Monday, February 22, 2010

"hellscape of the mind"

I know I've been talking about Videogum a lot lately, but FUCK IT. I can't be bothered to have original thoughts anymore.

During his review of Armageddon (which is part of a series where he searches for the Worst Movie of All Time), Gabe - Videogum's intrepid editor - wrote the following paragraph:

If anything, I wish we could go back to that blessed time when the things that scared us were asteroids and volcano eruptions. Now it's all Total Apocalypse and Zombie Bioterrorism and even though those movies are just as cliche-filled and computer-generated, I find them legitimately terrifying and believable. We live in a world of chaos and potential annihilation. And if it does happen, it will be even worse than a thousand Michael Bay movies. But it will probably be much quicker.


You know, I feel like the current mental state in this country is pretty similar to the way it was in the 80s when the interest rate was at 15% and everyone was convinced we were all going to die in a Nuclear Holocaust, and it was only a matter of time until our money was better for burning than spending AND/OR we all turned to ash or died slow, painful, humiliating deaths by radiation poisoning. Every time I'm reminded of it, I'm struck by how that sounds like a pretty epic hellscape of the mind, which is without even mentioning the fact that everyone was simultaneously under this immense pressure to do cocaine and wear Polo shirts.

I learned recently that before government regulation, the US economy went Boom-Bust every other year or so. Can you imagine that? Of course, that was in the 19th century so the people also had a host of other problems, such as rancid meat and BEING EATEN ALIVE BY RATS, etcetera. But anyway, my point in bringing this up is, now that we've reached a kind of regulatory process that works (most of the time) fiscally, we now need a regulatory process that keeps us from having a collective existential crisis every 20 years. I just think it would be better that way. I nominate Soma, of course.

There's a clothing boutique in the Rice Village called "Soma". I think it's actually one of two or three Somas in the city...I wonder if they realize how fucked up that is. I mean, either the founder of the store:

1. read "Brave New World"
2. is extremely clever, and
3. is making a joke that I don't get, or:

1. they read the book, and
2. didn't understand it, and so are
3. just making a pointless reference to Huxley. OR
4. just using the word "soma" for some other, completely unrelated, reason.

Given my own personal (constant, ever-raging) existential crisis, I suppose it should be obvious that I assume it's the latter. When the Zombie Bioterrorism Total Apocalypse is upon us, I guess I can only hope it's quick.

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