–every serious expert has said people will die because of it–because it is a complete remaking of government to make sure you don't have a voice. The wealthiest heard from you and decided they don't need to do that again.

This clip from AOC has been making the rounds and it is excellent. She demonstrates how much contempt there is for working people in the bill:

The framing of our current political climate as an aesthetic project is powerful. Forced beauty, people willing to make the "sacrifice" of surgery, camps for undesirables, cutting funding for those who actually work (as real work, not being an owner, is undesirable), sad people who cannot get attention or respect because they only have ugly things to say. You might wonder what aesthetic "centrists" are beholden to, and I think that's a fruitful line of questioning. What makes someone think that lobbyists are actually cool people? Is it the cigars and the scotch? Do you believe consultants are your friends when they give you vacation tips?

Still, it's worth concluding with other outstanding questions. Ones that if answered result in change. What, exactly, does a better world look like? Sound like? Feel like?