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.AUTHOR: Joe Bageant, author of Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War
FORUM: Alternet
LENGTH: 1,610 words
THE PROBLEM WITH AMERICAN SOCIETY: Too much work
IN BAGEANT'S WORDS: "We flow willingly through the transactional circuitry of the wealth economy like ghosts, optimistic and eerily cheerful"
WHAT AMERICANS HAVE INSTEAD OF FRIENDS: "hierarchical commodity affinity groups"
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU STOP PAYING BILLS: "[Y]ou are disappeared"
IN WHAT SENSE? "Erased from the screens of a society of watchers watching each other"
ANOTHER SCREEN PRODUCT THAT FRIGHTENS BAGEANT: The Nature Channel
WHERE THINGS ARE BETTER: Ajijic, Mexico
WHY: They have heuvos rancheros, erections, and Chihuahuas
BEHOLD:
[T]he truth is that we are all very commonly issued products of a profit driven workhouse where no human commons is allowable, lest the workers find meaning and joy in each other as human beings, and perhaps become less work driven, less productive and less profitable. Best that their lives remain mediated, disembodied from the great commons of the human spirit, unmoored from the great natural commons binding all living things called Earth -- images of which will be provided for your delight on The Nature Channel at 9 PM tonight.
Until then, stay cheerful.
Pay your bills on time.
Good night!
This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.