LIFE WITHOUT LIMITS
The creation of an artificial paradise on earth
Liberal democracy is the brand name of a managerial system intended to install a worldwide artificial culture.
How did this project - the pasteurisation of human sell itself as the pinnacle of aspiration? In this chapter we shall consider how the liberal century was animated by the mad cult of the self known as modernism - to manufacture the mass belief in a life without limits.
This is an extract from chapter four of my book A Brief History of Liberal Democracy.
Here you can find chapter one, two and three if you like.
THE ENVY OF THE WORLD
The genius of the liberal system was its dizzying scale and limitless ambition.
This strange beast slouching off from the smouldering ruins of Europe to be born was animated by the political theatre of cultural production.
Beginning with the spectacle of cinema, a century of rugged individualism, gleaming cars and poolside glamour punctuated the sensational myth-making which would power the production of liberal belief.
Every aspect of our mass culture was mobilised - to advertise the liberal system which aimed at global conquest. Through economic, cultural and military means a standard worldwide consumer system governed by managed elections would be promoted as the apex condition of humanity.
Its placeless architecture and globalised franchises replaced our somewheres with everywhere - building high streets, schools, hospitals, offices and apartments which could be in Adelaide or Astana.
A Ballardian international nowhereland was the goal, with domestic cultures and traditions and ways of life smoothed out. It was a sort of universal suburbanisation, which replaced native industry, craft and the dignity of skilled trades with cut price leisurewear, email jobs, drugs and gamification.
This system extracts the wealth of nations, both in financial and existential terms. It has drained our lives of meaning and of dignity. Whatever your history and traditions, they are all paved over and pedestrianised, to clear the way for mass consumption in place of production, and for a way of life with no purpose beyond cut price bargain hunting.
Below the griftline: three books on the mad cult of modernism - and how a life without limits ends up off the rails:
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