We need expression in our lives. We need to create and to destroy. We need to feel something, anything, when faced with the inhuman forces of global capitalism, rationalized survivalist paradigms, and the parochial inflexible roles we are jammed into. When the blunt leaden weight of ostensibly pointless routine presses upon our already weakened spirits, we either express ourselves through letters or music or art or our energies find what are regarded as uncouth outlets. Violence and sex are sides of the same coin; that is flat generalization of Freud. What is on that coin? It is Overman – equal parts beast and human. Rules are there for order. An overabundance of rules, some arcane and others flatly draconian, combined with a lack of compelling reasons to obey arouses disobedience. However, disobedience is frowned upon and actively discouraged by those ostensibly entrusted to maintain order in society. Disobedience and dissent are inefficient, unprofitable, and requires far too much independent thought and concerted action – what a hassle! Scared of spectral consequences, we become ready and willing to obey, even when those rules that are explicitly contradictory and absurd. Obey, that is the rational thing to do. For all the beautiful eloquent words celebrating the highest faculties of man, we have progressed to a point where deference and rationality are one in the same. Of course, I do jest. Independent thought itself has been shunted completely out of the picture. There’s only two things to do, if you are to thrive in the real world, obey and become resigned to the fact that this is the way things must be. But as I’ve been reminded on far too many occasions, scholars do not affect the ‘real world’, The ‘people’ do not affect it. Ideas and thoughts have no influence. The ‘street’ does.
The first street, the one most close and dear to people, is not the one in front of church or synagogue or a mosque; it is Wall Street that holds a most dear place in the individual’s heart. Sure, there are no pop songs serenading Alan Greenspan and his fiscal regime. And most individuals of North American culture would fake their way through a conversation about economic fundamentals and fiscal policy, lest they appear to be out of the loop. But Wall Street, bar none, is the definitive street for most in our backward, Neanderthal filled, excuse for a society. How much am I worth? How can I make more money? What can I buy with it? All are justifiable queries if your purpose in life is to accumulate wealth, enriching oneself, and in the process, measuring oneself against others – those more affluent, as well as the impoverished. Wall Street, home of the most virulent insecurities, neuroses, is where sociopaths and psychopaths come to have lunch and IM their mistresses, while ignoring their mother-whores. Schumpater’s idea of “creative destruction” applies to the material produced and rubbished as quickly, to the ideas that are brilliant one instant and irrelevant the very next, and certainly applies to the nature of romance and lust. It is accepted as a fact of life –natural and utterly primal, an inevitable consequence of being a competitive beast. This is the ‘street’ for the battle over wealth, thus also the battlefield for power.
