A Journal Discovered Among the Papers of Thomas Kjar  

The intensity and the types of irrationality that are revealed in this society are frightening. I still think it is true that an overly rationalized society finally lets go of itself and submerges in this irrationality from time to time.

The terrible thing to witness in history is the ease in which the rational crumbles away at the first intimation of trouble.

Of course I am not responsible for the whole of society. I am very very uncomfortable with the 'eruptions' that I have seen- which continue and so forth.

I think they can be blown out of proportion because of the nature of news and the nature of images.

So- it is time to stop that fascination. The power of the primitive mind=powerful stupidity.

But isn't this true? That the pressure of that irrationality comes out of a perceived vision of the 'whole' and so prescriptions for the 'whole?'

Decadence is, of course, a word bandied about by intellectual types to describe anything they don't like. Isn't decadence when the 'center does not hold?' When the principles are destroyed and mania takes over?

Order is the symptom of a curse. Nature runs rampage through its own ignorance destroying everything in its path.

I have seen these instances of decadence:
In religion: the rise of the fundamentalists asserting themselves as the center and epitome of that great and noble religion.
In politics: the assertion of the athlete, the entertainer, the criminal element to high places of influence; the absolute desire of one faction to destroy the other faction.
In society: cult's, rootlessness, scorn, disillusionment, cynicism.
In business: the cocoon of the paralytic organization. Or, when trade becomes the weapon of foreign policy rather than an exchange of skill, product, culture etc.
In law: when law become expedient, mean-spirited, partisan etal
In military: generals and admirals linking with corporate partners to steal tax money; dominance of machinery- conventional militaries with hardly anything to do
In education: Not being able to penetrate the actual society and so developing a way to initiate the student into the unprecedented nature of this society.

It would be easy to pin the blame on one or several phenomena.

Technology has a hand in it. The unprecedented level of noise; of crunching, growling, grinding, exploding, smelly metal objects that seem to emerge from the demonic core of Hell.

I'm in a visceral mood. Citizens are visceral when they have a stake in what is going on. Drugs, destruction by alcohol, tobacco; these are more instances. And out of all of this one has to rescue hope?

One hope is that it is more an impression of reality than reality itself. Hope believes that reality eludes our fears of it.

Politics is no salvation. Why treat politics any differently than a daily irritation you get used to?

The decadence of language is the most painful one.

When images rule, emotions rule. When emotions rule everything is reduced to manipulation, which means to kill or be killed; either body or spirit. Emotion no longer becomes an enrichment but a rampage- a revenge- a blood passion and 99.99% of the time this blood passion is absolved in hatred. And hatred seeks out the best to kill- hatred seeks to kill the best- on all levels.

A calming comes over me. I breathe in deeply. Well, silly man, you're letting your own fears run away with you.

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