To claim we are living in the worst of times is ahistoric foolishness. But it is just as senseless to assert that because the world has always been tumultuous, there is no need to pay it any mind.

I keep encountering these sneering, contemptuous positions, here and elsewhere, but mostly here. Here with the fucking academics and the careerists, finding any reason to reassure themselves that their lack of humanity is rational, even wise. This twerpy little insouciance is nothing but a pathetic coping mechanism.

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To look down on those who wish to appraise the world they live in, who can’t or won’t bury their head in the sand, demonstrates a pitiful inability to concede to the brevity of life itself. We may not have control over what has been and what will be once we are no longer here, but we are here now. You can look away, you can be a coward or a cynic with your one little life, I won’t stop you. But I will point to the disdain, the fucking superiority, and I will spit on it.

In the wise words of Gramsci: Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will. Of course, the blasé would never bother with Gramsci in the first place. They have made such minuscule beds for themselves, and they refuse to open the blinds. Grounding themselves in an asocial and pseudo-rational position, they are hoping to distinguish themselves from the masses in some arrogant, adolescent quest to signal some kind of hauteur. To have detached oneself from the world’s fabric is no accomplishment, though I understand why it is a popular North American disposition.

The rotten world may not be new, but this hardly warrants never looking at it. Spending your interim on a high horse, hoping no one can see you’ve pissed your pants.

Your one little life of nothing.

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